Accessing old digital files - don't leave it too late - Online news from MSO.net's Net.Matters - July 2007

Computer software and corresponding hardware is developing at an alarming rate - this will have an impact on how we are able to access old computer files as new software cannot read old versions.  Consider the vast amount of data stored on floppy disks - PCs are no longer manufactured to read floppy disks  - files stored only 3 years ago are now illegible.  Add to this, the issue that old file formats were only read by proprietary software programs when the digital technology age began and we are facing a serious problem. 

The issue has been raised by the UK National Archives at a partnership launch with Microsoft - their chief executive, Natalie Ceeney warns that we face "losing years of critical knowledge" and head of Microsoft UK, Gordon Frazer states "unless more work is done to ensure legacy file formats can be read and edited in the future, we face a digital dark hole."

With the National Archives holding the equivalent of 580,000 encyclopaedias in varying digital formats, the task ahead is huge and they have already lost vital information because programs that once read the data are no longer available. 

Microsoft have developed a new document file format - Open XML which enables documents to be opened using software emulating older versions of a program.  The head of e-architecture at the British Library, Adam Farquhar warned that although the issue for the National Archive and libraries was on a much larger scale, the problem needed to be addressed by everyone:

"It's everybody - from small businesses to university research groups and authors and scientists.  It's a huge challenge for anyone who keeps digital information for more than 15 years because you are talking about five different technology generations."

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