[Leica] Durability of digital files.

[spencer at aotera.org (Spencer Cheng)]

Larry,

Archival stability (and readability of) media is only 1/2 of the equation 
(i.e. Doomsday Book).

The other, and more knotty, problems is the S/W to interpret all this data. 
How useful will WordStar files be 20 years from now? There are solutions 
(keep old S/W & H/W around forever, develop emulators for obsolete H/W so 
obsolete S/W can run,...) but all of them troublesome and expensive over the 
long term.

A friend and I looked at the problem about 5 years ago and talked to 
Canada's National Archive. The only solution viable solution is a process of 
constant transcription of digital files as they age. Unfortunately, it is 
not a solution a small startup company can offer successfully.

Regards,
Spencer

On Nov 16, 2009, at 9:38, Lawrence Zeitlin wrote:
> 
> All this is OK for historical papers, including an original copy of the
> Magna Carta. The big problem is with digital records, data tapes, e-mail
> files, contemporary digital photos, etc. The Archives maintains one or more
> of each type of digital reading equipment developed since the Jurassic. 
> Card
> punches and readers, 8 and 16 track tape drives, floppy disc drives from 8"
> to 2", CD and DVD writers of all descriptions. A constant task is 
> refreshing
> files by placing them on more durable media. Right now the archival media 
> of
> choice is premium gold plated CD platters with a reputed 100 year life 
> span.
> This is much longer than the dye based DVDs or run of the mill CDs that 
> most
> of us use to store data. The experts feel that CD and DVD drives will be
> available for the next few decades. After that, who knows?
> 
> Larry Z