iPres 2009: Collaboration

iPres 2009: Martha Anderson on Enabling Collaboration for Digital Preservation

Collaboration is what you do when you can’t solve a problem by yourself. Digital Preservation is such a problem. That was Martha’s summary of her very interesting presentation recapping the NDIPP so far, and giving some excellent guidelines relating to modes of collaboration. She spoke also about an upcoming National Digital Stewardship collaboration, which if I understood it is based round organisations (government?) taking some shared responsibility for the future of their data.

iPres 2009: Panel on challenges on distributed digital preservation

All the speakers participate in Private LOCKSS Networks (PLNs), although there are others eg Chronopolis. Meta Archive Cooperative is growing slowly, recent new members include Hull in the UK, but has a list of up to 40 potential associates. Alabama Digital Preservation Network (ADPnet?) focuses particularly on being simple and cheap. Canadian library consortium (COPL?) has a PLN with 8 members out of 12 in the consortium.

Organisational challenges on starting up, eg creation of Meta Archive West as new startup versus extension of existing. Issues are the same: organisational, technology and sustainability, of which the first and last are the parts of the iceberg under the water! Some very interesting points made about many aspects of these networks.