On May 17, 2013, at 9:51 AM, Tim McGeary wrote:

> I'm interested in starting or joining discussions about best practices for
> on-going support for digital library projects.  In particular, I'm looking
> at non-repository projects, such as projects built on applications like
> Omeka.  In the repository context, there are initiatives like APTrust and
> DPN that are addressing on-going and long term collaborative support.  But,
> as far as I know, we aren't having the same types of discussions for DL
> projects that are application driven.

If you're asking about funding issues, most of those discussions that I've
seen lump it into 'governance'.


> There is no easy answer for this, so I'm looking for discussion.
> 
>   - Should we begin considering a cooperative project that focuses on
>   emulation, where we could archive projects that emulate the system
>   environment they were built?

I know that there are projects using emulation when it'd be too expensive
to port the software (and validate / vet it).  There are some that are
are setting up VMs for new software being written, so that they can
archive the whole environment to ensure that the proper version of the 
OS, libraries, etc. are captured.

Most of the ones that I've been have been focusing on scientific
workflows, but that's likely because that's the field I'm in, so I tend
to see more of those talks at conferences than other subjects.


>   - Do we set policy that these types of projects last for as long as they
>   can, and once they break they are pulled down?

I wouldn't recommend that directly ... like anything, the stuff being
archived has a value, and if someone's willing to pay for it to be
continued, then you do it.  Maybe you just need to have a policy on
cost-recovery for when this happens.  (and then you need to look at
the various 'governance' discussions.

>   - Do we set policy that supports these projects for a certain period of
>   time and then deliver the application, files, and databases to the faculty
>   member to find their own support?

The ultimate decision might be at a higher pay grade -- you may want
to come up with the list of options, estimated costs, and have the
provost or deans decide what makes sense for the budget.

>   - Do we look for a solution like the Way Back Machine of the Internet
>   Archive to try to present some static / flat presentation of these project?

Again, it likely depends on what's being archived.  An online database
that you can search / filter / interact with would be mostly useless
as static pages.

-Joe