Re: [ARSCLIST] Fwd: How Long Do You Want Digital Storage Media to Last?

[Allinaday@xxxxxxx]

Dear colleagues,
Although I am a documentary filmmaker of 40 years and  these days, regularly
deal with my own archives as well as the archives of other  "ancient" film
makers, I am also involved as the leader of an unnamed public  company's efforts
to create a digitizing and preservation system for film and  video and audio
that will allow them to sell information videos and audios by  the thousands
and tens of thousands.  It is a thrilling project.

I am convinced that content has no end to its valuable life.  People  keep
coming up with new uses for content. My early films, made by me when I was  in
my early 20s, which I thought would have no value in the long-term future,
continue to be as popular as my latest documentaries.

Content must not only be preserved essentially forever, but it must be
preserved in a fashion that allows it to be changed as new technologies  develop.
Analog of course was simple for this process.  Digital is  more complicated.

Storing things with SDI is impossible for most.  Too much  memory.  Some form
of compression for audio and for video is clearly  required.  We have tested
every form of compression to see which ones  actually do the least damage to
the original material as it is being  digitized.  I am happy to share this
information with anyone who e-mails  me.

It is interesting to note that my very first film, made in 1963 for  National
Educational Television when I was 20 years old, titled Music Makers of  the
Blue Ridge, a combination of wonderful bluegrass musicians and the off the
record conversations that they had, is of great interest to the Smithsonian and
other music archive libraries and museums.  What most interests the
Smithsonian is the talk that I recorded.  The stories.  The stuff that  looked like it
would not be as valuable as the music.  History and time  have proved that
casually spoken words (and those not so casually spoken as  well) are of enormous
value to future generations.
David Hoffman
www.thehoffmancollection.com