Time Capsule Stored Under Swiss Alps May 24, 2010
With the transition from paper to electronic, the volume of digital information we create, store and need to hold onto has exploded.
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), the size of the Digital Universe (the number of 1s and 0s that exist) will grow ten-fold from 161 billion gigabytes (exabytes) in 2007 to 1800 exabytes in 2011 – or 150 piles of books that stretch from the Earth to the Sun. It is predicted to double every 18 months.
This presents us with a dilemma. We are acquiring ever-growing amounts of digital heritage. And yet we store it in formats and on storage media that last only a matter of years.
On May 18, 2010, the Planets (Preservation and Long-term Access through Networked Services) Project deposited the Planets TimeCapsule in the vaults of datacenter, Swiss Fort Knox, in Saanen, Switzerland.
The data will be stored securely for years to come. Without intervention, however, our ability to access its contents will, over time, be lost. The Planets TimeCapsule is a metal box that contains at risk digital objects: a JPEG photograph, a message in Java source code, a short film in .MOV format, a web-page in HTML and a brochure in PDF.
Each object is stored in its original format and a new format more suitable for long-term preservation such as PDF/A, TIFF, JPEG2000 and MPEG4. The objects are stored on media that range from paper, microfilm and floppy discs to CDs, DVDs and flash-drives and HDDs.
Inside the box are the original and new objects, storage media, and some reading devices. It also includes conversion tools that were used to migrate the objects as well as software to open and view/use these objects and supporting software all the way down to an operating system; descriptions of the file formats, of the file systems and encodings used on the storage media; and description of all these objects and their relationship to supporting technology and recognised standards.
The TimeCapsule will be available to researchers in the future to investigate how much of its content will still be or can be made accessible and usable with the information provided. An online version will make it possible to see the contents of the TimeCapsule and experiment with technology to preserve them. Replicas will be available to libraries, archives, science museums and others for research and public exhibit.
The Planets TimeCapsule will demonstrate in ten, 20, 30, 50 and hundreds of years the fragility of digital data and the ability of technology to overcome it.
Planets is a four-year €15 million project co-funded by the European Commission under its Framework Programme 6. The project has developed a set of tools and services that will enable organizations to preserve their digital content for the long-term.
It is being delivered by 16 institutions in Europe which include national libraries, archives and technology and research companies: the British Library, National Library of the Netherlands, Austria and Denmark, State and University Library of Denmark; National Archives of the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Switzerland; Universities of Freiburg, Glasgow, Vienna and Cologne and IT research institutes: IBM, Microsoft Research, Austrian Institute of Technology and Tessella Technology & Consulting.
Specifically, the following partners of the Planets consortium were involved in creating the Planets TimeCapsule:
1. Vienna Univ. of Technology, Dept. of Software Technology and Interactive Systems
2. Austrian National Library
3. British Library
Swiss Fort Knox is a secure data facility located in a former military nuclear bunker in the Bernese Oberland. Swiss Fort Knox consists of two independent underground datacenters, which are 10km apart but connected physically, by the internet and a high performance network. Belonging to the top IT-infrastructure of Europe, the facilities are equipped with the latest technologies.
Swiss Fort Knox is resistant against any known civil, terrorist and military threat. Embedded inside the Swiss Alps and hermetically sealed, Swiss Fort Knox provides physical protection against environmental disasters such as earth quakes, floods, landslides and large-scale fires.
The facility is operated by SIAG, a globally recognized specialist for management and reliable and highly secure safekeeping and exchange of digital information during its entire life cycle. Experienced and professionally trained security experts advise customers on identification of risks and efficient and effective risk minimization.
More information: http://www.planets-project.eu/
Source: Planets
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