The Mattermost codebase is preserved on ice for the next 1,000 years
A lot will happen over the next 1,000 years, and the codebase for the Mattermost open source project will be along for the entire ride.
On July 8, GitHub successfully deposited 21 terabytes of open source repository data in the Arctic World Archive, a (very) long-term storage facility located on the Svalbard archipelago in Norway near the North Pole.
Now, all of that code is secured within hundreds of meters of permafrost so that no matter what the future holds, future generations will have access to the software that’s powering the world today.
On February 2, 2020, GitHub took a snapshot of all active public repositories, as well as some dormant ones. The code was then written to 186 reels of photosensitive archival film by Piql, a long-term data storage company that partnered with GitHub on what’s called the GitHub Archive Program. The company planned to deposit the code in Svalbard earlier this year, but its plans were delayed by COVID-19.
We couldn’t be more excited and honored that Mattermost’s legacy is preserved for the upcoming millennium alongside amazing open source projects like React, Hadoop, Linux, and PostgreSQL.
The other amazing part of this story is that all contributors have their work and attributions as part of this deposit—in effect memorializing their efforts for future generations. All contributors have also received the new Arctic Code Vault Contributor badge on their GitHub profiles to show their commits have been archived. It might be nerdy, but I think it’s a pretty cool “status” symbol.
For more information on the project—including what comes next—check out this blog post and watch this short video:
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