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<p><!-- Make sure you modify the 4Cast title in this section -->
<span style="font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold;
color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial;
line-height: 110%;">OPLIN 4cast #336: Save the
software</span><br>
<!-- Make sure you modify the date of the 4Cast in this section -->
<span style="font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal;
color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-style: italic;
font-family: arial;">May 29th, 2013</span></p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><img
alt="floppy disk"
src="cid:part4.02090804.05000500@oplin.org"
height="105" width="105" align="left">Last week,
the Library of Congress hosted the <a
href="http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/meetings/preservingsoftware2013.html">Preserving.exe</a>
conference to discuss the preservation of software
and its history. There are quite a few
organizations that have made some sort of attempt
to collect and preserve old software, but this
conference highlighted some of the big questions
that these organizations should address, such as
whether or not the original source code should be
preserved, or just executable code, or additional
data such as bug-tracking reports. Metadata
standards seem to be a problem, too. It is
beginning to look like the two organizations most
likely to host successful collections of historic
software might be the Internet Archive and the
National Software Reference Library (NSRL), a
project of the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST).
</p>
<div> </div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><a
href="http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/04/14/the-internet-archive-aggressively-expands-its-software-collection-now-the-largest-of-its-kind/">The
Internet Archive aggressively expands its
software collection, now the largest of its
kind</a> (The Next Web/Harrison Weber)
"According to the Internet Archive's Jason
Scott, the organization now hosts 'the largest
collection of historical software online in the
world.' Scott challenges you to find something
bigger. This rapid expansion came in part
through partnerships with many independent
archives, including the <a
href="http://archive.org/details/cdbbsarchive">Shareware
CD Archive</a>, the <a
href="http://archive.org/details/tosec">TOSEC
archive</a>, the <a
href="http://archive.org/details/ftpsites">FTP
site boneyard</a>, and the <a
href="http://archive.org/details/diskdrives">Disk
Drives</a> collection."</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><a
href="http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/3947">Change
computer history forever: Well, here we are</a>
(ASCII/Jason Scott) "So what's the problem?
Well, our metadata is shit, I can tell you that.
We're not good at having all the careful twee
metadata entry that most archives and libraries
demand. If you look at, say, the <a
href="http://archive.org/details/bitsavers_appleapple_1775046">Apple
I manual</a> we have online, it's kind of just
that - an Apple I manual. Not much detail, page
listing, context. It's just there. Preserved,
easily accessed, easily read - but not described
all that much."</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><a
href="http://stanfordreview.org/article/stanford-federal-government-partner-to-preserve-historic-software/">Stanford,
federal government partner to preserve
historic software</a> (Stanford Review/Salil
Dudani) "Stanford Libraries owns the [Stephen M.
Cabrinety] collection, but in its original
media, the software is at risk of becoming lost
as time passes. '(The collection) completely
covers the gamut,' Michael Olson, technical lead
of the Cabrinety project, explained. 'About 70
percent of it is games, from many different
platforms. It also includes early office
applications, like spreadsheet
applications...We've got Commodores, there's
Atari cartridges in there...VIC-20s, tapes,
things like that.' With the aid of a grant from
NIST to the tune of hundreds of millions,
Stanford is cataloguing and shipping the
Cabrinety collection to NIST, who will perform a
bit-by-bit imaging of the data on the disks, as
well as document all instruction manuals,
covers, etc."</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><a
href="http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2012/05/life-saving-the-national-software-reference-library/">Life-saving:
The National Software Reference Library</a>
(The Signal/Trevor Owens) "At the inception of
the project, in 2000, organizations were
creating and sharing metadata describing
computer files on a very ad hoc basis. If the
metadata were questioned, it was highly unlikely
that the original media were available to
resolve the issue. The NSRL operates in the same
fashion as an evidentiary locker, with the
original media available in the event of a
question."</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: left;"> </div>
<p style="text-align: left; font-size: 20px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><small><strong><em>Rot
fact:</em></strong></small><br>
</p>
<div style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;">Moving old
software from old media (like floppy disks) to new
media for preservation is complicated by the fact
that the electrical charge of a digital bit can
seem to disappear over time, a problem known as <a
href="http://www.catb.org/%7Eesr/jargon/html/B/bit-rot.html">bit rot</a>.
</div>
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