Personal Digital Archives

What is case study?

2011-10-08T20:57:00.001-05:00

"Sometimes we simply have to keep our eyes open and look carefully at individual cases – not in the hope of proving anything, but rather in the hope of learning something!" (Eysenck, 1976)

This sentence made my day today. This is what qualitative research is about.

Book: I, DIGITAL: Personal Collections in the Digital Era

2011-09-17T22:21:00.002-05:00

A new book about personal digital archives came out with a nice cover image.

I, DIGITAL: Personal Collections in the Digital Era
Edited by Christopher (Cal) Lee
Published by Society of American Archivists (2011)

I am still reading it. So far, Catherine C. Marshall (Challenges and Opportunities for Personal Digital Archiving) offers interesting perspectives and discussion points again.

"To desire to centralize, to fully federate, to unity and standardize is understandable, but it also seems out-of-step with human nature." (Marshall, p.111): I share this notion.

When Data Disappears

2011-08-07T15:32:00.004-05:00

When Data Disappears
By KARI KRAUS
Published: August 6, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/opinion/sunday/when-data-disappears.html

A good friend, Joanne, forwarded this article to me this morning.
Interesting article, but a bit cliche.

Digital preservation is not about preserving media themselves, but about preserving bits and bites, which requires real fresh eyes and idea of of digital preservation.

"With data, intervention needs to happen earlier, ideally at an object’s creation. And tough decisions need to be made, early on, regarding what needs to be saved. We must replace digital preservation with digital curation.": This is the interventionists' perspective, far goes back to David Bearman in 1990's.

"Instead, we must look for ways to continuously maintain and improve it. In other words, we must stop preserving digital material and start curating it.": I think that we need to re-define "preservation" in a digital environment, rather than "stop". So we can make sure the philosophy, symbolic meanings, and history of cultural heritage preservation continue and also evolve.

"No wonder preservationists often wax ominous about the “digital dark ages.”": Still we do?

2011-07-07T14:13:00.000-05:00

Ashenfelder, M. (2011).

When I Go Away: Getting Your Digital Affairs in Order. The Signal: Digital Preservation.

Recent article (published several days ago!) suggesting four steps to prepare personal digital materials online after our lives.

"Nowadays when we prepare a will, we have the added responsibility of leaving instructions to our loved ones about what to do with our online things after we die."

Your Digital Beyond: How to plan for your digital afterlife

2011-06-19T03:17:00.000-05:00

NBC Action News.com
Posted: 05/12/2011
By: Christina Medina

http://www.nbcactionnews.com/dpp/news/science_tech/your-digital-beyond-how-to-plan-for-your-digital-after-life-may2011swp

Emails key to 'digital memory for the future

2011-06-07T02:15:00.002-05:00

From Neil Beagrie's Blog posting, "Digital Preservation and Personal Digital Archives on BBC Radio 4": http://blog.beagrie.com/2011/04/21/digital-preservation-and-personal-digital-archives-on-bbc-radio-4/

BBC Raido 4 : Emails key to 'digital memory for the future
Thursday, 21 April 2011 09:18 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9464000/9464240.stm

Richard Ovenden's interview contains almost every single word that is necessary to mention regrading the current personal digital archives research.

Digital legacy: Respecting the digital dead

2011-05-10T22:13:00.002-05:00

Digital legacy: Respecting the digital dead
Updated 10:47 06 May 2011 by Sumit Paul-Choudhury

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20445M

Interesiting article that I heard from Personal Archive list serv. It briefly covers key problems that many of us (including archivists) could experience or confront when we think of long lives of our digital materials beyond our own life times. The article, however, makes me think again about the notion of "citizen archivists" by Richard Cox, especially related to developing digital archiving tool. Perosnal digital archiving is and will be the concern for every digital users and closely tied to our everyday personal information management methods.

"As soon as you turn a computer on, you start changing dates": This is so true and has been an issue for digital preservation.

Preservationists vs. Deletionists

2011-05-02T10:35:00.004-05:00

One of my colleagues, Craig Blaha, forwarded this to me.

Digital Legacy: The Fate of Your Online Soul
New Scientist (04/23/11) Sumit Paul-Choudhury
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028091.400-digital-legacy-the-fate-of-your-online-soul.html?page=1

I will say that we are "preservationists" AND "deletionists" in real.

