PREFORMA (2014-2018)
Project official site
PROMOTER's role
Promoter provides the coordination of outreach activities, giving publicity to the call for tender
and disseminating the results of the project to the target audiences, also including the use of its
www.digitalmeetsculture.net platform.
The web presence of PREFORMA is realised by using the digitalmeetsculture.net portal where a dedicated area will be opened to host the communication of PREFORMA activities and its knowledge base.
Memory institutions are facing increasing transfers of electronic documents and other media content for long term preservation. Preservation models are often inspired by ISO 14721:2003, known as “the OAIS model”, where transfers and preservation are built on information packages containing both data and metadata.
Data are normally stored in specific file formats for documents, images, sound, video etc. that are produced by software from different vendors. Even if the transferred files are in standard formats, the implementation of standards cannot be guaranteed. The software implementing standards for the production of the electronic files is not in control neither by the institutions that produces them nor by the memory institutions. Conformance tests of transfers are done, but are not totally reliable. This poses problems in long-term preservation. Data objects meant for preservation, passing through an uncontrolled generative process, can jeopardise the whole preservation exercise.
The overall intention of PREFORMA project (PREservation FORMAts for culture information/e-archives) is to research critical factors in the quality of standard implementation in order to establish a long-term sustainable ecosystem around developed tools with a variety of stakeholder groups. The tools should be innovative and provide a reference implementation of the most common file format standards for the assessment of the collections to be archived and for the correction of the collections.
PREFORMA will target a wide digital preservation community, by providing specifications and feedback to developers, standard bodies and memory institutions.
The pre-commercial-procurement (PCP), following the rules for tenders in public sector, will match the memory institutions professional knowledge and the supplier’s skills in development and promotion of products and create a win-win situation. Joint procurement will enable PREFORMA to build a sustainable network of common interest, where the public procurers can remain in contact and cooperate beyond the EC funding period.
Partners
- Riksarkivet (National Archives) – Project Coordinator (Sweden)
- Packed Expertisecentrum Digitaal Erfgoed VZE (Belgium)
- Promoter S.r.l. (Italy)
- Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Foerderung del Angewandten Forschung E.V (Germany)
- Högskolan i Skövde (University of Skövde) (Sweden)
- Università degli Studi Di Padova (University of Padua) Italy
- Stichting Nederlands Institut Voor Beeld En Geluid (Sound&Vision) (Netherlands)
- Koninklijk Instituut voor het Kunstpatrimonium KIK-IRPA (Belgium)
- Elliniko Kentro Kinhmatografou (Greek Film Center) (Greece)
- Local Government Management Agency (Ireland)
- Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Germany)
- Ayuntamiento de Girona (Spain)
- Eesti Vabariigi Kultuuriministeerium (Ministry of Culture) (Estonia)
- Kungliga Biblioteket (National Library of Sweden) (Sweden)
