Microsoft appears to have accidentally deleted six years of blog archives belonging to Australian mobile technology evangelist Shane Williamson (pictured) and hosted on its free Windows Live Spaces platform.

“About 3 weeks ago my Windows Live Spaces blog was deleted by Microsoft for no reason,” Williamson wrote on his site over the weekend. “That is over 6 years of blogging on mobile, technology and convergence gone … Microsoft claims they cannot reclaim any part of the data lost, or will they give a reason why it was lost.”

“This should be a major concern to anyone who is, or thinking of, using Windows Live SPaces as a serious blog or any other type of cloud computing services from Microsoft.” Delimiter couldn’t reach Williamson for a comment today.

When contacted about the issue today, Microsoft Australia’s public relations agency punted the question to ninemsn, which operates the Windows Live brands in Australia courtesy of its joint venture relationship with Redmond.

A spokesperson for the company said it was investigating the issue back in Microsoft headquarters in the US — as that was where the Windows Live Spaces blogs were administered from, although it hoped to provide further information on Williamson’s case in due course.

Previously known as MSN Spaces, Windows Live Spaces was initially released in 2004, and is broadly seen as competitor to other free hosted blogging platforms such as WordPress.com and Google’s Blogger offering.

Williamson himself is seen as one of Australia’s foremost experts on the mobile technology space. In the past he’s held senior roles focused on the mobile space at a number of companies such as Microsoft, Optus and Hutchison Australia (before the merger with Vodafone). He is also the co-founder of the Mobile Monday Sydney chapter, which attempts to bring mobile industry professionals together.

Image credit: Shane Williamson

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1. Pete
   Posted 08/04/2010 at 3:27 pm | Permalink | Reply

   Moral of story: If it’s important, back it up yourself – don’t rely on the cloud.

   • Renai LeMay
     Posted 08/04/2010 at 4:03 pm | Permalink | Reply

     +1 to this.

   • David Banes
     Posted 09/04/2010 at 10:48 am | Permalink | Reply

     +1 here, only use ‘free’ if you don’t value your data.