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It seems that the move to digital cameras, CDROMs and colour inkjet printers means that we're far less likely to keep a good old-fashioned photo-album or a shoebox containing a stash of shiny prints that document our family history.

Indeed, historians and genealogists are deeply concerned that within a few decades, many of the images we're taking today will have totally vanished. The data burnt to CDRs and recordable DVDs will have faded into obscurity and the rich, vibrant tones and colours of that fresh inkjet print will have similarly washed out to what will be at best, a poor, low-contrast sepia blur.

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I've discussed the problems surrounding long-term data storage and archiving in this column before, but what about printed images?

Do today's inkjet printers produce a long-lasting print that can be relied on to still be visible in 10, 20 or even 100 years' time?

I know that many of the prints I've made with my old inkjet are now looking decidedly faded, despite not being exposed to direct sunlight and being carefully stored. Mind you, we're talking about an almost decade-old printer here so perhaps ink technologies have advanced somewhat.

But, is the best bet still to take your digital data to the local photo-shop and have them burn it to real photographic paper - something which has a proven longevity and durability?

Do people actually realise that those marvelous pictures they've printed out today may disappear before their grandkids are in full-time work?

What are Aardvark readers doing to add some permanence to their digital photo library?

This all sounds like a big downside to digital photography -- but I think there's also a massive upside...

With digital images costing virtually nothing to snap I find the library of images I've taken myself is now quite large. Prior to digital cameras, I think I only ever took about two rolls of film -- and only bothered to get one of those developed.

Now however, since I don't have the hassle of remembering to drop of the film and the expense of paying for developing, I take a lot more pictures and, since hard drive/CDR space is cheap, I tend to archive many of them.

I wonder if there's a business model brewing here...

Is there already a company who is offering to permanently archive your digital images for a small fee?

Imagine, "The Perpetual Image Archive" (PIA)-- an online site that would allow you to upload your digital snaps to a server that would be permanently maintained so that you never need risk losing those images.

No need to worry about changes in file or media formats -- the PIA would automatically ensure that your pictures were always available in a "current" format.

Then, instead of leaving your kids a shoebox full of glossy prints as a record of their childhood, you could just leave them a login ID and password.

Good idea? Has it been done already?

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