Access Historic Records — It Has To Change —

and Ford Could lead the way . . . but . . .

To a great hue and cry, and on the anniversary of the Company, Ford is releasing a ton of materials to the public in digital format. Great! But is it really?

Oh, releasing the materials is a wonderful idea, but it goes back to how archaic and stunted the process of access to history is in our modern world. The way Ford is going forward exposes a huge flaw in how most archival institutions treat their documentation and unfortunately, how we accept this process.

I am excited about Ford’s move, and hope it will continue into the future. But frankly, as wonderful and “generous” Ford’s release of this information is — if you take a close look at it — it is doling out what they feel is significant, not what you may think is so.

I know that the people at Ford will likely be insulted by what I say and likely respond with, “how can you be so ungrateful?”, but the fact is that what you see is going to be their choice — not yours. It’s like going to a soup kitchen and receiving candy when you really need a full meal.

Others of you are going to say, “how dare you criticize Ford? They are being so generous!” Well, I feel I can because I know the whole process is flawed. Why? Because you should have access to ALL their archival…