Personal digital archives: Preservation of documents, preservation of self

2011-04-28T13:16:00.002-05:00

Dissertation proposal [PDF]: Personal digital archives: Preservation of documents, preservation of self. Sarah Kim, defended and passed on December, 2010.

Abstract:
Personal archiving is a practice through which people manage and preserve documents that have
particular meanings to them for a long time. The pervasive use of digital technology in everyday
life changes the way that people interact with documents and thus have an influence on archiving
practices. Viewing personal archiving as a self-reflective practice that involves psychological
and social processes of reviewing, understanding, and presenting life and self, the proposed study aims to explore digital archiving of ordinary individuals in relation to the construction of self. It uses in-depth case studies to gain a holistic understanding of how people conduct and experience archiving in a digital environment as close to research participants‟ perspectives as possible. Findings of the proposed study will eventually contribute to development of a theory or a model of personal digital archiving, which can have implications for research on digital cultural heritage preservation and personal information management/archiving tools and services design.

Book: After Death, Protecting Your 'Digital Afterlife'

2011-03-02T19:16:00.008-06:00

Digital archiving to-do handbook by Romano and Carroll. However, no references or bibliography. Minimum citations. How can a book like this, which is neither a fiction nor a personal essay, be written with such a little amount of citations even though it may be written for general audience?

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/10/132617124/after-death-protecting-your-digital-afterlife

New Clip: Internet Commenters: This Is You

2010-11-22T11:14:00.002-06:00

"One day Collier took his curiosity a little further and began to compile a list of comments from a particularly prolific member on IMDB.com (the Internet Movie Database).

He realized, viewed as a whole, the comments created something close to a profile or character sketch of the person writing them.

Collier took the concept to McSweeney's founder Dave Eggers, who liked the idea. Collier has featured 10 commenters since March.

"The good ones reveal themselves — after a lot of looking — to be kind of characters," Collier says. "They're not an exact representation of who this person is, but they are real characters." "

NPR Internet Commenters: This Is You
http://www.npr.org/2010/11/20/131471581/internet-commenters-this-is-you

Research method for personal digital archiving research

2010-04-05T17:39:00.007-05:00

I have been exploring Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) as a research method for my dissertation. IPA's idiographic and inductive approach seems like a perfect match for studying personal digital archiving practices in everyday lives.

Interesting short articles about IPA:
Smith, J. A. (2004). Reflecting on the development of interpretative phenomenological analysis and its contribution to qualitative research in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 1(1), 39-54.

Larkin, M., Watts, S., & Clifton, E. (2006). Giving voice and making sense in interpretative phenomenological analysis. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 102-120.

Archiving social networking sites

2010-02-02T23:07:00.007-06:00

Archive-it (http://www.archive-it.org/) is an interesting archiving service by the Internet Archives, which is "able to capture most publicly available web pages, including social networking sites" (https://webarchive.jira.com/wiki/display/ARIH/Archiving+Social+Networking+Sites+with+Archive-It). However, I continue to wonder how robust this tool/service can be to assist individuals to collect and preserve their own, private digital content produced in the social networking sites.

Lecture video: Keeping Found Things Found project

2009-11-11T16:23:00.002-06:00

This is a lecture video about how people keep and organize information. Although the issue of personal archiving is not the focus and the video is a bit old, still fun to listen to. Thanks, Sam.

Google TechTalks May 17, 2006
William Jones is an Research Associate Professor in The Information School at the University of Washington where he manages the Keeping Found Things Found project.

Hi-tech aims to improve lifestyle

2009-05-26T12:31:00.002-05:00

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

2009-05-09T13:19:00.006-05:00

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

2009-04-20T19:47:00.003-05:00

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

2009-04-17T21:04:00.002-05:00

"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

2009-04-06T20:21:00.006-05:00

"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 around personal digital archives will become bigger and bigger soon, I will say. But it will be very interesting to see how and which direction it will grow.

(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?

2009-03-14T19:36:00.004-05:00

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

2008-09-06T14:32:00.015-05:00

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/files/SAA_poster_PersonalDigitalArchives-Kim-2008-web.pdf

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

2008-01-27T22:47:00.003-06:00

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

2008-01-06T17:09:00.002-06:00

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

2007-07-25T23:36:00.005-05:00

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.