A methodology and system for preserving digital data

This paper refers to a previous proposal made at the 1st Joint Conference on Digital Libraries, on a novel approach to the problem of the long-term archiving of digital data. It reports on ongoing work in refining the methodology and building an initial prototype. The method is based on the use of a Universal Virtual Computer (UVC) to specify the process that needs to be applied to the archived data in order to make it understandable for a future client. There is a certain amount of information (a Convention) that must be preserved for an indefinite time, to make sure that the client will be able to recover the information. A first version of this Convention is given here; it includes the architecture of the UVC. The paper also briefly mentions our current activities in implementation and evaluation.