Documenting the Now is a digital project that is interested in archiving the content of digital protests or other acts of social justice in the world of face paced social media.
More specifically, it is a community centered practice that supports the ethical collection, use, and preservation of publicly available content shared on the web and social media. They respond to the public’s use of social media for historical moments demanded mostly by scholars, students, and archivists seeking a user-friendly way to collect true digital content.
This project uses Twitter archives, consisting of tweets, retweets, likes, comments and more. These archives have successfully preserved posts surrounding the Fergerson protests. This project has received sponsorship and help from the Melon Foundation as well as Princeton University.
Who: Through community outreach , this community and support practice has learned the primary goal is an activist community. The team of six consists of Dr. Meredith Clark, Bergis Jules, Ed Summers, Zakiya Collier, Alexandra Dolan-Mescal and Francis Kayiwa.
Where: This practice began online but was taken over by Shift Collective in 2023, which works out of New Orleans.
When: The online project began in 2014, but was taken over by Shift Collective in 2020, and completely shut down when Twitter was changed to X (2023).
What: A practice of online individuals seeking more information on significant moments in preserving historical digital content. They offer a strong commitment to prioritizing ethical practices when working social media content in terms of preservation.