Format obsolescence: myth or reality?

In a recent post, David Rosenthal from Stanford University has laid down the gauntlet and publicly asked anyone, anywhere to provide an example of “a format in wide use since 1995 in which content is no longer practically accessible.”

David states: “I’ve argued for some time that there are no longer any plausible scenarios by which a format will ever go obsolete if it has been in wide use since the advent of the Web in 1995.”

http://blog.dshr.org/2010/11/half-life-of-digital-formats.html

It’s well worth reading, along with the responses, counter-responses, previous posts on this and related subjects and his economic analysis of digital preservation priorities.

Does anyone wish to nominate a widely-used, post-1995 format they believe would be a counter-example to David's argument?

More broadly, does anyone wish to make comment on this in relation to digital preservation strategies?

The music industry's response to the question of whether file format obsolescence is a myth or reality would be a firm yes. A recent article in Rolling Stone, "File Not Found: The Record Industry's Digital Storage Crisis", reports on the cost and complexity of dealing with digital preservation. The article was prompted by a report issued by the Library of Congress. Unfortunately the title of the report was not cited in the Rolling Stone article. A quick look at the pages on the digital preservation program on the Library’s website (http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/) reveals that the Library’s work is influenced by the work being undertaken by David Rosenthal from Stanford University. It also provides an informative reports on the 7th International Conference on Preservation of Digital Objects (iP..., held September 19-24, in Vienna, Austria, which ‘created a space for digital preservation professionals to hear and learn about recent preservation and access projects.’

Back to the Rolling Stone article…

The article raises great concern within the music and related industries about how music collections are stored so they remain accessible and reusable. An extract from the article is below explains some of the complexities involved.

‘When a multitrack digital tape is missing or inaccessible, the music isn't completely gone; it still exists on backup tapes or CDs. But it's the multitrack masters that soundtrack supervisors and video-game companies need for their projects. The Wallflowers wanted to license one of their songs to Guitar Hero — but discovered that the drum track, recorded on a separate file, couldn't be found. "If people can't figure out why a song isn't on Guitar Hero, there's a good chance it's because there's no way to revive the digital master file," says one industry source.’

The article also reported that the migration of digital content is expensive and time consuming. The Library of Congress has estimated it costs $US187 500 to migrate every 1 000 hours of audio recordings. Bob George of the ARChive of Contemporary Music, which has collected more than 2 million CDs, etc. explains that his organisation will not be migrating any content because by the time they had completed the task there would be new technologies and methods for digital preservation and storage. The article concludes with an important statement from Greg Parkin, VP of archives at EMI : “The point is to make sure it's safe. With all these new revenue streams, we have to make sure we're packaging every single asset as best as possible for the future."

The article is available at: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/17389/239965

Digital Preservation (Library of Congress)

The Library of Congress and its digital preservation partners from the federal, library, creative, publishing, technology, and copyright communities…

Replies

Damien Hassan December 14, 2010 at 4:31pm

Thanks Sam - link updated - Damien
1yb37e98nke93 December 13, 2010 at 11:46am

Some more work in the US to tackle the challenge of obsolesence and support PRONOM may be of interest here.

'Researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) are sharing results of advanced file-format recognition research with The National Archives of the United Kingdom. The effort could enhance worldwide capability to manage the vast array of file formats created since the computer age began.

Improving archivists' ability to categorize and access hundreds of different computer file formats is critical in the digital age. Increasingly, archives receive large quantities of government and other records in a wide variety of digital formats.'

Further details are provided in an ECNmag article ' Georgia Tech Assist in Identiying Files for United Kingdom Archive' available at: http://www.ecnmag.com/News/2010/12/Georgia-Tech-Assists-in-Identify...

at
1yb37e98nke93 December 10, 2010 at 12:09pm

The music industry's response to the question of whether file format obsolescence is a myth or reality would be a firm yes. A recent article in Rolling Stone, "File Not Found: The Record Industry's Digital Storage Crisis", reports on the cost and complexity of dealing with digital preservation. The article was prompted by a report issued by the Library of Congress. Unfortunately the title of the report was not cited in the Rolling Stone article. A quick look at the pages on the digital preservation program on the Library’s website (http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/) reveals that the Library’s work is influenced by the work being undertaken by David Rosenthal from Stanford University. It also provides an informative reports on the 7th International Conference on Preservation of Digital Objects (iP..., held September 19-24, in Vienna, Austria, which ‘created a space for digital preservation professionals to hear and learn about recent preservation and access projects.’

Back to the Rolling Stone article…

The article raises great concern within the music and related industries about how music collections are stored so they remain accessible and reusable. An extract from the article is below explains some of the complexities involved.

‘When a multitrack digital tape is missing or inaccessible, the music isn't completely gone; it still exists on backup tapes or CDs. But it's the multitrack masters that soundtrack supervisors and video-game companies need for their projects. The Wallflowers wanted to license one of their songs to Guitar Hero — but discovered that the drum track, recorded on a separate file, couldn't be found. "If people can't figure out why a song isn't on Guitar Hero, there's a good chance it's because there's no way to revive the digital master file," says one industry source.’

The article also reported that the migration of digital content is expensive and time consuming. The Library of Congress has estimated it costs $US187 500 to migrate every 1 000 hours of audio recordings. Bob George of the ARChive of Contemporary Music, which has collected more than 2 million CDs, etc. explains that his organisation will not be migrating any content because by the time they had completed the task there would be new technologies and methods for digital preservation and storage. The article concludes with an important statement from Greg Parkin, VP of archives at EMI : “The point is to make sure it's safe. With all these new revenue streams, we have to make sure we're packaging every single asset as best as possible for the future."

The article is available at: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/17389/239965

Digital Preservation (Library of Congress)

The Library of Congress and its digital preservation partners from the federal, library, creative, publishing, technology, and copyright communities…

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