In regard to: Re: [Networker] long term retention of data and old hardware,...:

The availabality of data thru time is beginning a great challenge

Agreed.

that
nobody try to solve actually.

That's incorrect.  Librarians and archivists have been talking about this
problem for at least 15 years that I'm aware of, and probably longer than
that.  Archivists working with collections of historical data (particularly
photos and audio & video recordings) have been working on this problem for
years, as they work to make digital versions of their collections
available to the public.  Many of the major libraries and archives have
very specific recommendations for file formats to use for long term
"digital preservation".

Archivists have a better grasp of the problem of digital obsolescence than
just about anyone.  As backup administrators, we're the only subset of
IT that thinks about the same types of issues.

Tim
--
Tim Mooney                                             Tim.Mooney AT ndsu DOT 
edu
Enterprise Computing & Infrastructure                  701-231-1076 (Voice)
Room 242-J6, IACC Building                             701-231-8541 (Fax)
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105-5164

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