While most of us praise technological developments and the ever-changing digital revolution, professionals depending on repayable digital records are waving the red flag, drawing our attention to the digital time bomb.

What is a blessing in terms of new, better, faster and cheaper software and computers epitomises a threat to future-proof digital data. Those who have tried to open and read a 10 or 15 year old digitally generated document have an idea of what is meant here. The future is even more frightening: how can we ensure that our digital work processes generate documents that will be recognisable in the decades to come?
These are among many questions addressed by the LongRec – Long-Term Record Management – research programme. “The primary objective of this joint-industry project is to ensure the persistent, reliable and trustworthy long-term archiving of digital information,” says project manager Inger-Mette Gustavsen of DNV Research. She emphasises the availability and use of information when the lifetime exceeds 20 years.
“New versions of databases, spreadsheets and word processors are released every two to three years and computer hardware becomes obsolete after a few years. This has prevented us from developing universal preservation methods that guarantee readable and understandable records in the future,” says Ms Gustavsen.
“The overall research challenge for Long-Rec is to establish theory, mechanisms and technology that ensure trustworthy long-term storage and use in terms of context, semantics and presentation information,” says Ms Gustavsen.

Date: 2008-06-12