Substratum

Mission

Substratum provides a permanent foundation for at-risk websites, ensuring their continued accessibility and preserving their presence on the web for future generations.

Vision

We envision a web where digital culture never truly disappears – where website owners and organizations, big or small, can conclude their missions knowing their digital contributions remain accessible, creating a permanent foundation for our shared digital heritage.

About

When website owners or organizations, regardless of scale, conclude their missions, their digital contributions often vanish with them. Without preservation, websites disappear and links break, fragmenting our shared digital history.

Substratum prevents this loss by transforming complex websites into permanent digital archives. Our preservation process ensures both accessibility and authenticity:

• Domain Stewardship: We maintain ongoing domain registration and management, ensuring web addresses remain stable and accessible.
• Technical Streamlining: We convert dynamic websites into lightweight, static versions that require minimal maintenance while preserving their full functionality.
• Content Preservation: We archive all original content, media, and interactive elements in their intended form.
• Link Integrity: We maintain existing permalink structure, preventing the cascade of broken connections that occurs when websites vanish.

Our work will unfold in three strategic phases:

Phase One prioritizes individual artists, musicians, and small cultural organizations. Working at this scale allows us to perfect our preservation methods while ensuring each archive meets our standards. We collaborate closely with creators or their estates to ensure their digital legacy remains accessible exactly as they intended.

Phase Two expands our services to mid-sized cultural institutions and independent newsrooms. This phase focuses on preserving vital journalistic work and cultural projects, applying our refined methods to these more complex digital archives. We recognize the particular urgency of preserving journalism’s contributions to our shared history.  

Phase Three broadens our scope to serve a wider range of organizations and institutions. We will work closely with non-profit and corporate directors to preserve these vital properties while relieving them of ongoing maintenance costs and responsibilities. 

Through this work, Substratum strengthens the fabric of the web, building a permanent foundation that ensures important digital contributions remain accessible for future generations.