Digital Preservation & Curation Flashcards
1
Q
What is The Quantified Self?
A
The Quantified Self is about obtaining self-knowledge through self-tracking/lifelogging.
2
Q
Give some examples of self-tracking/lifelogging and why this might be useful?
A
- Tracking the number of steps you take a day.
- Tracking your sleep patterns.
- Can be useful for large scale data collection (e.g. to collect data on the average time that people in different countries go to sleep).
3
Q
What are some other terms for self-tracking?
A
Lifelogging, self-analysis or self-hacking.
4
Q
What was an early example of lifelogging?
A
- The emergence of Memex in 1945 signified the first time that technology was implemented into ‘lifelogging’.
- It was envisioned as a device that could store the books, records and communications of an individual in such a way that they could be retrieved quickly with ease.
5
Q
What is a lifelong repository?
A
Consists of heterogenous/diverse data recorded using many different sensors.
6
Q
What are some capabilities of self-tracking devices?
A
- can track sleep behaviours.
- can heat the house.
7
Q
What do self-tracking apps have the ability to track?
A
- communication behaviours.
- health.
- interests.
- travel.
- social network activity.
8
Q
In what ways can data be involuntary created?
A
- Travel history can be tracked through the online flight tracker, flightdiary. This information can be shared between countries (e.g. someone who has travelled Iran may not be granted a US visa).
- Smartphones and their GPS capabilities can record where you go.
- Bluetooth technology can record who you meet.
9
Q
What benefits could visual lifelogging produce?
A
A market for visual lifelogging technology could exist for special occasions e.g. weddings.
10
Q
What is the Standard Digital Curation Lifecycle?
A
The Curation Lifecycle Model provides a graphical, high-level overview of the stages required for successful curation and preservation of data.
11
Q
What are the stages involved in the Curation Lifecycle Model?
A
- Create
- Appraise and select
- Ingest/Store
- Preservation
- Access, Use and Reuse
- Transform
12
Q
Describe the Creation stage in the Curation Lifecycle Model.
A
- Creating data involves descriptive metadata and data and concerns access rights.
- The data generated at this stage is often expensive to try recapture or in some cases, impossible (e.g. in terms of lifelogging, you must do now because can’t relive life).
13
Q
Describe the Appraise and select stage in the Curation Lifecycle Model.
A
- Identify and evaluate which data is legal, appropriate and valuable to curate over the long term. (Trying to keep everything could be costly in the future)
- As the volume of selected data increases, so too does the difficulty of searching and retrieving relevant data.
14
Q
Describe the Ingest/Store stage in the Curation Lifecycle Model.
A
- Involves transferring the data to a curation environment (can be institutional or personal repository/storage).
- Storage must always be secure, accessible and conform to the relevant standards.
15
Q
Describe the Preservation Action stage in the Curation Lifecycle Model.
A
- Focuses on ensuring long-term preservation and authenticity of the data.
- Actions include data cleaning, validation, assigning, preservation, metadata etc.
16
Q
Describe the Access, Use and Reuse stage in the Curation Lifecycle Model.
A
- Data must be in an accessible state to the owner as well as potentially others in the future.
- For sensitive data, robust access controls and authentication procedures should be in place.
17
Q
Describe the Transformation stage in the Curation Lifecycle Model.
A
- Refers to changing the data from one format to another, moving data to a different storage or through integrating with other data.
- This can allow new data to be generated from the original data.
- Should be an ongoing process (e.g. as software updates, data has to transform to remain compatible).
- Essential to contributing to the longevity of a data archive.
18
Q
What are the preservation components of the Digital Curation Lifecycle Model?
A
- Preservation planning
- Preserve
- Preservation action
19
Q
What has to be considered when preserving digital data?
A
- Digital data is fragile but has value = an asset as has potential and creates new opportunities. (The constant rate at which things are changing/developing contributes to fragility).
20
Q
Maintaining the availability of digital data demands…
A
- commitment
- sustainability
- money
21
Q
What determines the value of digital data/assets?
