Bit Preservation: A Solved Problem?
For years, discussions of digital preservation have routinely featured comments such as “bit preservation is a solved problem; the real issues are ...â€. Indeed, current digital storage technologies are not just astoundingly cheap and capacious, they are astonishingly reliable. Unfortunately, thes...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
University of Edinburgh
2010-06-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Digital Curation |
| Online Access: | http://129.215.67.233:80/ijdc/article/view/148 |
| _version_ | 1797402013352329216 |
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| author | David S. H. Rosenthal |
| author_facet | David S. H. Rosenthal |
| author_sort | David S. H. Rosenthal |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | For years, discussions of digital preservation have routinely featured comments such as “bit preservation is a solved problem; the real issues are ...â€. Indeed, current digital storage technologies are not just astoundingly cheap and capacious, they are astonishingly reliable. Unfortunately, these attributes drive a kind of “Parkinson’s Law†of storage, in which demands continually push beyond the capabilities of systems implementable at an affordable price. This paper is in four parts:
Claims, reviewing a typical claim of storage system reliability, showing that it provides no useful information for bit preservation purposes.
Theory, proposing “bit half-life†as an initial, if inadequate, measure of bit preservation performance, expressing bit preservation requirements in terms of it, and showing that the requirements being placed on bit preservation systems are so onerous that the experiments required to prove that a solution exists are not feasible.
Practice, reviewing recent research into how well actual storage systems preserve bits, showing that they fail to meet the requirements by many orders of magnitude.
Policy, suggesting ways of dealing with this unfortunate situation.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T02:18:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-be1e8ba3eafc4b8a886ba94d755fbef9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1746-8256 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T02:18:16Z |
| publishDate | 2010-06-01 |
| publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Journal of Digital Curation |
| spelling | doaj.art-be1e8ba3eafc4b8a886ba94d755fbef92023-12-06T20:02:56ZengUniversity of EdinburghInternational Journal of Digital Curation1746-82562010-06-0151Bit Preservation: A Solved Problem?David S. H. RosenthalFor years, discussions of digital preservation have routinely featured comments such as “bit preservation is a solved problem; the real issues are ...â€. Indeed, current digital storage technologies are not just astoundingly cheap and capacious, they are astonishingly reliable. Unfortunately, these attributes drive a kind of “Parkinson’s Law†of storage, in which demands continually push beyond the capabilities of systems implementable at an affordable price. This paper is in four parts: Claims, reviewing a typical claim of storage system reliability, showing that it provides no useful information for bit preservation purposes. Theory, proposing “bit half-life†as an initial, if inadequate, measure of bit preservation performance, expressing bit preservation requirements in terms of it, and showing that the requirements being placed on bit preservation systems are so onerous that the experiments required to prove that a solution exists are not feasible. Practice, reviewing recent research into how well actual storage systems preserve bits, showing that they fail to meet the requirements by many orders of magnitude. Policy, suggesting ways of dealing with this unfortunate situation. http://129.215.67.233:80/ijdc/article/view/148 |
| spellingShingle | David S. H. Rosenthal Bit Preservation: A Solved Problem? International Journal of Digital Curation |
| title | Bit Preservation: A Solved Problem? |
| title_full | Bit Preservation: A Solved Problem? |
| title_fullStr | Bit Preservation: A Solved Problem? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Bit Preservation: A Solved Problem? |
| title_short | Bit Preservation: A Solved Problem? |
| title_sort | bit preservation a solved problem |
| url | http://129.215.67.233:80/ijdc/article/view/148 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT davidshrosenthal bitpreservationasolvedproblem |