1. Learning from the past Standards, hardware, software and migration Gareth Knight gareth.knight@ahds.ac.uk

2. Recap - Why standards are a good thing Well documented, Best practice, Easier to manage, Preservation - Increased longevity of electronic resources Financial - I don’t get paid if I don’t support standards! But…

3. Theme of the presentation Are you 100% certain that you comply with all relevant standards? oBe honest! Things change oSoftware, hardware and working practices may change – HTML, CSS, plug-ins, etc. What are the implications? oLong and short-term problems if the standard is not correctly implemented – HTML, CSS, plug-ins, etc. I’m running out of money. How can these problems be fixed cheaply? oRemedial actions to solve the problems

4. Browser Standards The problem oWYSIWYG applications producing questionable code. How will this affect my user? oBroken web pages or badly formed HTML oForeign or illegal characters (e.g. ampersands) oMixing characters from other encoders. oBroken plug-ins oDifficult to migrate to XHTML How will these issues affect the user? oBadly formed HTML (e.g. forms, tables, etc.) oMissing text Microsoft Windows TM ! Microsoft Windows !

5. How can I test the site? oW3C validation, Lynx, Mozilla, Netscape, Opera, etc. How easy are these to fix? oIt varies. A search & replace command, which can be found in most development environments, to replace “garbage” characters. Browser Standards

6. The Problem oAccessibility standards are often ignored oCan be difficult to test. How will these issues affect the user? oConfusing site navigation, jumbled layout. oUse of colour, alternate text, scripting oJavascript sections are inaccessible. oThe use of image-based “anti-robot” identifiers limit blind-users. The W3C have recently released a working paper on the subject (http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/WD-turingtest- 20031105/) Accessibility Standards

7. How can I test the site? oFocus groups, ask NOF support for comments. How easy are these to fix? oBobbie performs machine-testing. oWAI guidelines allow qualitative testing. oAlso read Jakob Nielson’s book on designing web usability

8. "The good thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from“ (A. Tanenbaum) Quicktime 1.01992 MPEG-11992 Real Media1995 MPEG-21996 RealVideo1997 MPEG-41999 Quicktime 5.01999 Active Streaming Format1999 DIVX 5.02002 The number of A/V “de-facto” standard formats has exploded in the past five years, and this does not cover the dozens of audio and video codec combinations! Migrating to new standards, but which one?

9. Who developed it? oMicrosoft, Motion Picture Expert Group, etc. Has it received mainstream support? oCan your hardware save data in that format? What organisations are using it? oIs it used in industry Is it widely accepted by the professional and amateur community? oTechnology watch – check web sites, developer forums and newsgroups. Has it been submitted as an ISO standard ? Measuring longevity of standard

10. Are there any legal actions to change the standard? Is there a licensing fee? What tools are available to create and manipulate the format oOpen source vs. proprietary oPRONOM – National Archive database of 250 software products, 550 file formats and 100 manufacturers Can I execute these tools on my computer? oJava, Windows-only, Mac-only Measuring longevity of standard

11. What are the main features? oSmall file size, streaming support Will it support your specialist needs? oSubtitles, DRM, Internet delivery, etc. Does it provide sufficient quality oLossless vs. lossy compression. Will it impose any restrictions on use? oCan it actually be played by your target audience? Is the standard stable or does it change frequently? oHow will this affect your desire to use the format? Choosing a suitable migration path

12. Best Practice solutions In addition to format standards, you need to consider best practice solutions to content delivery: oFrame size oFrame rate oBit-depth oAudio quality Screen SizePixels per frame Bit depth (bits) Frames per second Bandwidth required (megabits) 640 x 480307,2002430221.184 320 x 24076,800162530.72 320 x 24076,8008159.216 160 x 12019,2008101.536 160 x 12019,200850.768

13. Have you encountered any problems when accessing these files in other applications? oQuirks (text not displaying, desynchronised audio/video, upside-down video playback). oVersion incompatibilities Migrating to other formats oAre there any other problems when exporting to other formats? E.g. lossless-to-lossless conversion, in-editable oDocument quirks & incompatibilities for later. Migration Problems

14. Updating hardware Hardware has changed dramatically in the last 3 years oMemory – DDR vs. SD-RAM oCPU – pin compatibility oGraphics cards – AGP 2x, 4x, 8x oOperating system – will Windows NT4/98 run on newer hardware? Do you upgrade existing hardware or replace it with new equipment?

15. Operating system lifecycle ProductExtended Support phase Non-Supported phase MS-DOS, Windows 3.11, Window NT 3.5x -December 31, 2001 Windows 98 / 98 SE June 30, 2002January 16, 2004 Windows NT Workstation 4.xx June 30, 2002June 30, 2003 Windows 2000 Professional March 31, 2005March 31, 2007 Updating software

16. Software changes on a frequent basis oFour service packs available for Windows 2000. oMicrosoft issues 3 patches per week on average. oLegal action force changes to plugin handling. oIn addition, there is an estimated 20 un-patched vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer alone (PivX Solutions). Do you upgrade to a later operating system or continue to use an operating system & software with known security flaws? Updating software

17. QA Focus - http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/ W3C - http://www.w3.org WAI - http://www.w3.org/WAI/ MPEG - http://www.chiariglione.org/mpeg/index.htm PRONOM - http://www.pro.gov.uk/about/preservation/digital/pron om/default.htm Useful URLs