THE IMPORTANCE OF TRUST IN DISTRIBUTED  DIGITAL PRESERVATION: A CASE STUDY FROM THE  METAARCHIVE COOPERATIVE
Distributed digital preservation is a maturing and
appealing solution to the pressing problem of ensuring
the survivability of digital content. Like all other digital
preservation efforts, distributed digital preservation
solutions must communicate trust to their Designated
Communities as they continue to mature. The following
paper discusses the importance of establishing this trust,
retraces the development of TRAC as a reliable tool for
evaluating trustworthy repositories, and details the
process of the MetaArchive Cooperative’s application of
TRAC to its distributed digital preservation solution.
This process revealed that the current metrics for
gauging trust in digital preservation could be readily
applied to distributed solutions with great effect.
However, because these metrics often presume a more
centralized approach to preservation, the process also
revealed the need to apply them carefully and with great
thought. To underscore this need, three organizational
and technical comparisons are made between the
MetaArchive’s distributed preservation activities and
the more centralized model assumed by TRAC and the
OAIS Reference Model. The paper concludes with the
question as to whether distributed digital preservation
needs to be better defined within existing models such
as OAIS or through the creation of a new reference
model for distributed digital preservation.
["Schultz, Matt", "Gore, Emily B."]
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