A
Its:
- integrity
- authenticity
- usability
i.e. its value, opportunity and impact (which cannot be guaranteed due to challenges)
22
Q
What challenges are involved in digital preservation?
A
- Medium (storage media naturally decay and the market is driven by things having a short life-span as encourages repeated business).
- Technological so hardware/software (obsolescence makes data inaccessible i.e. people not using certain hardware/software = no more development so data becomes inaccessible as technology advances).
- Intellectual (validate of integrity and authenticity).
- Contextual (avoid loss of meaning and context of use).
- Legal impediments (data protection, FOI)
23
Q
What is obsolescence?
A
- The process of becoming outdated/no longer used.
24
Q
What can obsolescence affect?
A
- Hardware (including access devices e.g computers of every size and scale are continually superseded by faster and more powerful machines that can store and process more and more content.).
- Software (operating systems, device drivers, applications e.g. Software used to create, manage, or access digital content may be superseded by newer versions or newer generations with more capabilities using the most current technologies.).
- Media developments (new types of media emerge —smaller, denser, faster, and easier to read.) & degradation.
25
Which factors can limit the life of physical media and its contents? (i.e. physical threats not obsolescence)
- Manufacturer quality
- Handling (e.g. dropping in water)
- Storage conditions (e.g. temperature, humidity)
- Use
- Condition of peripheral devices
- Disaster & environmental conditions (e.g. earthquake, pollution)
- Marketing tactics
26
Give some examples of physical media.
- Floppy disks
- Hard disks
- Optical disks (CD-ROM, DVD)
- Magnetic tape (reel, DAT)
This diversity of media types are still operated in different sectors for different purposes.
27
What are some problems associated with magnetic media?
- Hydrolysis
- Particle breakdown
- Loss of lubricant
- Deformation
28
Give an example of when magnetic media prospered.
The Challenger Disaster managed to preserve most of its data through magnetic technologies. The data had to be recovered chemically after the explosion.
29
Name some file varieties. (considered as a form of software)
- Images (TIFF, JPEG)
- Text (DOC, XML)
- Archives (Email)
- Libraries (E-journals, catalogue)
- Broadcasting (MP3, WAV)
30
Describe some intellectual issues in digital preservation.
- Content is always changing
- Authenticity (i.e. who it was written by)
- Version control
- Metadata
31
What are some solutions (PRESERVATION STRATEGIES) offered to combat the intellectual issue of changing content of digital preservation?
- Migration (transferring the format of the content to a more current format).
- Refreshing (to copy data, or convert data, from one technology to another, whether hardware or software, preserving the essential characteristics of the data - Peter Graham)
- Emulation (recreating the software and hardware i.e. concerned with maintaining the look and feel e.g. computer games. Allows programs or media designed for a particular environment to operate in a different, usually newer environment. ).
32
What is a benefit of 'refreshing' the method by which digital data is preserved?
- Lengthens the life-span of the data if the storage format is independent of a particular technology.
- It potentially addresses both decay and obsolescence issues related to the storage media on which the digital data is kept.
33
What are some trusted repositories which preserve digital data?
- Internet Archive (contains online web materials)
- Open Archival Information System (OAIS) is an archive consisting of people and systems which is responsible for preserving info and making available for a designated community.
34
What does the OIAS Reference Model illustrate?
- a framework for the long-term preservation of information.
- makes clear standards needed for successful digital preservation.
- raises awareness of the issues associated with digital preservation.
35
Give some examples of Digital Social Network media archives?
- The Library of Congress Twitter collection.
| - The British Library UK Web Archive.
36
What does OAIS stand for?
Open Archival Information System
37
How can digital preservation be useful/relevant for individual people?
Through personal digital archives.
- refers to 'digital stuff' we create and save every day.
- can range from mere text message to valued digital images of mile stones.
- can be created by anyone.
- Nowadays, much of population are active consumers of tech, using it to document their lives and communicate with loved ones, creating a body of personal digital files.
- cloud storage becoming popular way to save files, promoted by many online sites.
