The Library of Congress National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program and DuraSpace have announced that they will launch a one-year pilot program to test the use of cloud technologies to enable perpetual access to digital content.
The pilot will focus on a new cloud-based service called DuraCloud, that replicates and distributes content across multiple cloud providers and enables organizations to share, access, and preserve said content. Eventually the service will also provide computing capabilities in addition to the storage and archiving functions. (DuraSpace is a joint effort of the Fedora Commons and the DSpace Foundation.)
The project started with a vision of federated repositories and infrastructure that would scale massively and remove the risks of data silos. The other major goal is to make the service usable across external and internal cloud deployments.
Let’s assume that any security issues can be worked out and recognize that this approach may actually be the ideal way for government agencies to share and archive data–especially data that’s not terribly sensitive.
Just the ability to share data across agencies and with the public would be a huge advancement for any agency. Based on the architecture diagram below, this looks like a feasible approach–at least until agencies start building internal clouds that become silos (again).
Among the NDIIPP partners participating in the DuraCloud pilot program are the New York Public Library and the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
There are plenty of these kinds of efforts under way and sooner or later one will hit the mark. I look forward to the day when the cloud promise fully delivers.
By Dave Rosenberg reposted from CNet (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10286280-62.html)
My book THESE GUYS . . . Cold War STories Told by Cold War Warriors – published 2009 is in the Library of Congress; the Cold War Times, and Cold War Museum, Vint Hill, VA; The Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars; and I was wondering if there will be a venue where I can sell this wonderful History Book of 240 first person stories told by those military men who served during the cold war in areas such as the USAFSS, intelligence communications; WWII; Korea; Vietnam – all stories written by “guys” like those you meet every day, but are not aware of the roles they played during the cold war.
Thank you, Trish Schiesser, Collector and Editor of THESE GUYS . . .
Literary Consultant, Ms. Evaluator; Author, Writing Teacher: How to write the Novel.
UTTER SILENCE: a story about SSGT Phil Noland, USAFSS (Ret) deceased. Served from 1951-1964 is the latest book which Trish Schiesser, author of THESE GUYS . . . and will be published in the next two years, hopefully. Keep looking at oldlieutenantpress.com for updates and other books by Trish Schiesserc