Over the last decade a number of complex problems have emerged in many different areas, involving the computation of predictions and the analyses of large information networks derived from massive data collection systems. The DataStorm project addresses the design, implementation and operation of the new wave of large-scale data-intensive software systems. These systems collect and integrate data from heterogeneous sources, public and proprietary, from which large and complex graphs can be derived. These graphs can then be mined for patterns, from which models, predictions and various forms of knowledge can then be inferred.
BenchmarkDP is developing a coherent, systematic approach to assess and compare digital preservation processes, systems, and organizational capabilities.
4C will help organisations across Europe to invest more effectively in digital curation and preservation. Research in digital preservation and curation has tended to emphasize the cost and complexity of the task in hand. 4C reminds us that the point of this investment is to realise a benefit, so our research must encompass related concepts such as‘risk’, ‘value’, ‘quality’ and ‘sustainability’. Organizations that understand this will be more able to effectively control and manage their digital assets over time, but they may also be able to create new cost-effective solutions and services for others.
Digital Preservation (DP) is traditionally understood as the management of digital information over time. It is the set of processes and activities that ensure continued access to assets existing in digital formats. The digital preservation problem is well-understood for query-centric information scenarios but has been less explored for scenarios where the important digital information to be preserved is the execution context within which data is processed, analysed, transformed and rendered. Furthermore, preservation is often considered as a set of activities carried out in the isolation of a single domain, without considering the dependencies on third-party services, information and capabilities that will be necessary to validate digital information in a future usage context.
A primary motivation for TIMBUS is the declining popularity of centralized in-house business processes maintained and owned by single entities. The presence of Software as a Service (SaaS) and Internet of Services (IoS) means business processes are increasingly supported by service oriented systems where numerous services provided by different providers, located in different geographical locations are composed to form value added service compositions and service systems which will continue changing and evolving. Besides the advantages of SaaS and IoS there is the danger of services and service providers disappearing (for various reasons) leaving partially complete business processes.
TIMBUS will endeavour to enlarge the understanding of DP to include the set of activities, processes and tools that ensure continued access to services and software necessary to produce the context within which information can be accessed, properly rendered, validated and transformed into context based knowledge. One of the fundamental requirements is to preserve the functional and non-functional specifications of services and software, along with their dependencies. This is more challenging than the plain preservation of data as elements including, but not limited to, the versioning, licensing, cryptographic schemes, known data formats, host-system environments, architectures and hardware requirements of software continue to change over time. This enlarged understanding brings DP clearly into the domain of Business Continuity Management (BCM).