NDSA:DDP OAIS SoP
DDP/OAIS Framework Statement of Purpose
The Educopia Institute and the National Digital Stewardship Alliance seek to convene a working group with the broader digital preservation community to develop an approach for implementing the OAIS Reference Model and the derived Trustworthy Repository Auditing & Certification metrics (TRAC) in a distributed digital preservation (DDP) environment.
To foster innovation, interoperability, and mutual understanding, the digital preservation field needs a conceptual framework that acknowledges the contributions of OAIS and the various metrics derived from that model. Such a framework would articulate a common set of terms, and describe an extended implementation of the OAIS functional areas for a variety of alliances, systems, and strategies that comprise distributed preservation activities.
Distributed approaches are distinct from centralized repositories, and they often use technological and organizational alignments to preserve digital content. OAIS is frequently interpreted in terms of centralized repositories. As the field of digital preservation continues to evolve, institutions need expanded vocabularies and models to help them understand OAIS in both centralized and decentralized repository environments.
Describing a Framework for Applying the OAIS Reference Model to Distributed Digital Preservation would accomplish the following aims:
- Describe the roles and responsibilities at institutions which are working to replicate and preserve digital information in an organizationally distributed environment;
- Provide a common vocabulary and set of recommendations for trustworthy interoperable systems development; and
- Inform administrative and technical practices between groups that seek to collaboratively preserve digital information using distributed mechanisms.
This work will synthesize the findings of a variety of current DDP initiatives and provide a solid foundation upon which new preservation activities may build and innovate. It will offer a viable and formalized extension of the standard OAIS-derived central preservation repository system for institutions seeking to replicate their collections and distribute them organizationally for preservation purposes.