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Re: [ARSCLIST] CD markings
At 9/30/2004 04:18 AM, Steve Smolian wrote:
Or are we creating the need for future services that will have inventories
of present day, transient digital systems the way we now have closets full
of obscure analog playback devices?
In short, what is our responsibility to future users of the artifacts we
create today, and how do we best meet it?
It's essential that we think about the digital bits separately from the
storage media that hold those bits. No matter what media we choose today --
audio CD, data CD, DVD, hard drives or tape -- we will probably have to
re-visit that choice within ten years or less, both because the useful life
of the media is doubtful, and because equipment for playback will become
increasingly difficult to find and maintain.
No matter which choices we make today, our successors will probably have to
spend time and resources converting or transferring today's digital
archives to new formats and media. The alternative, which the data
archivists are facing now, is that the archived material will be preserved
but unplayable; I don't know if it's true, but I have been told that the
raw records of the 1960 U.S. census exist only on computer tapes in a
format for which there are no surviving tape readers.
It may be that the best we can do is to make sure we leave as much
documentation for reproduction/playback devices and algorithms as possible.
John Ross
Northwest Folklife
In addition, we will probably want to create separate high-quality
"archival" copies and more accessible listening copies of our recordings.