Most creators of digital records do not care tuppence about the long term preservation of their documents, which is why people in the digi pres field continually try to raise awareness of the issues.
Which prompts a question – does successful emulation undermine our efforts? If the creators of records believe that someone 75 years from now will create a succesful emulator which will run Excel 2003 (say), then there is no pressure on them to create their records now in any other format, is there? Creators can carry on creating records in closed, proprietary formats, to their hearts’ content. Every new report of a successful emulation project is yet another nail in the coffin of trying to persuade creators to use different formats.
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February 14, 2008 at 9:06 am
Wouter
Hi Alan,
It sounds a bit like accusing those who develop a treatment for long cancer of encouraging others to continue smoking… but I see the point. Even with emulation standardised, open, self-contained formats are still necessary. It is no option for DP to collect and save everything in a software environment that some undefined future document may rely on, including documentation, and build an organisation to facilitate everything.
February 14, 2008 at 12:14 pm
alanake
Hello Wouter
Thank you – the cancer/smoking analogy is exactly the point! The solution is not to abandon cancer research, but instead to recognise that everything we do has an impact on human behaviour. Fear of getting incurable cancer is a real-world motivation for many people to give up smoking. When the day comes that cancer can be cured, that motivation will be removed too. Hopefully there will still be many other motivations to stop smoking
but the power of the particular cancer argument will have diminished.
A successful emulation strategy will impact on human behaviour in the same way. That doesn’t mean we should stop trying to emulate, but it should make us realise emulation does not exist in a societal vacuum. Record creators will see our successful emulation and they will draw their own conclusions about how doomed a file format might be.
February 15, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Perry
Hello Alan,
I am a former records manager in the states and I was doing some research and I came across your blog.
Alan, I am very impressed with the informative nature of your blog and your knowledge!
Outstanding job!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Best Regards,
Perry
February 18, 2008 at 9:43 am
alanake
Hello Perry, you are too kind!
I have only been reading up on digi preservation for a few months, and I am aware just how much there is still to learn. I am still just a beginner. But I love it.
All the best
Alan