Date   : Thu, 31 Jul 2003 18:33:07 +0100
From   : "Paul Wheatley" <p.r.wheatley@...>
Subject: Re: Doc Project

> > Cannot commit anything at the moment, but the University of Leeds is
> > currently bidding for the UK Digital Curation Centre (funded by JISC
for
> > FE/HE) and part of the role of the centre is to preserve software
> > documentation. We might well be intersted collaborative work.
>
> The problem (IMHO) is that everything's too fragmented at present, at
least in
> terms of preservation of the various models. Plenty of people collect
machines,
> but they're spread all over the place. Less people collect
documentation or
> software for those machines. Fewer still preserve ROM images (although
efforts
> seem to be better in the Acorn world that for other manufacturers)

It may be that the Curation Centre could provide some central point of
coordination or organisation that would help out. As for providing
storage space the curation centre won't be a digital repository itself,
but will be supporting other repositories that are spread around the UK.
So finding some space in one for the sort of incredibly valuable stuff
you are collecting shouldn't be a problem. And would also bring a bit
more security in terms of making sure it really does survive for
posterity.

Paul


>
> There doesn't seem to be an effort to try to collect everything
together in one
> place for a particular model or manufactuer, say. The doc project goes
a long
> way for BBC machines in terms of the documentation, but doesn't store
ROM
> images - and as the site maintainer has mentioned, space is currently
a
> problem.
>
> What's the design life of an EPROM? 15 years or so? There are probably
ones out
> there that have already failed and been lost. Working machines might
be
> abundant now, but they won't be in another 20 years or so - and if one
day the
> only way to show how these machines operated is through the use of
emulators
> then it's important to preserve the software and ROM code now.
>
> I'm hoping to make a stab at collecting data together for Acorn 8-bit
machines
> (System 1 - Master) at the very least; I think I can swing a few GB of
online
> storage to hold things, with documentation obviously taking up the
most space.
> Plenty more room available off-line if needs be.
>
> As scanning documentation is a huge task, I'm wondering if an online
list of
> 'who has what' could also be useful - intended for collectors out
there who
> have essentially static collections. Whilst they might not be willing
to scan
> documentation in they may be willing to allow themselves to be
contactable in
> the event that somebody needs something obscure looking up, and that
sort of
> service could still prove invaluable for keeping some of the more
obscure
> hardware running. I've certainly found it frustrating for some of my
rarer
> machines to know that there's probably *someone* else out there who
may own
> one, but finding them can prove impossible.
>
> cheers
>
> Jules
>
>
> ====
> Backward conditioning: putting saliva in a dog's mouth in an attempt
to make a bell ring.
>
>
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