[SPG_Active_Members] NSF financial support for Sustainable Digital Preservation

[H.M. Gladney]

Len, I believe that you are much overestimating how difficult a project
would be and/or how many people-hours it would take.  The work needed is in
fact far less than most people suppose.  The NSF participates in this
misunderstanding.
 
In particular, it is incorrect to believe that "a new type of organization"
is required.
 
Nor is it required, in a bid for NSF funding, to address all aspects
mentioned in their RFP.  E.g., doing something that works for CHM and making
the new software available as open source would be sufficient.
 
I suggest that you read something I've just written (and as much of the
cited background as you have time for--which I expect to be very little.)
See Durable Digital Objects Rather than Digital Preservation, posted at
http://eprints.erpanet.org/146/.  The argument made in this paper is that
"the establishment" in digital preservation has adopted a consensus
direction that would be not only unnecessarily expensive, but also
fundamentally unworkable.  (So-called "Trusted Digital Repositories".)
 
An engineering plan is sketched in Economics and Engineering for Preserving
Digital Content posted at http://eprints.erpanet.org/139/.
 
The work I propose would cost CHM nothing except space, until there was
enough running to be attractive for CHM as a service, i.e., not for approx.
2 years after the beginning of development.  The work would all be by SPG
volunteers.  The IBM 1401 project is a model of what I have in mind. 
 
Cheerio, Henry
 


  _____  

From: Len Shustek [mailto:len at shustek.com] 
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 3:54 PM
To: H.M. Gladney; SCC at CHM
Cc: 'Peter Lucas'; thomas.kierluk at sympatico.ca; John/Helen Swinden;
peter.farwell at rogers.com; 'Tom Gladney'; mn at rti-hou.com; 'John L. Bennett';
sowa at bestweb.net; Chaim Zins
Subject: Re: [SPG_Active_Members] NSF financial support for Sustainable
Digital Preservation


Henry,

I've read over the RFP, and it seems to me this is a project far too large
and far more general than what CHM should attempt to be the lead institution
for.  The scope is long-term digital preservation in general, and it calls
for building sustainable infrastructure, not just a prototype.  It asks for
the creation of "a new type of organization that we do not believe exists
today."   We could not take on something like that.

If a potential lead institution sees a role for us as a partner with a more
limited role, I'd be interested in having that discussion.

-- Len Shustek


At 09:26 AM 3/1/2008, H.M. Gladney wrote:



This note sketches a proposed CHM Software Preservation Group project, for
which I solicit your reactions and comments. 

============================== 

The National Science Foundation has opened a Request for Proposals for
"Sustainable Digital Data Preservation and Access Network Partners
(DataNet)".  The core of the RFP reads:

"By demonstrating feasibility, identifying best practices, establishing
viable models for long term technical and economic sustainability, and
incorporating frontier research, these exemplar organizations can serve as
the basis for rational investment in digital preservation and access by
diverse sectors of society at the local, regional, national, and
international levels, paving the way for a robust and resilient national and
global digital data framework." 

For the full call, see
<http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503141>
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503141 . 
============================== 

I propose that a small group of Software Preservation Group members organize
and execute a bid for funding under this RFP, doing so in the name of the
Computer History Museum.  Doing so would be entirely within the purposes and
capabilities of CHM, at least to the extent that I understand the CHM
mission.

A preliminary and very rough notion of the work to be funded includes: 

(1) Implementing and testing the software needed for long-term digital
preservation, with the understanding that this software is a small addition
to available digital content management software (digital library software).

(2) Creating and running a pilot digital archive, doing so in a computing
environment sufficiently separate from CHM service machines to avoid
impacting existing and planned CHM staff activities in support of the
committed services of the museum.  This would be on CHM premises, but on
separate hardware (funded by the NSF contract.)

(3) Making the newly created software available as open source offerings to
other institutions and to individuals who want to package other collections
for long-term usability.

(4) Ingesting a substantial body of CHM digital holdings into this archive,
and offering public access to these contents.

(5) Eventually turning over the pilot service to become part of CHM
infrastructure, after adapting it for synergy with other CHM digital
services and to require only very little maintenance.

(6) Conducting at least one tutorial workshop for staff of other museums,
archives, and research library institutions, doing this on CHM premises.

Tentatively, I see this as a two-year effort, with pilot service starting at
the beginning of the second year. 

The NSF schedule calls for preliminary proposals by October 6, 2008 and full
proposals by mid-February 2009.  I.e., the actual funded work would not
begin until roughly mid-2009.

================================ 

I see the required technical work as "a piece of cake".  The best available
description of what I believe needed is a draft paper, Economics and
Engineering for Preserving Digital Content, available as
<http://eprints.erpanet.org/141/01/LDP_Engineering.pdf>
http://eprints.erpanet.org/141/01/LDP_Engineering.pdf , and other writings
it cites.  See also my article
<http://www.dlib.org/bonnie/january07/gladney/01gladney.html> Digital
Preservation in a National Context: Questions and Views of an NDIIPP
Outsider, D-Lib Magazine 13(1/2), January 2007.

Related information: there exists a newly established "Blue Ribbon Task
Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access".  See
<http://www.oclc.org/us/en/news/releases/200692.htm>
http://www.oclc.org/us/en/news/releases/200692.htm .  I have had a little
correspondence with this group and have long been acquainted with some of
its members.

Lee Dirks, a member of this Task Force, informed me that in 2008 Microsoft
Corp. will make available Microsoft Word extensibility features that much
facilitate packaging text documents for preservation, more or less in line
with the first paper mentioned above.

================================= 
Please let me have your reactions to this proposal. 

Cheerio, Henry 
  
H.M. Gladney, Ph.D.  http://home.pacbell.net/hgladney 
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