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FW: XML encapsulation



Here's some more food for thought re: encapsulation and e-recs preservation.
I don't have much time for personal comments...other than to say that Phil
and Cal have both made some excellent points!

Maverick Collier
Records Analyst
City of Bellevue
Bellevue, Washington
425.452.5291
mcollier@ci.bellevue.wa.us

-----Original Message-----
From: Coombs, Phil [mailto:PCoombs@secstate.wa.gov]
Sent: Friday, June 09, 2000 6:20 PM
To: 'Collier, Maverick'
Subject: RE: XML encapsulation


Maverick:

The efforts to archive electronic records have been going on for decades
with little practical success.  The work of committees to develop guidelines
such as OAIS are commendable and may provide useful solutions.  However, I
don't see the role of an archives is to compensate for the failures of the
industry to provide practical and enduring formats for electronic
information.  We should insure that the files are captured and held in
original form as best as is possible.  If researchers and the general public
have difficulty in accessing the objects over time, it is a societal (and
commercial) issue.

The archival community has watched the technology industry embrace and then
discard formats for the past forty years without presenting an effective,
unified challenge to the vendors.  It is also apparent that there is not a
compelling, economic driver to force the technolgy industry to resolve the
format issue.  Having said that, I must declare that I am optimistic that
the industry will address it.  Money talks and is influencing priorities in
information storage, especially regarding the records of commercial
transactions.  If the archivists place the responsibility where it belongs
(on the industry) and resist the temptation to "work around" format and
platform obsolescence or solve it for them, then I believe real progress
will occur.

Cal Lee has made good points.  I am unable to resist composing a response:

1. If our national defense depended upon somebody reading a Commodore
floppy, chances are we would figure out a way to do it; even fifty years
from now.  The issue is not that media and formats become obsolete, we
abandon the effort to read them.  It just becomes a cost - benefit matter.
It is very important to save the digital files on currently popular media
and replicate the contents to future media as needed.  At least then the
challenge is reduced to interpreting the bits within.

2.  I believe keeping the original file in its native format has potential
merit for future researchers.  Embedded macros, formulae, and
annotation/comments might be rescued if it were worth the effort.  The
several cases cited in the Annex to the OAIS standards document all declare
that the files were not converted but kept in their native format.  Why
would a significant portion of the document promote transformation to a more
readable format, but then fail to cite cases where that happened?

3.  I agree with Cal that it will take a fair amount of resources to keep
digital objects readable.  It is possible that the collectors may revise
their definition of what's worth keeping.

4.  Converting information content through a non-reversible transformation
to an ASCII or even Unicode set has merit when the contents can be
generalized without serious information loss.  However, wholesale
application of conversion to ensure readability in an open format seems
dangerous, and perhaps damaging to evidential value.

5.  Encapsulating an object in an XML 'wrapper' does not produce a
'proprietary file format'; in fact, quite the opposite.  Cal argues for the
use of SGML or XML because it is an open format.

6.  metaPackager is not unique because it promotes encapsulation.  As Cal
stated, the concept of encapsulation has been discussed for years.  What
distinguishes metaPackager is that it is a real application doing real
things.  Not just another theory written up in a white paper or dressed up
in a reference model document.

7.  It is appropriate to be concerned about proprietary utilities to open
wrapped objects.  However, the world seems to have accepted such formats as
.pdf and .zip (owned by Adobe and Unisys).  I expect many vendors will,
likewise, support the encapsulation algorithm.

8.  Finally, I share Cal's concern about the metadata conundrum.  There is
never enough of the right metadata to suit everyone.  However, I would
rather have 12 or 15 common attributes used well than 150 attributes left
empty due to the rigor required to assign values during composition of the
object.  The value of a collection, whether it be historical or scientific
in nature, is measured by the contribution it makes to society.  If it isn't
used, due to its complexity or the challenge of using its finding aids, then
its contribution will be jeopardized.

Cheers,

Phil

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