From Hammurabi Codex to Rosetta Stone Long term preservation of digital archives

There is an enormous “Damocles’ sword” hanged up over our recent past. Archives, information, artefacts, multimedia data, interactive installations but even completely different object such as cars or games will disappear or became unusable in a “short” period of time. 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 safely store such information in order to accomplish the function of “archive”, 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. In addition ICT and namely electronic devices are every day more deeply integrated in the core of devices and goods (ABS, ESP, GPS) event artefacts are more often based on PCs, just think about interactive installations or namely computer art. 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 and archives. Digital formats become 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, and the magnetic technology diskette survives without problems for thousands of hours but not enough to be considered 'permanent' for those aims. What are the long-term implications if we rely on current digital technology to preserve our cultural memory? Long term preservation of digital archives is an issue not only for cultural content but even for e-government and social services. Electronic devices are disappearing because some key components are no more available on the shelf so the only chance is update the devices if possible or have a look at vintage market, if any.