Greetings Colleagues,
Welcome to 2020!
We hope that you all enjoyed the winter holidays and a peaceful transition
to the New Year.
As we look to the year ahead, we are thrilled to share a sampling of
Software Preservation Network activities, accomplishments, and resources
from 2019. Click here
<https://www.softwarepreservationnetwork.org/blog/spn-2019-highlights/> to
read these highlights on our website, or continue reading below:
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In February, the Paris Call for Software Source Code as Heritage for
Sustainable Development
<https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000366715.locale=fr> was
released. Kendra Albert (Harvard Cyberlaw Clinic) represented the Software
Preservation Network in the expert group that wrote The Call.
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From March through May The SPN Steering Committee undertook the task of
analyzing and revising SPN’s strategic goals. Dianne Dietrich (Cornell
University) and Nancy McGovern (MIT) published a blog post about the
process and the results.
<https://www.softwarepreservationnetwork.org/blog/crafting-community-goals/>
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In April, we released recordings and transcripts for all 7 episodes of
the Legal Tools for Software Preservation Webinar Series
<http://bit.ly/legal-tools-webinars>. The series covered workflows,
international implications, and so much more!
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In July, EaaSI <https://www.softwarepreservationnetwork.org/eaasi/>
released the Public Sandbox featuring operating systems and software from
over 20 years of OSS development! Countless users have since played,
tested, and provided feedback. We invite you to explore the EaaSI Sandbox
<http://bit.ly/eaasi-sandbox> for yourself. Stay tuned in early 2020
for the release of all four webinars in the Intro to EaaSI Webinar series,
which ran from July - October. Topics included
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July: “Why EaaSI? A System Overview?”
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August: “Legal and Institutional Policy Framework for EaaSI”
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September: “EaaSI Metadata Model and Wikidata”
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October: “EaaSI Configuration Workflows”
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From July to August, we had the privilege of sharing software
preservation stories from our community. In a series of 5 blog posts, the
following members spoke about their programs, their accomplishments, and
their challenges:
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Vicky Steeves at NYU <http://bit.ly/spn-mp-nyu> described several
exciting projects, including Saving Data Journalism, Enhancing
Services to
Preserve New Forms of Scholarship, and Investigating and Archiving the
Scholarly Git Experience.
-
Joe Carrano at MIT <http://bit.ly/spn-mp-mit> dug into the rewards,
challenges, questions, and conundrums of software preservation.
-
Sophia Lafferty-Hess at Duke University
<http://bit.ly/spn-member-profile-duke> described what it looks like
to get a software preservation program off the ground and how collective
action across departments and institutions built their capacity for
this work.
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Finally, Chip German and Sherry Lake at the University of Virginia
<http://bit.ly/spn-member-profile-uva> discussed the form and
function of UVA's software preservation program, including their
involvement with both FCoP and EaaSI.
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Beginning in September, we were delighted to kick off the FCoP Cohort
Reflections blog series. The following cohort members reflected on their
experience thus far with the "Fostering Communities of Practice" project:
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Jonathan Farbowitz at the Guggenheim
<http://bit.ly/fcop-reflections-guggenheim-1> wrote about the range
of technology used in the museum's computer-based artworks, disk imaging
workflows, and metadata cataloging for hardware and software.
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Cynde Moya at Living Computers <http://bit.ly/fcop-reflections-lcml-1>
reflected on emulating the “Middle Ages” of computing over
regular internet
speeds, testing disk images with EaaSI, and working with metadata for
software and emulation environments.
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Wendy Hagenmaier and Maura Gerke from Georgia Tech
<http://bit.ly/fcop-reflections-gt-1> characterized their work with
retroTECH as “skunkworks in the library,” building bridges
between data and
metadata silos, and illuminating the people at the heart of
Georgia Tech’s
technological pasts.
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Tracy Popp at the University of Illinois
<http://bit.ly/fcop-reflections-illinois-1> wrote about emulating
proprietary digital audio and music notation software, local
digital format
registry, and formalizing and scaling software curation workflows.
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Monique Lassere at the University of Arizona
<https://www.softwarepreservationnetwork.org/blog/fcop-cohort-reflections-university-of-arizona/>
described preserving and providing access to software as a “jigsaw
puzzle”putting each piece in place in order to get a working
picture of the
objective and working collectively to pool resources and knowledge so it
gets easier over time.
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*Also in Se*ptember, the Software Preservation Network joined an amicus
brief filed with the US Supreme Court in a case related to copyright &
state sovereign immunity! For more, hear from SPN’s Law & Policy Advisor,
Brandon Butler, about why this case matters for software preservation
<http://bit.ly/spn-joins-amicus-brief>.
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In October, SPN was honored to receive the 2019 National Digital
Stewardship Alliance Organizational Innovation Award
<https://ndsa.org/2019/10/16/ndsa-announces-winners-of-2019-innovation-awards.html>
for the work of our affiliated projects (Code of Best Practices for Fair
Use in Software Preservation and EaaSI, in particular) and critical
emphasis on issues of community engagement and organizational
sustainability. According to the NDSA Awards Committee: “This work
provides an extremely useful case study to the stewardship community of the
importance of thoughtful and iterative self-reflection and refinement of
organizational strategies, goals, processes, and initiatives to ensure the
continued relevance, value, and persistence of programmatic efforts. SPN
offers a model for digital stewardship that combines steadfast vision with
flexibility and an emphasis on the evolving needs of the organization’s
constituents.”
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In December, SPN assisted with the design and release the Copyright
Guide for Scientific Software
<https://zenodo.org/record/3581326#.XhwT8EdKiiM> developed by the
Harvard Cyberlaw Clinic and the Harvard | Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics. Read, Download, Share!
-
Also, check out the December blog post by Michael Olson at Stanford
University Libraries
<https://www.softwarepreservationnetwork.org/blog/emulating-the-international-monetary-fund-government-finance-statistics-cd-roms/>,
the first in a series in which EaaSI node teams reflect on the first year
of the EaaSI Network.
If you would like to explore the inputs and outputs of our work, you can
join our public forum
<https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/software-preservation-network>,
subscribe
to our newsletter
<https://us13.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=299460903c5acd28e01011bfe&id=868297ba30>,
or check-in periodically on our website
<https://www.softwarepreservationnetwork.org/>. We’d love to hear from you!
And don’t forget, the SPN Quarterly Community Forum is open to all and the
next Forum is scheduled for March 2020. Join the list
<https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/software-preservation-network> to
receive call-in information.
Sincerest thanks for reading!
Yours in Software Preservation,
Jessica Meyerson
--
*Jessica Meyerson*
Director for Research & Strategy | Educopia Institute <http://educopia.org/>
Software Preservation Network <https://softwarepreservationnetwork.org>
The Maintainers <http://themaintainers.org/>
Working from Austin, TX
[log in to unmask] | 512-864-4575
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