Iain,

I not only listen to archivists, I work happily with them every day ... but, 
as a group [I'm not speaking of my colleagues here], they are not noted for 
their rapid acceptance of new technology, rather are quite stridently 
recalcitrant and entrenched in their insistence [belief] that nothing can 
ever equal paper for preserving data. Veneration of a venerable media is one 
thing ... but preservation of information is another. Are we seeking to 
preserve archeological records for the romantic notion that we've inscribed 
them with our [venerated] words and scribblings on traditional time-honored 
media OR rather, are we (shouldn't we be) more interested in preserving the 
information ... the data ... those papers contain?

"In late 2005, Microsoft announced it was opening the file formats of its 
Office suite, including Word and Excel, to competitors in order to get 
Office certified as an international standard. By ceding proprietary control 
of the formats to third-party developers, Microsoft greatly increases the 
odds that those formats will be accessible for future generations.

Meanwhile, the International Organization for Standardization recently 
certified a modified version of Adobe Systems' popular Portable Document 
Format (PDF) specifically for long-term archiving. It's called PDF/A. In 
essence, PDF/A preserves everything contained in a document that can be 
printed while excluding features that may be useful in the short term but 
problematic in the long term. For example, the new format does not allow 
embedded links to external applications, which could become obsolete, and it 
doesn't allow for passwords, which can be lost or forgotten. "It is all 
about creating a reliable presentation down the road," says Melonie Warfel, 
director of worldwide standards for Adobe, who worked on the project. Adobe 
is also working on archiving standards for engineering documents and digital 
images."

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4201645.html

Best regards,
Bob Skiles



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Iain Stuart" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 1:54 AM
Subject: Old Notes


Unlike some I do listen to the archivists especially those who are dealing
with this problem on a daily basis. I have been told of one commission of
inquiry simply handing their computers over to the archives for them to
archive. The problem as has been mentioned is not the short life of CD’s and
DVD’s but the propriety formats of Word …etc. I noticed that MS introduced
an entirely new format for its Office programs running under Vista so that
there was the usual compatibility problems with those using the 2003
version.



My reading is that the archivists were advocating PDFing everything as PDF
is an open-source program whose code is known.



Of course every document that dies or is destroyed is one more reason for
doing archaeology in the future!!



yours



Dr Iain Stuart

Partner

JCIS Consultants



ABN 15 673 291 522



PO Box 2397

Burwood North

NSW 2134

Ph/Fax (02) 9701 0191

(0413) 380116

HYPERLINK "mailto:[log in to unmask]"[log in to unmask]

Our website is HYPERLINK "http://www.jcis.net.au"www.jcis.net.au




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