---
title: "22-digital-preservation"
aliases: 
tags: 
- comp210
- lecture
sr-due: 2022-10-13
sr-interval: 3
sr-ease: 250
---

how long will data survive?

data rot
- eveything wears out
- digital media degrades
	- unreadable media
	- damaged files
	- backups may help
- hardware and software becomes obsolete
	- cloud service shut down
	- os no longer exists
	- no device to read media
	- no software to read files
- format documentation non-existent or missing
- file system changes - lost metadata

![how long will it survive table](https://i.imgur.com/I8sY6FV.png)

Dark ages 2
![](https://i.imgur.com/VPOtcgf.png)


## preservation of digital material
- continuous format migration
	- everytime you upgrade software, convert all documents
	- document changes, keep old versions
- emulation of olf hardware
	- open things in original evironment

- standardised preservation formats
	- pdf/pda
	- not designed for convenient editing

- dont know original format?
	- lots of tools, but user unfriendly and somwhat limited
	- need to find version and which software

- in cloud
	- e.g., social media, websites
		- things are changing
		- acquisitions, bankruptcy
		- link rot
	- internet archive
		- aims to archive everything
		- crawl websites (wayback machine)
		- digitise of magazines and films
		- over 100 petabytes
		- controversy over copyright
		- only static content
- most national archive organisations are doing similar
- not eveything is accessable
- some services let you export your data

what happens when you die
- or stoke etc
- few legel precedents
- prohibit giving password to someone else
- "memorialise an account"