Technology Responsiveness for Digital Preservation: A Model by Nancy Yvonne McGovern Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at University College London University College London 2009 Abstract Digital preservation may be defined as the cumulative actions undertaken by an organisation or individual to ensure that digital content is usable across generations of information technology. As technological change occurs, the digital preservation community must detect relevant technology developments, determine their implications for preserving digital content, and develop timely and appropriate responses to take full advantage of progress and minimize obsolescence. This thesis discusses the results of an investigation of technology responsiveness for digital preservation. The research produced a technology response model that defines the roles, functions, and content component for technology responsiveness. The model built on the results of an exploration of the nature and meaning of technological change and an evaluation of existing technology responses that might be adapted for digital preservation. The development of the model followed the six- step process defined by constructive research methodology, an approach that is most commonly used in information technology research and that is extensible to digital preservation research. This thesis defines the term technology responsiveness as the ability to develop continually effective responses to ongoing technological change through iterative monitoring, assessment, and response using the technology response model for digital preservation. 2 Table of contents Page Abstract 2 Table of contents 3 Acknowledgements 6 Declaration 6 List of figures 7 List of abbreviations 8 Chapter 1 Introduction 15 Section 1.1 Research Problem 15 Section 1.2 Research Questions 17 Section 1.3 Digital Preservation Terminology and Concepts 19 Section 1.4 Emergence of the Digital Preservation Community 29 Section 1.5 Extent of the Existing Technology Response 36 Section 1.6 Literature Review 45 Section 1.7 Background for the Technology Response Model 52 Section 1.8 Research Methodology 59 Section 1.9 Limitations of the Research 68 Section 1.10 Organisation of the Thesis 71 Chapter 2 A Digital Preservation Perspective on Technological Change 74 Section 2.1 Introduction 74 Section 2.2 Concepts and Characteristics of Technological Change 75 Section 2.3 Innovation and Technology Developments 81 Section 2.4 Examples for Adjusting the Scope of Interest 85 Section 2.5 Expanding the Scope of Interest 87 Section 2.6 Refining the Scope of Interest 93 Section 2.7 Prioritising Technology Developments 98 Section 2.8 Information Sources for Technology Developments 107 Section 2.9 Conclusion 114 3 Chapter 3 Adapting Technology Responses for Digital Preservation 116 Section 3.1 Introduction 116 Section 3.2 Technology Forecasting 116 Section 3.3 Technology Assessment 125 Section 3.4 Technology Transfer 129 Section 3.5 Technology Monitoring 134 Section 3.6 The Human Factor in Technological Change 146 Section 3.7 Combining Technology Responses for Digital Preservation 149 Section 3.8 Conclusion 153 Chapter 4 Technology Response Model for Digital Preservation 156 Section 4.1 Introduction 156 Section 4.2 Combining the Technology and Response Results 156 Section 4.3 Characterising Technology Responsiveness 160 Section 4.4 Components of the Technology Response Model 162 Section 4.5 Identify Stage 164 Section 4.6 Monitor Stage 167 Section 4.7 Notify Stage 171 Section 4.8 Select Stage 172 Section 4.9 Assess Stage 174 Section 4.10 Respond Stage 179 Section 4.11 Combining the Stages 182 Section 4.12 Content of the Technology Response Model 184 Section 4.13 Conclusion 186 Chapter 5 Demonstrating the Technology Response Model 188 Section 5.1 Introduction 188 Section 5.2 Identify Stage 190 Section 5.3 Monitor Stage 192 Section 5.4 Notify Stage 195 Section 5.5 Select Stage 197 Section 5.6 Assess Stage 199 Section 5.7 Respond Stage 207 Section 5.8 Consolidating Technology Response Results 209 Section 5.9 Conclusion 210 4 Chapter 6 Conclusion 212 Section 6.1 Introduction 212 Section 6.2 Revisiting the Research Questions 212 Section 6.3 Evaluating the Technology Response Model 217 Section 6.4 Implementation Considerations for the Model 220 Section 6.5 Further Research on Technology Responsiveness 228 Section 6.6 Recommendations 230 Section 6.7 Conclusion 231 Annex 1 Detailed Results from the Scope of Interest Investigation 233 Annex 2 Profiles for Technology Watch Survey 245 Bibliography 260 5 Acknowledgements My research benefitted from interactions with colleagues throughout the process. For their informative reviews and discussions in the early stages of the research, I would like to express