Characterisation Adrian Brown The National Archives, UK

Overview Develop tools and services to characterise the significant properties of digital objects, to support: –Development of preservation plans –Validation of preservation actions (evaluating change) The subproject considers: –Representation properties –Inherent properties

Aims & Objectives To deliver: –Methodologies for describing significant properties –Tools and services for automating measurement and comparison of these properties –Recommendations for improving the preservation characteristics of digital object types

Aims & Objectives

Achievements (Year 1) Characterisation registry Property description and extraction methodology and tools Characterisation tool framework

Characterisation registry First iteration registry (bringing PRONOM to its next generation) Persistent Unique Identifier scheme for registry information Support for registry-driven characterisation tool framework

Describing and extracting characteristics Extensible Characterisation Description Language (XCDL) Extensible Characterisation Extraction Language (XCEL)

Migrator tiff png Extractor tiff XCELpng XCEL... XCEL Comparer png XCDL tiff XCDL 93% XCDL & XCEL

XCDL/XCEL tools Command line interface for extractor Preliminary specification for comparator GUI for extractor experiments

GUI example

Characterisation tool framework Registry-driven framework for automated deployment of tools Initial tools implemented: –DROID –JHOVE –Java POI (MS Office documents) –JAXP (XML validation)

Planned activities (Year 2) Final XC*L specifications Characterisation registry (iteration 2) Representation Information Registries White Paper XCDL extraction tool Characterisation tool wrapper specification Emerging technologies report

Thank you!