The idea behind the service to is enable users to submit video recordings, personal genealogy records and data held on World Cat to be held in an archive. The company behind the service – NotForgotten – will guarantee that the data is held securely for up to 300 years and that security is maintained through the use of a digital ledger (blockchain).
An important consideration with the long term preservation is avoiding obsolescence when it comes to future technology and the means of accessing data. By using digital technology, transferable to different media, this risk is addressed together with consideration of ‘digital preservation’, which relates to mechanisms to ensure that ongoing, meaningful access to digital information can be achieved for as long as it is required. The archiving process is based on Library of Congress archiving and metadata standards. This requires videos and records to be transcribed and encoded, and with copies stored in two separate locations in the U.S. and on two different types of media.
Commenting on the launch, Adrienne Liebenberg, Co-Founder of NotForgotten said in communication sent to Digital Journal: “We created NotForgotten with the aim to help people capture their stories and keep them preserved for hundreds of years.”
With the service, there is no limitation as to the scale of the material selected for digital archiving, as Liebenberg explains: “Whether it’s the big experiences, the little lessons, the secret to happiness, or the advice your parents gave you, we wanted to find an easy way to save stories so generations of family can access and enjoy them for centuries to come.”
As part of the service, NotForgotten provides an app interface, with different templates. Longer-term, NotForgotten is aiming to utilize artificial intelligence to create additional knowledge and learning about humans at a time and place in history and to gain different perspectives across generations.
