[LINK] As Go Document Formats, So Goes Video

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

As Go Document Formats, So Goes Video
Sunday, December 23 2007 @ 05:52 AM PST
Contributed by: Admin
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20071223055232858

Back in March of 2006, I interviewed Alan Cote, the Supervisor of Public 
Records in the Public Records Division of the Massachusetts Secretary's 
office. Alan had testified back in October of 2005 in the hearing where 
Peter Quinn had been called on the carpet by Senator Marc Pacheco, the 
Chair of the Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight. At the 
Pacheco hearing, Alan had professed neutrality about ODF, but also 
doubts that document formats could provide a useful tool for document 
preservation.

What struck me most forcefully at both the hearing as well as the 
interview was that Alan presumably should have been one of the biggest 
proponents of open formats, rather than a doubting Thomas. Why? Because 
the process he now follows to preserve electronic documents seems almost 
comically cumbersome and tedious. Briefly summarized, it involves 
recopying every single electronic document every five years or so onto 
new media (electronic media degrade surprisingly rapidly) in multiple 
formats (because formats are regularly abandoned). Shouldn't someone 
stuck with such a chore be desperate to find a better way?

Apparently, preserving documents is child's play compared to preserving 
modern movies, especially those created initially in digital form. How 
bad - and expensive - is that? According to a 74 page study released by 
the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAD) to a limited 
audience in early November, preserving a full-length digital movie can 
cost $208,569 (dramatic pause) per year. The reasons are exactly the 
same as for digitized documents, and the currently available means of 
preservation are the same as well.

.... etc

-- 

Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Sydney Australia
brd at iimetro.com.au