[WEB4LIB] NYTimes.com: A Universal Tool to Rescue Old Files From

[Richard Wiggins]

Quite an optimistic headline, eh?  I'm not convinced it's a breakthrough. 
Last year when I was researching an article on digital preservation, I ran
across this notion of emulation.  It struck me then, and it strikes me
still, as the least promising approach for solving the problem.  It's an
interesting idea, though.

Note that the Times article begins with the example of stranded data on a 5
1/4 disk.  Neither of the emulation techniques mentioned in the Times piece
does you a bit of good if you don't have a device that can read that floppy.
 The article optimistically proposes a tool claimed to solve the problem of
content format obsolescence while neatly dropping the issue of media
obsolescence.

Of course a brief piece in the newspaper can't cover all the issues. Here's
a really good collection of papers:

http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/topics/18.html

Preservationists often give the example of PDF becoming obsolete.  I think
PDF becoming obsolete is the least of our worries.  PDF is popular, it's
cross-platform, and it's documented.  It's just not credible to me that we
won't have tools to read it for the indefinite future, even if Adobe goes
the way of Worldcom tomorrow.

For my article I counted 9 modes of digital death, of which content format
obsolesence is only one category -- very important, but only one.  Another
mode is "content reorganization" which we know is rampant on the Web.  In
fact, since Spring 2001, Library Journal completed reorganized its site,
breaking links to the piece, and their own search engine now can't find it. 
The universal translator can't surmount link rot, a threat that's infinitely
more immediate than PDF becoming unreadable.

Ironic, eh?  An article on digital content preservation gets link rotted in
less than 18 months.  :-)  

/rich

PS -- finally found that piece by browsing:
http://libraryjournal.reviewsnews.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA106209

On Sat, 31 August 2002, "Gerry Mckiernan" wrote:

> 
>     A Most Interesting BreakThrough!
> 
> /Gerry McKiernan
> Obsolescence Librarian 
> Iowa State University
> 
> ***************************************************
> 
> A Universal Tool to Rescue Old Files From Obsolescence
> 
> August 29, 2002
> By ANNE EISENBERG 
> 
> A "universal virtual computer" may help machines of the
> future decode digital files from the past. 
> 
> <a
href="http://mail.richardwiggins.com//jump/http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/29/technology/circuits/29NEXT.html?ex=1031803167&amp;ei=1&amp;en=9cfca8c78118c2cc">http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/29/technology/circuits/29NEXT.html?ex=1031803167&amp;ei=1&amp;en=9cfca8c78118c2cc</a> 
> 
> 
> Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company
> 
> ***********************************************************

____________________________________________________
Richard Wiggins
Writing, Speaking, and Consulting on Internet Topics
rich at richardwiggins.com       www.richardwiggins.com