graffiti from the digital era

We are generating a lot of documents and content. What about the protection and ability to access this content in 200 years? What are the long-term implications if we rely on current digital technology to preserve our cultural memory? Digital information in any form (documents, archives, music, movies, art,...) is at risk to be lost forever. It is the rapid change in technology that make preservation of digital content a challenge. 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, making data inaccessible. 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. Long-term preservation of digital content and archives is a problem up till now widely underestimated and remains a big challenge in the era of the Information Society – not only for cultural content but even for e-government and social services. The MEDICI Framework promotes the use of ICT and new technology in the field of culture, education and cultural heritage.