NDSA:Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Overview of the COPTR project by Paul Wheatley (http://wiki.opf-labs.org/display/coptr/Home) University of Leeds, running SPRUCE http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2012/11/spruce-up-for-digital-preservation-community-engagement-an-interview-with-paul-wheatley/ which is a grass roots digital preservation project in the UK. It focuses on collaborative and community based approaches and connecting practitioners with developers.

For many different organizations starting dp projects a key challenge is finding the right preservation software tools. This is an area where we can work together better.

Many people have created lists, there are a lot of them, probably too many with new ones appearing all the time. It is difficult to know where to start. In some tools registries there are varying levels of detail, some data is out of date, coverage is not great. When tools can be found there are not ways to learn how effective a tool is, like for example how easy is it to install? Each registry seems to have core tools listed and it’s own unique entries. These should be brought together. This will be particularly useful for those who are new the field.

Too many registries, DCC, LC, Open Planets, large funded projects pretty much everyone has one. While the registries are created, they are not maintained, PADI closing is an example, same is happening with a lot of them out there.

Need to work together rather than compete, pull together information, get rid of existing ones. COPTR is wiki based with neutral ownership, anyone can contribute. Tagging the entries will create organization and browsable list of tools. Need a good balance of detail and brevity. This registry won’t contain user feedback but will link to it so people can learn. It will also provide a dump of data to allow others to use/explore/reuse.

How to realize? Wiki approach allows something to get done quickly and for open contribution. Demonstrator is up now @ http:// bit.ly/coptr Now gathering feedback from those who have registries Working with orgs to get them on board, will only be a success if many orgs work together on it THIS IS THE ASK: merge tool registry data, link to it, delete registry, transfer effort Goal is one central and more effective registry Support from ANADAP -next meeting will have a session on coptr

Any feedback? Suggestions? Questions? Q: You want a central registry but don’t want individuals to maintain their own? Is that really going to happen? A: In some cases yes, in some cases no. In some cases it is too interlinked, in some they don’t have the resources to do it. If a good core can buy into it

Q: About data entry, I have some detailed data, who can move the data to COPTR? A: There may be limited resources for this

Q: What is the scope, will it include all aspects of digital preservation, web archiving and image archiving, for example? A: The scope is broad, as broad as possible, need to be experimental, IIPC web archive could be a good fit.

Q: Where is the Institutional home? A: Some conflicting requirements here, we want a home as neutral as possible so as many can buy into it, want someone to maintain and look after. OPF hosting at the moment, managing user accounts, keep it up and running, it is at an OPF url, but would like it to have it owned by community, could have a set of logos from the different organizations. See tools grid, digital power project, as an example of what could be done with the data.

Q: Who have you talked to? What is the level of enthusiasm? A: Small core so far, 4 to 5 orgs to test the water to get some of the best tool registries out there, DCC, LC, UNC, OPF. People are general supportive

Q: Who is the audience? A: The professional who is about to embark on a new DP project. For example, they need to characterize digital audio files. Finding tools is a problem—most technical challenges have been solved somewhere but finding the tools is done by word of mouth. Not all labeled “digital preservation”. There is a tendency to see a digital preservation problem and then to write all new software to solve it. Don’t have resources to waste.

Q: Timeframe for prototype with more data? A: Up and running with data by November.

Will send a list of questions/answer to post a blog interview.

Next call and meeting on June 25, will send a notice and agenda