The Wayback Machine

Here at JSONS we’ve been covering the student loan scandals since NY Attorney General Cuomo’s first investigations last spring. With the release of last week’s senate report, suddenly the story was hitting much closer to home.

We were, of course, very interested in the allegations by the senate report that then acting Dean of Enrollment Dan Pinch had been a paid consultant for a lending company at the same time that company was on the school’s preferred lenders list(PLL).

Despite extensive documentation of the issue the initial evidence released along with the senate report seemed to lack the proof that the lender was on the PLL at the time Pinch was on their payroll. An article in BostonNow by JSONS alum Padraig Shea said screen captures of Emerson’s website during the time period in question provided the link. We asked BostonNow to share those screen shots and were told those had been supplied by Sen. Kennedy’s office. We got in touch with the office and they sent us those screen captures along with payroll documentation..

In examining those screen captures, we here at JSONS recognized the URL. It was of a popular website: The Wayback Machine. Also known as the Internet Archive the site is a tremendous reference for those interested in the history of the Internet or particular websites. It not only records how websites looked on any given day, it actually maintains the functionality of links and navigation.

Although certainly a fascinating site that can fill a visitor with nostalgia for the days of sandbox templates and tiny jpegs taking hours to load, how reliable is the Wayback Machine? Is it reliable enough to use as evidence in a senate investigation? Here at JSONS we included the screen capture we were given in our story as well as links to the actual sites. As the story continues to unfold we’ll see what role this site plays.

-JGA