Practical Tools for Digital Preservation: A Hack-a-thon

27th-29th September, York

As volumes and complexity of data grow, so digital preservation processes rely on increasingly automated tools and processes. But preservation actions are often specific to the workflows and functions of individual institutions. So, although our toolkit has grown significantly, the very particular demands of individual workflows create a subtle and stubborn gap between tools and their deployment. This frustrates archivists and curatorial staff who want to simplify and automate their processes; and it inhibits developers who seek to provide tools that are satisfying and dependable.

This ‘hackathon’ will bridge that gap by facilitating a closer relationship between individual developers and digital collection owners. It will provide a forum for practical problem solving. It will help collection owners to articulate their requirements in ways that developers can address; and will help developers respond more precisely to the needs of a community hungry for solutions.

This event follows the success of the ‘AQuA’ project mashup events (http://wiki.opf-labs.org/display/AQuA/Home) which developed solutions to automate quality assurance of digital collections. In a similar way it will bring together digital collection owners and technical experts to address validation issues and long term access to digital content. It provides an opportunity to contribute your experience, and also to learn from the diverse skills and backgrounds of the other participants.

Who should come?

Collection owners who can bring along samples of their problematic digital collections. You will be asked to give a short talk to provide an overview of the content and the known or potential issues to the group.
Developers / technical experts who want to gain hands-on experience of applying digital preservation techniques to digital collections. You will be asked to give a short talk about your technical experience and interests.

We'll match up the collection owners with the technical experts to further discuss the issues before developing and applying preservation tools to meet your needs. We will run parallel workshops for collection owners to learn more about articulating requirements and creating concrete use cases to feed into tool development.

Registration is now closed

Registration includes the costs of lunches and refreshments during the day and conference dinner on Tuesday 27th September. Accommodation is not being provided for this event. The event is being held in the Science Park in the University of York's campus at Heslington, around two miles from the city centre. We are looking into accommodation in University Halls of Residence which are close to the venue and will update the registration page should details become available. In the meantime, a list of hotels and guest houses in the York area is available online at: http://www.visityork.org/accommodation/

Payment methods

N.B. THE DPC/OPF DOES NOT ISSUE INVOICES FOR EVENTS and cannot process card payments.

Preferred method of payment is by BACS electronic transfer to; Open Planets Foundation, 39 Threadneedle Street, London,EC2R 8AU Sort Code: 30-00-09 Account number: 00700120 N.B. YOU MUST REFERENCE THE TRANSFER WITH "YOUR NAME York_Hackathon" If you do not reference your payment in this way we will be unable to trace and confirm your payment and place.
A cheque written out to 'Open Planets Foundation'. Please post to Open Planets Foundation, c/o The British Library, Boston Spa, Wetherby, West Yorkshire, LS23 7BQ. If you wish to pay in Euro, please contact Rebecca for the exchange rate and Euro bank account details.
For payment in CASH on the day - please email written confirmation to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it that you wish to pay on the day.

Provisional Programme

DAY 1: Tuesday 27 September
Time	Facilitator			Practitioners sessions		Developers sessions
10.00 – 10.30				Coffee and registration
10.30 – 11.00	BvdW			Welcome, introductions, housekeeping, overview of aims, sessions & structure (wiki and github)
11.00 – 11.30	WK			Introduction to collection issues and articulating requirements
11.30 – 12.30	All CO All Dev			Collection owners presentations: outline content and issues Developers presentations: interests and technologies
12.30 – 13.15				Lunch
13.15 – 14.00				Pair/Group CO & Devs: discuss collection issues in further detail, record on flipcharts and feedback to the group
14.00 – 14.30	BvdW			Creating requirements and use cases		Brainstorming (tools) Hacking
14.30 – 15.30	BvdW, KA, WK			Break out groups: requirements and use case workshops
15.30 – 15.45				Coffee break
15.45 – 16.00	BvdW, KA, WK			Write-up session: populate wiki with collections outlines, issues and requirements		Hacking
16.00 – 16.15				Check in: CO and Devs to refocus hacking
16.15 – 16.45				Devs and COs feedback to the group
19.00				Dinner
DAY 2: Wednesday 28 September
09.00 – 09.15			Coffee
09.15 – 09.45			Check in: CO and Dev. Document on wiki
09.45 – 10.45		AJ	Planets one year on: OPF and SCAPE		Hacking
10.45 – 11.00			Coffee
11.00 – 12.15		TBC	Plato demo and requirements sessions		Hacking
12.15 – 13.15			Lunch
13.15 – 14.30		TBC	Fido demo and requirements sessions		Hacking
14.30 – 15.30		TBC	(Taverna/Curators Workbench?) demo and requirements session
15.30 – 15.45			Coffee
15.45 – 16.15			Check in: CO and Dev, continue write-up on wiki
16.15 – 16.45			Devs feedback to the group
16.45 – 17.30			Dev hacking
Evening			Hackathon: check availability of student accommodation/common room/wiki etc.
DAY 3: Thursday 29 September
09.00 – 09.15			Coffee
09.15 – 10.30			Check in and write-ups: CO and Devs
10.30 – 10.45			Coffee
10.45 – 12.15			Widget wish-list		Hacking
12.15 – 13.15			Lunch
13.15 – 14.15			Training / demo session??		Hacking
14.15 – 15.00			Check in: CO and Dev
15.00 – 15.15			Coffee
15.15 – 16.00			Evaluation and awards

Tuesday evening dinner will be held at the Italian fine dining restaurant LE LANGHE, York.

Following the event on Twitter

Participants will be encouraged to tweet using the #dp_hackathon hashtag to create a live twitter feed from the event.