Software Preservation and Attacks on the Cultural Record

(Note the room change.)

1. Reflections on the diverse objectives of software preservation, and relationships between preservation, sustainability, and obsolescence. Recent progress on the techolologies of emulation and virtualization have changed many of the assumptions here. (See for example the recent work of David Rosenthal, who spoke at the Seminar last semester about this topic). Recognition that software is an integral part of the verification and reproduction of more and more research results has been a new source of requirements somewhere in the preservation-sustainability continuum. In this discussion I want to revisit some of the assumptions and goals involved in managing software over time.

2. (As time permits) I would like to open a discussion of lines of attack on the cultural record that are used to selectively purge materials, disrupt the record's integrity, and block or deter stewardship organizations. I believe that these lines of attack have become more numerous and diverse in recent decades, with the shift of increasingly large amounts of the record to digital forms further complicating the situation. This is intended to be an exploratory rather than definitive discussion.