I'm with John 100% here. Let me add that the profit motive has proven time and time to be a
tremendous motivator. The government-handout or perpetual endowment model has proven less
motivational. On the other hand, I haven't heard a persuasive argument that private market-driven
entities could have won WWII or gotten to the moon, so there is something to be said for big
non-market-driven entities funding big projects and big ideas. The problem is that the track record
since Apollo has been terrible.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Spencer" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2007 5:24 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Hard disk drives and DAT
> Richard (and George),
>
> Let me apologize for the unintentional attribution of Richard's post as George's (I had
> purposefully left the "On Mar 27, 2007, at 6:59 PM, George Brock-Nannestad wrote:" - to show
> George was responding to Richard's post).
>
> Having muddied that up sufficiently....let me address Richard's post below:
>
>> I would love to understand the commercial model that will be around in 100 years that accepts
>> data up front for perpetual storage with just a deposit fee.
>
> I would love to understand ANY model, commercial or otherwise, that will be around in 100 years.
>
> Regarding Trusted Digital Repositories, commercial repositories, home- brew repositories, you name
> it - I don't think ANY of them will exist in their current fashion in 100 years. I'm hopeful we
> make as much progress in storage as we have in the last 50 years - and if the development cycle
> is anything like it has been, we'll have 100s of TBs of storage on our desktop (if we still use
> desks!). That is why many constantly repeat the mantra "migrate, migrate, migrate" digital
> preservation files.
>
> Richard, you've indicated good results with 3 university/ government entities in another post.
> That has obviously worked for your clients. Mentioning Enron and Global Crossing as 2 corporate
> disasters is correct as well, yet neither of them were in the primary business of storing
> digital archives.
>
> Might I contrast those observations with 3 other IT "disasters" that have cost US taxpayers
> hundreds of millions of dollars (and the privacy of millions more):
>
> 1. FBI - Virtual Case File cost overruns:
> http://www.washingtontechnology.com/print/20_5/25687-1.html
>
> 2. IRS - 5-year track record of cost overruns and delayed deliveries:
> http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html? res=9C06E6DC173CF932A25751C1A9659C8B63
>
> 3. Dept. of Veteran's Affairs data loss of 20 million Veterans information:
> http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/06/05/78812_23NNvaprivacylaw_1.html
>
> What I am trying to support with these examples is that no entity (government or corporate) is
> immune to budget cuts, cost overruns that shut down the project, going out of business, or
> otherwise screwing up.
>
> My initial intent for responding to the post was simply to point out there are other options for
> underfunded archival projects. HDDs and CD-Rs are not the only cost-effective solutions, but I
> sense my thinking is in the minority....
>
> Best,
> John
>
> John Spencer
> BMS/ Chace LLC
> 1801 8th Ave. S. Suite 200
> Nashville, TN 37203
> office (615) 385-1251
> email: [log in to unmask]
> www.bridgemediasolutions.com
>
>
> On Mar 28, 2007, at 1:04 PM, Richard L. Hess wrote:
>
>> At 12:29 PM 2007-03-28, John Spencer wrote:
>>> George,
>>>
>>> I'm not ready to go along with the assumption that all commercial
>>> digital repositories charge a "per-chunk, per-time-period fee". There
>>> are many cost models for these types of service, based on the Service
>>> Level Agreement agreed to by the repository and the customer.
>>>
>>> To assume "if you don't keep paying your data goes to the bit bucket
>>> in the sky", well, isn't the same true for gas, electricity, water,
>>> etc? Not quite sure I agree with the statement - and it would seem
>>> than anyone using an outsourced digital repository would have
>>> physical backups of the data somewhere else, if a proper disaster
>>> plan is in place.
>>>
>>> Are university systems inherently less prone to disaster?
>>>
>>> I'd like more help to understand why university repositories in
>>> general are superior to those in the commercial space (and have the
>>> implied "added value" of existing in perpetuity).
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> John
>>
>> John, you're quoting my words to which George was replying.
>>
>> I would love to understand the commercial model that will be around in 100 years that accepts
>> data up front for perpetual storage with just a deposit fee.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Richard
>>
>> Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask]
>> Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX
>> Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/ contact.htm
>> Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.
>
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