Hi-tech aims to improve lifestyle

Hi-tech aims to improve lifestyle
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8062327.stm

Personal information
More and more.
(Haiku)

Book: Richard Cox, Personal Archives

Book: Personal Archives by Richard Cox, 2009
"Archivists need to transform their own culture from one of collecting and acquiring to one of collaborating and assisting. Doing this should also open up new possibilities for promoting, in a more understandable fashion, the archival mission. ... At one time, personal archives were the backbone of public archives, the most prized acquisition by archivists, manuscripts curators, and special collections librarians because of the quality of the documentary evidence they provide and often their association with important events or famous people. Now they may be valued more by the individuals and families keeping them for highly personal reasons of identity, memory, sentimentality, or whatever. In my opinion, the archival mission is in the midst of great change, and it is a change that needs to be embraced and nurtured."

Indeed! I think, the increasing interests in how to preserve/archive "my own digital materials" can be turn into a golden opportunity for professional archivists to expand the rigid boundary of traditional archives, interact with more ordinary individuals as their clients, and take an active role in the information technology development where the money goes.

Rocks Don't Need to Be Backed Up

Rocks Don't Need to Be Backed Up
March 27, 2009
By Henry Newman

http://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/continuity/features/article.php/3812496

Nice article. I, however, think we need an approach, broader or more embracing than "a standards body."

Future Arch

"All of which finally gives me reason to stop worrying about cheap terrabytes! Data is going to keep growing and someone is going to have to help manage all that stuff. I guess that is where we fit in." from http://futurearchives.blogspot.com/

Indeed! Personal Digital Archives!

MEM: Making Everlasting Memories

"Making Everlasting Memories® (MeM) helps families share and archive the stories of their lives. Whether documenting a child’s first steps or honoring the memory of a loved one passed, MeM publishes the memories, treasured photographs and loving thoughts that capture life’s most cherished moments."
http://www.mem.com/Default.aspx

The market of personal digital archives will become bigger soon, I will say. But it will be very interesting to see how it grows.

(Thank Maggie, one of my UT iSchool colleagues, for sharing this site.)

Media clip: Now That I’m Dead, Who’s Going to Update My Facebook Status?

The Wall Street Journal Blogs: Digits
Now That I’m Dead, Who’s Going to Update My Facebook Status?

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/03/10/now-that-im-dead-whos-going-to-update-my-facebook-status/

"Legacy Locker, a new online service announced Tuesday that allows people to securely store usernames, passwords and other access information for all their digital assets — from Facebook and MySpace accounts to Gmail and PayPal — and pass that information along to beneficiaries in the event of their death."

Securing and preserving personal digital assets after one's death (sometimes sudden death) is truly an issue. While services like Legacy Locker make us say, "yes, we need this," they also raise series of concerns and questions. Considering the extreme complexity and inherently private/public nature of individuals' digital lives, it is clear that there would be no one-shot solution for this issue. Needs for research about personal digital asset management behavior and personal digital archives are high.

Society of American Archivists Poster

Thank you everyone who gave me encouraging comments on the Personal Digital Archives poster presented at the Society of American Archivists annual meeting in San Francisco, August 2008.

JPEG Image of the poster is available on the Web: http://srhkim.com/personaldigitalarchives/index.html

Here is the content of the poster:

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Society of American Archivist: ARCHIVES 2008

Personal Digital Archives
Sarah Kim, School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin, August 28-30, 2008

What is happening
Living with personal digital materials
Everyday accumulation: Individuals are constantly surrounded by evolving digital information technology. Consequently, accumulate a large amount of personal digital materials overtime in their everyday lives (e.g., digital photographs, document files, websites, blogs, e-mails, audio-video materials, etc.).

Everyday management: Individuals develop and practice their own methods to manage their personal digital materials using various on/off-line virtual spaces, whether it is “benign neglect,” panicky backup, building a labyrinth of directories, or creating multiple duplicate files and storing them in different locations.

Increasing archival preservation needs for personal digital materials
Personal digital materials are and may be the only evidence of the active interactions between individuals and society; they are the fragments of memory documenting the lives of individuals, families, and society. Personal digital materials should be treated as archives and preserved beyond one’s lifetime so future generations of families, communities, and societies can (re)construct their identities, traditions, and histories.

