[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4cast #336: Save the software

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OPLIN 4Cast

OPLIN 4cast #336: Save the software
May 29th, 2013

floppy diskLast week, the Library of Congress hosted the Preserving.exe 
<http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/meetings/preservingsoftware2013.html> 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).

  * The Internet Archive aggressively expands its software collection,
    now the largest of its kind
    <http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/04/14/the-internet-archive-aggressively-expands-its-software-collection-now-the-largest-of-its-kind/>
    (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 Shareware
    CD Archive <http://archive.org/details/cdbbsarchive>, the TOSEC
    archive <http://archive.org/details/tosec>, the FTP site boneyard
    <http://archive.org/details/ftpsites>, and the Disk Drives
    <http://archive.org/details/diskdrives> collection."
  * Change computer history forever: Well, here we are
    <http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/3947> (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 Apple I
    manual <http://archive.org/details/bitsavers_appleapple_1775046> 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."
  * Stanford, federal government partner to preserve historic software
    <http://stanfordreview.org/article/stanford-federal-government-partner-to-preserve-historic-software/>
    (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."
  * Life-saving: The National Software Reference Library
    <http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2012/05/life-saving-the-national-software-reference-library/>
    (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."

*/Rot fact:/*

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 bit rot 
<http://www.catb.org/%7Eesr/jargon/html/B/bit-rot.html>.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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