  Internet-based personal digital belongings present different vulnerabilities
than locally stored materials. We use responses to a survey of people who have
recovered lost websites, in combination with supplementary interviews, to paint
a fuller picture of current curatorial strategies and practices. We examine the
types of personal, topical, and commercial websites that respondents have lost
and the reasons they have lost this potentially valuable material. We further
explore what they have tried to recover and how the loss influences their
subsequent practices. We found that curation of personal digital materials in
online stores bears some striking similarities to the curation of similar
materials stored locally in that study participants continue to archive
personal assets by relying on a combination of benign neglect, sporadic
backups, and unsystematic file replication. However, we have also identified
issues specific to Internet-based material: how risk is spread by distributing
the files among multiple servers and services; the circular reasoning
participants use when they discuss the safety of their digital assets; and the
types of online material that are particularly vulnerable to loss. The study
reveals ways in which expectations of permanence and notification are violated
and situations in which benign neglect has far greater consequences for the
long-term fate of important digital assets.
