Digital Conservation and Access: Saving Humanity's History in the Petabyte Age

[ES] We are at a unique point in history, the cusp of a Digital Dark Age, where cultural heritage professionals must work to care for the physical past while assuring that there will be a digital Rosetta Stone for future generations. This contribution describes the state-of-the-field in digital preservation and access, and is a call to action for individuals and institutions alike to work beyond our comfort zones and competitive boundaries in order to help define a sustainable digital future. Defined as an “hourglass of participation”, I describe a method where knowledge producers, curators and consumers interact and actively work to make content born-archival and long-term viable, semantically managed and ready for reuse and public disseminationAshley, M. (2010). Digital Conservation and Access: Saving Humanity's History in the Petabyte Age. Virtual Archaeology Review. 1(1):9-12. https://doi.org/10.4995/var.2010.474891211ANDERSON, C, 2008. The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete. Wired Magazine, [Online]. (Updated 6/23/2008), Available at: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/16-07/pb_theory, [accessed 8/30/2008]Archaeology Data Service, 2007. Digital Preservation FAQ. [Online]. (Updated 4/29/2008), Available at: http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/project/faq.html, [accessed 6/30/2008]BAILEY, C, 2008. Institutional Repositories, Tout de Suite. [Online]., Available at: http://www.digital-scholarship.com/ts/irtoutsuite.pdf, [accessed 8/28/2008]BARKSDALE, J, 2007. Saving Our Digital Heritage. Washington Post, [Online]. (Updated 5/16/2007), Available at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/15/AR2007051501873.html, [accessed 8/6/2008]BRAND, S, 2003. Escaping the Digital Dark Age. Library Journal, [Online]., Available at: http://www.rense.com/general38/escap.htm, [accessed 8/1/2008]CNN, 2007. Third undersea Internet cable cut in Mideast. [Online]. (Updated 2/1/2008), Available at: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/02/01/internet.outage/?iref=hpmostpop, [accessed 8.1.2008]GOMEZ, M et al. San Jose police: Sabotage caused phone outage in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz counties. San Jose Mercury News, [Online]. (Updated 4/9/2009), Available at ttp://www.mercurynews.com/topstories/ci_12106300?nclick_check=1, [accessed 4/9/2009]GORMAN, Siobhan. Electricity Grid in U.S. Penetrated By Spies. [Online]. (Updated 4/9/2009), Available at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123914805204099085.html, [accessed 4/9/2009]MULVENNEY, N, 2008. IOC admits Internet censorship deal with China. Reuters. [Online]. (Updated 7/30/2008), Available at: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/30/1551211&from=rss, [accessed 8/27/2008]The Long Now Foundation, 2008. About. [Online]. Available at: http://www.longnow.org/about, [accessed 6/30/2008]WITTMAN, N, 2008. About Open Knowledge and the Public Interest (OKAPI). [Online]. Available at: http://okapi.wordpress.com/, [accessed 8/28/2008