Long term preservation of digital content

Rapid changes in technology make preservation of digital content a challenge. Taking into account the huge amount of data to be filed, the amount of time to accomplish with this task and more over the period of time we need to store such information, we have to value objectively a problem up till now widely underestimated and that is the conservation for long periods of time of digital information. This subject takes us to consider two aspects, the first is technological obsolescence and the second the 'temporary instinct' of the so-called 'permanent supports'. The biological clock of ICT beats smaller time slices compared to those considered worldwide in the field of cultural heritage. Digital formats becomes suddenly obsolete and disappear. An extraordinarily long-lived solution, such as the PC/DOS in great favour for over twenty years, represents a short-lived apparition if compared to the time spent in state owned archives. Computer systems are aging, media on which information is stored are disintegrating, the magnetic technology diskette survives without problems for thousands of hours but not enough to be considered 'permanent' for those aims. Which are the long-term implications if we rely on current digital technology to preserve our cultural memory? Long term preservation of digital archives is a issue not only for cultural content but even for e-government and social services. (May 2004)