Q: I just noticed that Yahoo is promoting the world's first and biggest e-time capsule? Weren't you first?

A: We thought so.

Q: I made an entry into your e-timecapsule 5 months ago. What is the difference between your global e-timecapsule and the Yahoo e-time capsule?

A: Yahoo will recover in 20 years; ours in 100 years. Yahoo is digital which has a short shelf life; ours is on archival microfilm designed to last 500 years. While both our projects aim at including the citizens of the world, our project also aims to include historical data that will be of significant value in the future.

Q: Hey! Have you checked out the Yahoo e-time capsule at timecapsule.yahoo.com
This reads just like your timecapsule? What's going on?

A: What can we say?

Q: TechNews World (10/10/06) mentioned your e-timecapsule and said you have limited appeal because you don't include historians and scientists. This isn't true, is it?

A: No, it is not. We have structured our project to include collections of material which will be of great value to historians and scientists. They are sponsored collections and are designed to be comprehensive and academic. We are working on getting sponsors for every significant subject we can think of.

A: Well … Yahoo is a big organization; we are not. Yahoo can afford to subsidize your submissions most likely as an overall marketing strategy; we can not. Yahoo is storing digitally and their costs are minimal. We are using archival quality microfilm which comes at a price. According to various studies, digital media is not stable and for many reasons can not stand the test of time. We didn't want to risk history, so we went for the expensive storage choice.

Q: "Love, anger, fun, sorrow, faith, beauty, past, now, hope …predictions, beam into Space, one voice .." the Yahoo site looks like it "borrowed" from yours. Bad form!

A: It is remarkably similar.

Q: The Yahoo e-timecapsule is going to be opened in 2020 - that's just a blip on the radar screen of life. Isn't that a very short time for a timecapsule?

A: Not if you are marking your 25th corporate anniversary - which they are. Don't forget they are also providing it to the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings archives in Washington, D.C.

Q: Let's see - 100 years Stonehenge World Heritage Site or 14 years Sunnydale, California? Which e-timecapsule shall I pick?

A: Why not do both? (And be fair … don't forget the Smithsonian.)

Q: I've looked at the Yahoo e-timecapsule and most of the entries seem to be frivolous - Fred with his dog playing Frisbee, Mary and George scuba diving off the coast of Thailand … who cares? Is your content more serious?

A: Our public entries are private, so we don't know. We made a choice to keep our entries private because we wanted to give people the option of placing important information in the e-timecapsule that may help relatives track down their genealogy one hundred years hence or researchers investigate how the public felt about significant issues.