Digital content such as documents, presentations, spreadsheets, and audio-visual media contain precious information. The use of that information is highly dependent on computing technologies and vulnerable to the rapid rate of technology obsolescence. In order to ensure that digital information can be accessed and used in the future, it is critical to consider both the storage of content files and the computational environments within which software and content can be instantiated. Ensuring that the software remains functional and usable over a long time is a challenge that the UNESCO PERSIST Programme is set up to tackle.

In this presentation, Natasa will discuss the UNESCO PERSIST initiative and the principles on which it plans to build sustainable services for using legacy digital content and applications. Such services are important to support preservation activities, including selection, characterization, and dissemination of legacy content. I ll describe the economic roots of the problem and illustrate the technical feasibility for achieving the economy of scale, e.g., by leveraging cloud services. In collaboration with the wider community, UNESCO PERSIST aims to identify effective business models as they are key to sustaining relatively rare but critical use of legacy content and applications.