Digital archives

Keeping old data and programs is a challenging problem that many in GIS are just beginning to face. But at MoMA, they've developed a complex system to keeping old digital art. Their digital archivist has written a little about how they make sure that they have the proper software to go with the art (video, image, whatever).

So that it all still makes sens in 100 years they use the same thing as in GIS: metadata. But, instead of calling it that, they call it the archival information package. And, when their system is fully up and running, it willl not just be a stack of old floppies:

As MoMA acquires more digital artworks, and as the image resolutions used by artists and filmmakers increase, we project the digital collection to grow to approximately 1.2 petabytes (1.2 million gigabytes) by 2025.

 The new system will be dynamic and there is a video from IBM to show you how it works. But the overall story is one that should be fascinating to GIS thinkers who are looking forward to looking back someday.