The Titanic metaphor Zoltán Szatucsek Managing Digital Preservation. Scape & OPF seminar 2nd April 2014
Titanic as a metaphor most frequently used metaphor of the 20 century for politics, religion, avoidable catastrophe, confidence in technology hubris this was the first major catastrophe which challenged man’s complacent mastery over nature in the emerging era of modernism
Short introduction 1723 established 21 archives at 72 locations 700 employees 300 kilometers of records 42TB of digital files 1 SDB 1 Scope
The iceberg Titanic received six warnings of sea ice on 14 April but was travelling near her maximum speed when her crew sighted the iceberg. Iceberg right ahead!
The ship Public archives Conservativism Organization of records Authenticity Modernism and traditionalism Organization
State Archives Secrete riat National Archive s Coordination Centre Preserv ation & Reprogr aphy IT and Digital Archive s Method ology & Training Regiona l Archive s (20)
The captain Needs new competences Digital preservation is not a technical problem Funding Staff Equipment Services Organization & policies Processes (vs. tools)
The crew Theoretically 10 persons Complex combination of skills and competences IT trainings for archivists or archival trainings for IT people? Challanges in education Activity paradoxon Cooperation in different levels
The catastrophy The disaster caused widespread public outrage over the lack of lifeboats and lack of shipping regulations Data losses Public scandals Why don’t we learn from our mistakes? Only two years after the Titanic disaster, the Empress of Ireland sank in 1914 in the St. Lawrence river with a similar loss of passenger life
Some conclusions DP is not a technical challange (development) DP research is before us – pragmatic approach Education Proper metadata
Thank you for your attention!