User:Jules/tracksintro

Some resources :
http://www.packed.be
http://www.projectcest.be (tool box, good practices guidelines)
http://www.scart.be
http://www.projecttracks.be
http://www.scoremodel.org (preservation of digital audiovisual material)

Digital heritage field
→ solving problems in accessibility and preservation, expertise and advising
Problem → once things get understood it's too late, it is important to work on preservation before it is too late, before obsolescence
Art is a good way to envision problems to come up with more general digital content

content for the morning
- preservation
- threats
- strategies

ANALOGUE PRESERVATION?
→ analogue material can subsist for several decades, time doesn't flow the same way with digital content
With digital content you don't have time.
For instance with software... problem of and text editors evolution and text document formats.
Problem of digital repositories? How to physically store but not sustain readability

OAIS MAGENTA BOOK
→ repository shall identify the Content Information

BUT In practice :
- normalisation > only for specific formats (digital black hole)
Also, sometimes institution cannot do the research, don't really understand how to deal with it

ALTERNATIVE APPROACH – MATURITY MODEL (C'h. Dollar)
7 aspects:
- policy
-strategy
- expertise and organisation
- storage
- planning and control
- ingest
- access
→ at the end you get some score.

Preservation :
Intervene in the environment where you create and store documents to reduce the risk of damage to the minimum

Identify threats and apply strategy to counter it
technical solutions + proper arrangements, clever tool and getting stuff organised

THREATS
- obsolete technology
- unreliable carriers
- rights infringement
- managing extent
→ what applies to your content

Digital life cycle
Encoding can be a problem too

1# Access depends on the availability of the corresponding technology
2# unreliable carriers (cd rooms, floppy disks) – physical deterioration, damages, errors decoding/encoding
3# rights infringement – for the technologies you use (proprietary software) – patents, intellectual property etc
Different levels : Format (wrapper), codec (essence), software (implementation), hardware (carrier, hardware codec)
Jpeg2000 – patent issue (legality of using the format)
Mini disk was completely patented :-)
Open source is good :-)

4# Managing extent
Meta data appear outside the object with older carriers
- lacking metadata, endless copying, ignorance, project-based work.

Good to store copies over network Hashtags, checksums, comparing file versions, check if something changed throughout transfering the file. Also hardware like hard drive and third location. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_digital_data_storage > not applicable on large scale

CONSERVATION → store hardware, software etc in safe, climatised environment pro : relevant when the essence is in both the digital and physical manifestation of the project con : maintenance and obsolescence

DOCUMENTATION → manuals of hardware and software, technical specs of hardware, software and file formats, also the OS, library, languages, environment pro: helpful for reverse engineering/emulation con: passive, depends on future expertise

COPY AND DISTRIBUTE → copying and distributing is essential different types of copies (archive vs reproduction vs access) backup strategies : full/incremental – frequency – locations pro: risk distribution con: risk of losing track of copies what shape for sharing? How do you copy files and why?

REGULAR CHECKS checksum completeness of archive, integrity, virus control pro: identify preservation issues at early stage, can be automated con: allocate responsabilities, discipline, IT expertise

MIGRATION and TRANSCODING
Format policies.
Transcode to open and sustainable archive formats
pro: by far the most efficient way of extending life cycle of a file
con : risk information loss, risk functionality loss, expertise

Archivists have expertise in what to through away rather than what to keep

EMULATION
mimic original environment in which the file was used
pro: last resort for obsolete content
con: specialist work, available for specific platforms, requires reverse engineering

There is no single strategy applicable to all. Long-term preservation = chain of short term solutions based on a long term vision technology evolves, update your strategies.