Yahoo! Time Capsule

Yahoo! Time Capsule
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Yahoo! Time Capsule, a brainchild of Jonathan Harris, is a time capsule project by Yahoo! Inc. where users could contribute to a digital legacy of how life was in 2006. Open to contributions from 2006 October 10 to 2006 November 8, the Time Capsule hoped to capture the thoughts and feelings of the world in 2006 for historical purposes. At the time of the closing of the capsule, the total number of submissions was 170,857. The highest number of contributions, 32910, came from the 20-29 age group.

The Time Capsule closed on November 8, 2006, after which the digital collection of submissions was entrusted to Smithsonian Folkways Recordings based in Washington D.C., where will remain until Yahoo!'s 25th Birthday in 2020. According to the official About Yahoo! Time Capsule page, "You'll have your handiwork presented to Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, projected on one of the most famous relics on the planet, AND then beamed along a path of laser light into space." "This will definitely be something to email the grandkids about someday," it adds.

In addition to being able to contribute text, audio, images and videos, visitors could browse previously included entries, comment on them, or forward them. In return for submitting content to the Time Capsule, Yahoo! asked users to vote for one among a list of seven charities which received a portion of $100,000 from Yahoo! based upon the ratio of votes received by contributors. The charities were the World Wildlife Fund, the International Rescue Committee, the Grameen Foundation, UNICEF, One.org, Seeds of Peace, and the International Child Art Foundation.