Trip Report WWW2004 P4: long term preservation of digital archives

panelists:

• alfredo ronchi, MEDICI framework (ar)
• marek hatala, school of interactive arts, canada (ww.sfu.ca) (mh)
• georges mihaies, coordinator EC bricks, UNESCO (gm)
• susumu sawai, manager gakujoken (ss)
• kenneth thibodeau, electronic records archive (kt)
• lynn thiesmeyer, net online archive keio university (lt)

there were approximately 30 attendees.

introduction:

• rapid changes in technology make preservation of digital content a challenge.
• which are the long term implications if we rely on current digital technology to preserve our cultural memory ?

statements from the panelists:

kenneth thibodeau:

• if you are concerned about the past, you have to consider the future.
• there is so much data to preserve, that before we could finish copying it, the media would no longer be available.

georges mihaies:

• towards an all inclusive knowledge economy and society on the access and contribution for all high quality culture

lynn thiesmeyer:

• capture culture life so that it can be preserved for the future.

marek hatala:

• echo-project: audio annotation for natural science museum.

my comment:

this presentation touched my personal interests in two areas:

1. preservation: what of the material that is presented on the servers that i'm responsible for at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ for short) shall be preserved and how and for how long ? i have established the so called ETHZ web-archive to archive websites that are no longer maintained by the original author(s) for many reasons (project has ended, past event, etc), but that i felt should be preserved for future reference.
   
   
2. capturing and presenting current culture: as the author of www.about.ch, i'm presenting part of the culture of our country. how can this presentation be improved ?

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