NDSA:Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Infrastructure Working Group Call: Wednesday, August 24, 2011

• Andrea Goethals
• Bob Downs
• Dan Dodge
• Dave MacCarn
• Gene Hurr
• Karen Cariani
• Martin Jacobson
• Micah Altman
• Michael Sterling
• Priscilla Caplan
• Robin Trenbeath
• Trevor Owens

Overview

On the call we worked to refine the survey questions. Here I provide a short report of the changes we discussed making and why. The question numbers in this document refer to the question numbers from v2 of the survey, so for reference see version 2. The suggested changes are reflected in NDSA:Media:Draft_storage_survey_v3.pdf.Assuming that we are more or less on the same page with the questions, we can plan on starting to get responses to these questions in the next week.

Specific Suggestions

- A suggestion to flip the order of the questions. Start with the specific questions and then ask the preference likert scale questions afterward. Move the first 9 questions to the end.

- In discussion it seemed that focusing on planning for three years would be better than five years. We are particularly interested in if these plans are in place not so much interested in the difference between 3 and 5 year terms. Change all references to five years to three years.

- Concern that “know preservation storage requirements” in question one is vague. Suggestion to change question one to say “My organization has a plan to meet our preservation storage requirements over the next 3 years.”

- Suggestion to add a question for what term is your organization planning to preserve this content for?

- Suggestion that the reference to TRAC (or successor standards) in question four is confusing. The group felt it would be better to explicitly reference ISO 16363 instead. Revised question reads: My organization intends to meet requirements for a trustworthy digital repository according to TRAC or the planned ISO standard 16363 within the next three years.

-Suggestion to re-frame questions five, six and seven to include degrees of use and or interest in each of these potential options. Will now read as follows:

5: Is your organization participating in a distributed storage cooperative or system (ex. LOCKSS Alliance, SafeArchive)

• Yes, my organization currently participates in distributed storage cooperative or system
• No, but my organization is planning to participate in a distributed storage cooperative or system
• No, but my organization is currently exploring participating in a distributed storage cooperative or system
• No, my organization is not considering participating in a distributed storage cooperative or system
• No, and my organization is uninterested in participating in a distributed storage cooperative or system

6. Is your organization contracting out storage services to be managed by another organization or company?

• Yes, my organization currently contracts out storage services which are managed by another organization.
• No, but my organization is planning to contract out storage services which are managed by another organization.
• No, but my organization is currently exploring contracting out storage services which are managed by another organization.
• No, my organization is not considering contracting out storage services which are managed by another organization.
• No, and my organization is uninterested in considering contracting out storage services which are managed by another organization.

7.Is your organization using third-party cloud storage service providers (E.g. Amazon, Rackspace, Azure, DuraCloud) for keeping at least one copy of its content.

• Yes, my organization currently using third-party cloud storage service providers for keeping at least one copy of its content.
• No, but my organization is planning to use third-party cloud storage service providers for keeping at least one copy of its content.
• No, but my organization is currently exploring useing third-party cloud storage service providers for keeping at least one copy of its content.
• No, my organization is not considering using third-party cloud storage service providers for keeping at least one copy of its content.
• No, and my organization is uninterested in using third-party cloud storage service providers for keeping at least one copy of its content.

-The group felt that eight compounded too many different issues and was not properly framed. The group agreed that the intention of the question was to get at values toward control that came out in responses to the questionnaire. In light of that, the group agreed that this was a better formulation: Does your organization have a strong preference to host and control its own technical infrastructure for preservation storage? and the follow up question If yes, why?

- Unsure about what to do with the question on block level storage. There was a suggestion to strike this question. This suggestion was motivated by the idea that the way it was framed might push readers to agree. At the same time, there was a suggestion to keep it, as the answer could provide valuable information to storage vendors. As an accommodation, I moved it as an option for consideration in question 23. The question, “How significant are the following general features of preservation systems for meeting your organizations objectives.” All parties did not completely agree on this way of working with the question, as question 23 focuses more broadly on the preservation system while block level access is really a feature of the storage itself. With that said, it seemed like the best middle road. Feel free to discuss this further on the email list.

-There was a suggestion to add a time-frame of a year and rephrase question thirteen “Roughly, what percentage of your archived content is dynamic? (i.e., packages that are actively being changed)” The revised text would be Roughly, what percentage of your content changes within a given year? I still remain a confused with this way of reframes, unless this question has any staunch defenders I will plan on dropping it. Do people feel like this is a coherent question?

- Suggestion for additional question: How long, in years, are you responsible for ensuring that content in your preservation storage system is accessible? (Enter 999 if you have explicit, or implicit indefinite responsibility)