Jesse, once again, you're "thinking small".

1. What happens when computing as we know it today is replaced by
quantum computing, and everything changes, including Unicode and XML? At
that point, you'll need to migrate in a really drastic way, assuming of
course, you can afford to. I suspect that many organisations will NOT be
able to afford the migration costs.

2. What happens when a worldwide pandemic (like the 1918-1919 flu
pandemic, but worse) reduces the economic ability to migrate, and/or
kills off a substantial portion of the population that is sufficiently
computer-literate to manage and carry out a migration? Real-world
example: the Black Death in Western Europe, CE 1350-1450.

3. What happens when the next "single Superpower of the world" is a
theocracy that believes our civilisation is the work of heathens and
must be destroyed? Real-world example: the destruction of the
civilisation of the ancient world by Christianity, CE 200-1300.

Fred
===================================================================
Frederic J. Grevin
Email: [log in to unmask]
Phone: 212.788.8615
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Jesse Wilkins
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2008 15:20
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [RM] Basic Advice on Archival Digitization Project

Hi Fred, 

The "master file" or "master image" concept makes that more clear. 

WRT to XML, it's fundamentally nothing more than a list of Unicode text
characters. You could argue that Unicode could be replaced, though I'd
expect that when that happens the replacement will include Unicode just
as
Unicode includes ASCII, but how would that be any less risky than
whatever
replaces TIFF? Unless the argument is that TIFF will be readable in 100
years, which I submit is much less likely. 

The nice thing about XML if it's done properly is that it is
human-readable
and can be very low-tech, for example by being printed or filmed as a
nice
package that includes the data itself (the XML) and the instructions for
how
to recreate it (the XML schema, ideally, and perhaps an XSL stylesheet).
The
entire XML spec could be included as well. When the file is to be
reconstructed 100 years later, as long as all the printed pages have
been
retained it will be able to be reconstructed. 

(As an aside, I don't think that MS OOXML is particularly
human-readable,
but the nice thing about XML is that a converter in the form of a
stylesheet
can be written to convert just about any XML dialect to any other XML
dialect and pretty easily at that. The issues come up when different
structures are used. But that's off-topic for this post.)

And it ain't just me - many major archival institutions are also
exploring
the use of XML for long-term preservation.

I do think that this is a very useful discussion - thanks to Kirk for
bringing it up and to everyone for weighing in on it. 

Cheers, 

Jesse "One XML to rule them all, one XML to find them...." Wilkins
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