Challenges of long-term survival of personal digital materials

• Less likelihood to survive: There is great risk for personal digital materials to become obsolescent due to rapid technological changes.
• Immeasurable quantity: Due to the ubiquitous use of digital technology in everyday life, the amount of personal digital materials is staggering.
• Inherently personal: The value of personal digital materials shifts over time through individuals’ lives. Selecting what to keep, what to destroy, and who will have access to them is a matter of personal decision.
• Heterogeneity: It is difficult to generalize the types of personal digital materials and the everyday record creating/keeping practices of individuals.

What is needed
Grass-root level preservation of personal digital materials
Private individual and/or family digital archives

• Functions as a space for self-representation and/or self-reflection; a place where future generations can learn about the individual, what she did and how thought of herself.
• Functions as a centralized personal digital repository.
• Aims for long-term preservation as an archives, rather than as mere data storage.
• Managed and operated by individuals as a part of their everyday record-keeping practices;
• Will be maintained through future generations by families or by archival institutions.

Personal Digital Archives and the Archival Profession
The preservation of cultural memories captured in personal documents (paper and recently, digital form) is one of the primary duties of the archival profession for hundreds of years. Preservation practices, theories, and experiences nurtured in the archival profession will provide the intellectual foundation for personal digital archives.

• In the post-custodial era, the archivist should take on the role as facilitator of personal digital archives or as the developer of personal digital archives system.
• While individual personal digital archives function as private archives, they can be integrated into the larger effort to preserve society’s cultural heritage under the concept of documentation strategies.
• Issues of appraisal, privacy, intellectual property rights, access, which are all largely discussed in the archival tradition, will provide valuable insights into similar issues of personal digital archives.
• Digital preservation strategies and methods that have been seriously explored in the field of archives for decades, such as the development of the Open Archives Information System Reference Model and practices of institutional repositories, can be applied to develop a system model, software, and/or services for personal digital archives.

Current Movements: Numerous entities are conducting research on how individuals are managing (keeping, organizing, and retrieving) their personal digital materials. [e.g., Digital Lives Research Project, Researchers in Personal Information Management (PIM) studies, Microsoft MyLifeBits project, etc.]

Why do you need personal digital archives?: Ubiquitous archiving

Digital information technology does not change merely the form of records; it changes the ways that people communicate and express themselves as well. Individuals have more opportunities to actively speak for themselves through ubiquitous digital information technology. Digital technology also lets them work in a more complex networked environment than ever before, and over time they accumulate a large amount of personal digital material. These personal digital materials comprise the evidence of the active interaction between individuals and society. As fragments of memory documenting the lives of individuals, families and society, these materials have immense historical research value and need to be preserved for future generations.

Defining personal digital archives

While I took the Appraisal and Selection of Records class instructed by Dr. Patricia Galloway I had an opportunity to consider further about how I can define personal digital archives in my research.
Personal digital archives mean private archives of ordinary individuals that:
1. Contain personal digital materials created, collected and accumulated by individuals that carry one’s life experiences and memories;
2. Are originated and developed by individuals in their daily lives;
3. Are more than collections but archives that have a potential for long term existence after the individual dies, preserved not necessarily at the institutional level but at the grass-roots level.

Personal digital archives as a research theme

Personal digital archives is my doctoral research topic. This idea began with simple curiosity about the methods used by individuals to preserve digital materials in their everyday lives, such as digital photographs, document files, websites, blogs, and audio-video materials.
In my study, the meaning of personal digital archives is not limited to preserving personal records at the institutional level, but includes individual archives managed and operated by people in their private lives.
I want to explore how ordinary people can build and maintain their personal and/or family archives in the digital information environment. Personal digital archives are not only about storing digital objects, but are also about preserving individuals' life time experiences, memories, and relationship with others and societies that carry priceless historical values.
This issue will also include topics such as personal records-keeping and/or preservation behavior and social meanings of archiving activities. I prefer genre oriented, domain-specific, and micro approaches built on real experiences.
"Personal digital archives" which will and/or should be everywhere in the near future.