<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">While rummaging around for the technical feasibility study mentioned at:<div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <a href="http://www.vaticanlibrary.va/home.php?pag=newsletter_art_00087">http://www.vaticanlibrary.va/home.php?pag=newsletter_art_00087</a></span></div><div><br></div><div>I came across a white paper on long term data preservation issues - mentioning FITS in passing - from 2008 in an IBM journal:</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <a href="https://www.research.ibm.com/haifa/projects/storage/datastores/papers/rabinovici.pdf">https://www.research.ibm.com/haifa/projects/storage/datastores/papers/rabinovici.pdf</a></span></div><div><br></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>"As the world becomes digital, we are in ever greater danger of </i></div> <div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>losing business, scientific, artistic, cultural, and personal assets. </i></div> <div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The threat of such a digital dark age stems from the fact that— </i></div> <div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>unlike physical records that may survive decades, centuries, or even </i></div> <div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>longer without advanced planning—digital records will not survive </i></div> <div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>without planning and diligence. Everything needed to keep digital </i></div> <div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>records viable will become obsolete, including hardware, software, </i></div> <div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>processes, and formats."</i></div><div><br></div><div>The Vatican has prior history of working with IBM and it seems likely that this continues. For instance the Vatican Library Newsletter article also credits Autonomy Systems (<a href="http://www.autonomy.com">http://www.autonomy.com</a>) which itself appears to have a working relationship with IBM.</div><div><br></div><div>The IBM white paper mentions many technologies familiar in astronomy, for instance acronyms like OAIS, SRB and iRODS also appear on the IVOA Data Curation and Preservation twiki:</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <a href="http://www.ivoa.net/cgi-bin/twiki/bin/view/IVOA/IvoaCP">http://www.ivoa.net/cgi-bin/twiki/bin/view/IVOA/IvoaCP</a></span></div><div><br></div><div>One project that seems like it might be of interest to the FITS, IVOA and ADASS communities is CASPAR, the EU's Cultural, Artistic and Scientific knowledge for Preservation, Access and Retrieval:</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <a href="http://www.casparpreserves.eu">http://www.casparpreserves.eu</a></span></div><div><br></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>"How can digital data still be used and understood in the future when</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>systems, software, and everyday knowledge continues to change?"</i></div><div><br></div><div>Rob</div><div><br></div></body></html>