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By: Leslie Johnston
On November 12, 2012, my home was broken into and robbed. I lost jewelry, some vintage tech (my beloved 1993 Mac Duo 230 laptop), and, more importantly, my netbook that I use for all my personal computing. I have learned a lot of lessons from that experience. First, I am very glad that I have …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Trevor Owens
In software development a release candidate is a beta version with the potential to be the final product. Welcome to the release candidate for the NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation. After some fantastic commentary on the blog, and presentations at a series of conferences to solicit feedback, I’m excited to share this revised version of the levels for further …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Bill LeFurgy
This is a guest post by Leigh Anne Ellison, Sales and Marketing Coordinator, The Center for Digital Antiquity. I am excited for the opportunity to contribute a guest post here at The Signal. I work with The Center for Digital Antiquity, a collaborative non-profit organization devoted to enhancing preservation of and access to irreplaceable archaeological …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Trevor Owens
Most of the conversations I end up in about digital preservation are about the digital versions of analog things. Discussions of documents, still and moving images and audio recordings are important, but as difficult as the problems surrounding these kinds of digital objects are, there is a harder problem: preserving executable content, aka software. Software isn’t …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Caitlin Rizzo
PLC intern Elizabeth Acevedo reads Lucille Clifton’s “won’t you celebrate with me” to Caitlin Rizzo. Since coming to the Poetry and Literature Center as a Junior Fellow, I’ve welcomed many new office traditions: morning coffee, baked goods at least once every two weeks, and watching Rob dance. Though, by far my favorite office tradition is …
Posted in: From the Catbird Seat
By: Susan Manus
So, how far along are we with cloning? Because I could have really used a clone or two in order to cover the many (sometimes concurrent) interesting sessions at this year’s Museum Computer Network conference in Seattle. Since this was my first MCN, I’m probably looking at this with more of a beginner’s “gee whiz” …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Butch Lazorchak
Wouldn’t it be great to have a single technical solution that solves all your long-term digital archiving, stewardship and preservation needs? Perhaps a file format with millions of users, widespread adoption across different computing platforms, free viewers and open documentation? A lot of hopes and dreams have been poured into the idea of “one preservation …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Leslie Johnston
In honor of this week’s Museum Computer Network conference, I want to talk a bit about the early history of museum computing. Most people are not aware that MCN was born out of a cooperative computing project in the New York City area in 1967, under the direction of Dr. Jack Heller. Fifteen New York-area …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Abbey Potter
Learning by doing and benefiting from a community of practitioners are key aspects of our approach to meeting the challenge of digital preservation. The International Internet Preservation Consortium is an organization that must also focus on practical solutions and quick action. The web is a huge distributed resource and is changing constantly so it takes …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Trevor Owens
PBS Off the Book has a nice short video on The Art of Glitch. It’s a fun story about a born-digital art phenomena, but aside from that, I think it’s useful at helping us better understand the nature of digital objects. In the video, artist Scott Fitzgerald gives the following concise argument for the value …
Posted in: The Signal