My personal take on this: just as we should all have a 'legacy' contact who knows what we want done with our social media profiles in case of our death, so we also should have someone who knows how to access our laptop, external hard drive, google drive or wherever we are storing our work. It also helps to have a list of projects in progress. 

I've been given some of this information orally, but this discussion has encouraged me to ask for more specific details and write everything down. No one likes talking about their death; but I think many will appreciate the thought that their work will keep its value.

Antonia 

On Tue, 5 Nov 2024 at 13:07, Jan Kučera <jan.kucera@ujca.cz> wrote:
Thanks everyone. While I would encourage people who are happy to share their unfinished and/or abandoned work to do so (and if there is a demand for shared GitHub repository, I am happy to set that up and maintain), I think it is also perfectly understandable if people are 1) not comfortable sharing work-in-progress during their lifetime 2) have legal concerns to do so.

I just wanted to make sure that people realize that their work might get lost in a way we are not used to. Make sure your partner, colleague or an interested student know or will get to know that such work exists in the first place, ideally whether you would be happy if it was taken on by somebody else and ensure they have a way to access it.

The narrow window in history when inheriting a computer gives you access to the data is closing very fast as operating systems encrypt more and more hard drives by default, and often families do not think of sharing computers with whomever is taking over your collections. Perhaps that is fine and what you want. But in case you don't want you work to be _unexpectedly_ lost, tell somebody today.

Best regards,
Jan

-----Original Message-----
From: INDOLOGY <indology-bounces@list.indology.info> On Behalf Of Oliver Hellwig via INDOLOGY
Sent: úterý 5. listopadu 2024 11:25
To: indology@list.indology.info
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Papers vs files

Leaving aside issues with microfilmed material for the moment, I'd find such a collection of digital half-finished work extremely valuable. Why not set up a github repository and let everybody interested upload their material to a separate folder?

Best, Oliver

On 05/11/2024 12:18, Jonathan Silk via INDOLOGY wrote:
> I'm sure others will jump in, but just as is also the case with
> outdated and subsequently difficult to access computer encodings,
> microfilm degrades and thereafter...  scanning of such precious
> materials is an urgent desideratum.
>
> Jonathan
>
> On Tue, Nov 5, 2024 at 11:41 AM Rosane Rocher via INDOLOGY
> <indology@list.indology.info <mailto:indology@list.indology.info>> wrote:
>
>     __
>     This is a concern that keeps me awake at night, that and partially
>     collated unpublished texts preserved in microfilms and photocopies
>     of scattered and poorly known, hard to access manuscripts.
>
>     Rosane Rocher
>     Profesor Emerita of South Asia Studies
>     University of Pennsylvania
>
>     On 11/4/24 8:12 PM, Madhav Deshpande via INDOLOGY wrote:
>>     Excellent suggestion, Jan. Including me, lots of scholars have
>>     several unfinished projects which may never be completed or
>>     published, but lie in an incomplete form. There should be a
>>     repository for such materials.
>>
>>     Madhav
>>
>>     Madhav M. Deshpande
>>     Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
>>     University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
>>     Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
>>     Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies,
>>     Bangalore, India
>>
>>     [Residence: Campbell, California, USA]
>>
>>
>>     On Mon, Nov 4, 2024 at 3:58 PM Jan Kučera <jan.kucera@ujca.cz
>>     <mailto:jan.kucera@ujca.cz>> wrote:
>>
>>         Dear all,
>>
>>         I am sure I am not alone with the experience of finding
>>         treasures in archives, in personal papers and other
>>         collections of various people from the past, often pioneers in
>>         the field.
>>
>>         Some of us even had the sad privilege to take over libraries
>>         and collections of our departed colleagues and teachers. And
>>         from my experience, there is one significant difference from
>>         the past: people don’t write on paper anymore. The work is
>>         increasingly done on computers, and this data is almost never
>>         available or accessible to anyone else.
>>
>>         I would like to make an appeal to everyone who feels like they
>>         have significant notes, drafts, or work-to-come they have
>>         spent decades on, if you don’t want these to suddenly
>>         disappear, please make provisions for someone to be able to
>>         pick it up or turn into a treasure to be found by future
>>         generations.
>>
>>         Thank you and best regards,
>>
>>         Jan
>>
>>
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> --
> Prof. dr. J.A. Silk
> Leiden University
> Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIAS Herta Mohr building
> 2.142 Witte Singel 27A
> 2311 BG Leiden
> The Netherlands
>
>
>
> website: www.OpenPhilology.eu <http://www.OpenPhilology.eu> copies of
> my publications may be found at https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/JASilk
> <https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/
> JASilk>
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