New Perspectives on Economic Modeling for Digital Curation

Society is increasingly dependent on the availability of digitalinformation assets however the resources that are available formanaging the assets over time (curating) are limited. As such, it isincreasingly vital that organizations are able to judge theeffectiveness of their investments into curation activities. Forthose responsible for digital curation, it is an ongoing challenge toensure that the assets remain valuable in a sustainable manner.Digital curation and preservation practices are still evolving andthey are not well aligned across different organizations anddifferent sectors. The lack of clear definitions and standardizationmakes it difficult to compare the costs and benefits of multiplecuration processes, which again impedes identification of goodpractice. This paper introduces a new perspective on modeling theeconomics of curation. It describes a framework of interrelatedmodels that represent different aspects of the economic lifecyclebased around curation. The framework includes a sustainabilitymodel, a cost and benefit model, a business model, and a costmodel. The framework provides a common vocabulary andclarifies the roles and responsibilities of managers with a demandfor curation of digital assets and suppliers of curation services andsolutions. Further, the framework reflects the context in whichmanagers operate and how this context influences their decision-making.This should enable managers to think through differentscenarios around the economics of curation and to analyze theimpact of different decisions to support strategic planning. Theframework is intended to serve as a basis for developing tools tohelp managers analyze the costs and benefits associated withcuration. The models are being developed and refined as part ofthe EU project 4C “Collaboration to Clarify the Cost of Curation”,which is bringing together and bridging existing knowledge,models and tools to create a better understanding of the economicsof curation