my appreciation to Trudy H. Peterson, Michael L. Miller, David O. Stephens, Frank Upward, Wendy Duff, Ines Cordeiro, Victoria Lemieux, Kimberly J. Barata, and Finnuala O’Driscoll, as well as Luciana Duranti and Edie Hedlin, who urged me to begin. For their invaluable advice and support in the later stages of completion, I am very grateful to Myron P. Gutmann, Anne R. Kenney, Lisa Bessette, Liz Chapman, Mary Vardigan, Margaret Hedstrom, Richard Taylor, Judy Burg Taylor, Lynette Hoelter, and especially to Kari R. Smith, who made finishing possible. I would also like to thank my supervisors at UCL, Elizabeth Shepherd and Elizabeth Danbury, for their guidance, encouragement, and patience. To my friends and family who were so patient and enduring, thank you. This thesis is dedicated to my mother, Nancy E. McGovern (1931-2005), who was always interested and supportive. Declaration I, Nancy Yvonne McGovern, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm this has been indicated in the thesis. Signature: _______________________________________________ Date: __________________ 6 List of figures Figure Page Figure 1-1. Contextual layers for a technology assessment. 58 Figure 1-2. Mapping constructive research methodology to the thesis. 64 Figure 2-1. The innovation cycle for technology developments. 83 Figure 2-2. Technology framework for digital preservation. 92 Figure 2-3. Technology inventory of OAIS function descriptions. 96 Figure 2-4. Keywords for relevant technology developments. 97 Figure 2-5. Summary of priority scores for OAIS functions. 102 Figure 2-6. Combined results from priority criteria and roles. 105 Figure 2-7. Comparative scores for the technology inventory. 106 Figure 2-8. Summary results from the survey of periodicals. 109 Figure 3-1. Rogers’ technology adoption model. 148 Figure 3-2. Relationships between the technology response types. 152 Figure 4-1. Technology response mapping for digital preservation. 158 Figure 4-2. The identify stage of the technology response model. 165 Figure 4-3. The monitor stage of the technology response model. 168 Figure 4-4. The notify stage of the technology response model. 171 Figure 4-5. The select stage of the technology response model. 173 Figure 4-6. The assess stage of the technology response model. 176 Figure 4-7. The assess steps mapped to technology assessment layers. 178 Figure 4-8. The respond stage of the technology response model. 180 Figure 4-9. Components of a digital preservation technology response. 181 Figure 4-10. The technology response model for digital preservation. 183 Figure 4-11. Content component of the technology response model. 186 Figure 5-1. Sample results and timing of the stages. 210 Figure 6-1. Hourglass model of technology response participation. 224 Table 1. Technologies referenced by OAIS function descriptions. 234 Table 2. Technological functionality identified in OAIS functions. 239 Table 3. Priority scores for OAIS functions using priority criteria. 243 Table 4. OAIS functional entities and functions by priority score. 244 7 List of abbreviations 4S Society for Social Studies of Science ACM Association for Computing Machinery AHDS Arts and Humanities Data Service [United Kingdom] AHRQ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality [United States] AIC Archival Information Collection [source: OAIS] AIP Archival Information Package [source: OAIS] AIP American Institute for Physics AJETS Australian Journal of Emerging Technologies and Society ALA American Library Association AONS Automated Obsolescence Notification System [National Library of Australia] API Application Programming Interface ARPANET Advanced Research Projects Agency Network [United States] AUTM Association of University Technology Managers [United States] AWIICS Archival Workshop on Ingest, Identification, and Certification Standards Beta Betamax videocassette tape made by Sony Corporation BIS Bureau of Industry and Security, United States Department of Commerce CaMiLEON Creative Archiving at Michigan & Leeds: Emulating the Old on the New CART Committee on Automated Records and Techniques, Society of American Archivists CCSDS Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems CD-ROM Compact Disc Read-Only Memory CDL California Digital Library Cedars Curl Exemplars in Digital Archives [United Kingdom] 8 CHIN Canadian Heritage Information Network CLIR Council on Library and Information Resources CRL Center for Research Libraries DC District of Columbia DCC Digital Curation Centre [United Kingdom] DEC Digital Equipment Corporation [DEC Professional computer] DELOS Network of Excellence on Digital Libraries DigCCurr Digital Curation Curriculum projected at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill DIKW Data, Information,