Subject: DIGITAL PRESERVATION: A new conversation
David Green (david@ninch.org)
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 11:43:32 -0500
Message-Id: <v02130503b0fb9f5ce63e@[192.100.21.23]> Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 11:43:32 -0500 To: ninch-announce@cni.org From: david@ninch.org (David Green) Subject: DIGITAL PRESERVATION: A new conversation
NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
February 2, 1998
DIGITAL PRESERVATION ISSUES: An Important Conversation
"TIME AND BITS: Managing Digital Continuity"
<http://www.ahip.getty.edu/timeandbits/intro.html>
As more of the cultural heritage community understands the urgency of
digital preservation issues (how do we save existing digital material
that is already proving to be unreadable and how do we prepare a
strategy for ensuring the long-term availability of material we are now
digitizing?) one group is preparing to expand the conversation beyond
the merely technical and technological.
This week, the Getty Center will host a small group that will open a
discussion on "technology, culture, and time," that will examine the
sociocultural and economic implications of the digital preservation
issues. The ambition of the conversation is to "provide a framework for
long-term digital cultural preservation."
Those included in the conversation include the following:
Howard Besser
Stewart Brand
Doug Carlston
Ben Davis
John Heilemann
Danny Hillis
Brewster Kahle
Kevin Kelly
Jaron Lanier
Peter Lyman
Margaret MacLean
Paul Saffo
Bruce Sterling
This project is being co-organized by the Getty Conservation Institute,
the Getty Information Institute and the Long Now Foundation of San
Francisco. The web site announcing the conversation and the issues will
report on the dialog. It also contains a very useful list of web
resources on digital preservation issues at
<http://www.ahip.getty.edu/timeandbits/links.html>.
Below is the introduction to "TIME & BITS" as it appears on the web page.
David Green
===========
"TIME AND BITS: Managing Digital Continuity"
<http://www.ahip.getty.edu/timeandbits/intro.html>
Introduction
The enthusiastic and increasing use of electronic media for storing
information of various kinds demonstrates the utility of the format and
its possibilities.
In the field of cultural heritage, there is an enormous amount of
significant information in digital form. These data are vulnerable on
many levels. Because of the increasingly fast cycle of obsolescence in
hardware and software, we are at the point where the proliferation of
electronic data on various platforms has prompted some serious concerns
about the long-term protection of the data. A number of international
organizations are examining technological issues that bear on the
problem, including data types, media stability, and options for
refreshing and migrating data to ever-evolving platforms.
There is, however, an important gap in the discussions.
An integrated technical and philosophical discussion of digital archives
and their future that includes the sociocultural and economic
implications of both the problems and the solutions could provide a
framework for long-term digital cultural preservation.
The Getty Conservation Institute and the Getty Information Institute [of
the J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles] are collaborating with the Long
Now Foundation [San Francisco] to generate some strategic thinking on
these issues with important digital theorists. In February of 1998, we
will convene a small group at The Getty Center to share concerns and
expertise in technology, culture, and time.
We will use this Web site to present certain ideas for moderated
discussion, including a summary of the state of the technological work.
We will post comments and incorporate some of them into the body of work
being collected.
The on-line discussion and meeting should provide a set of insightful
and responsible recommendations that will chart a thoughtful course for
the resolution of problems related to long-term digital data protection,
preservation, and reconstruction.
===============================================================
David L. Green
Executive Director
NATIONAL INITIATIVE FOR A NETWORKED CULTURAL HERITAGE
21 Dupont Circle, NW
Washington DC 20036
www-ninch.cni.org
david@ninch.org
202/296-5346 202/872-0886 fax
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