Dear Kelly,



> Kelly Hamilton wrote: Can you clarify?  I  am confused because migration 
> is simply moving a file from one place to another without changing the 
> file format.  Conversion is changing the file format.  That's not new ISO 
> terminology. <



Terminology is a tricky beast. As far as I know, quite a lot of people in 
the US, Europe (and in my country, too) either use “migration” and 
“conversion” as synonyms or prefer “migration” as an all-encompassing term.



Let me quote from ANSI/ARMA 16-2007 sec.3: “Use and meaning of the term 
conversion varies in the literature. In some documents, it describes the 
process of moving data to a different format, especially from an obsolete to 
a current format, and it includes the scanning of paper documents to create 
digital images. Other documents make a distinction between the terms 
conversion and migration, employing the former to describe the scanning of 
paper records and the latter to describe processes linked to preserving the 
persistence of digital objects. Traditionally, the IT industry has tended to 
use the two terms interchangeably. For clarity, this document defines 
conversion as copying a bitstream from one medium to another, changing a 
bitstream from one file format to another, or emendation of a bitstream as a 
result of having converted another bitstream, in order to preserve the 
integrity of digital records as evidence of business transactions.”



One more quote, from MoReq2, sec.11.7, p.177: “migration (converting 
information to new formats which can be accessed by current hardware and 
software)”.



Please compare the definitions of “conversion” and “migration” in ISO 15489 
and ISO 30300, and note small, but significant difference:



In ISO 15489:

3.13 migration - act of moving records from one system to another, while 
maintaining the records' authenticity, integrity, reliability and useability

3.7 conversion - process of changing records from one medium to another or 
from one format to another


In ISO 30300:

3.3.8 migration - process of moving records from one hardware or software 
configuration to another without changing the format
3.3.3 conversion - process of changing records from one format to another



By the way, I may also argue that the boundary between “simple moving” and 
“transformation” is dubious. For example, I can digitally sign the OS-level 
information on a DVD (i.e. the content), or I may alternatively sign the 
physical sectors on the disk. The “simple motion” will invalidate the second 
type of signature! So, in my opinion, the distinction between conversion and 
migration has a legal dimension (signatures remain valid) along with a 
technical one :)



With my best regards,
Natasha

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