title: EAASI PRESERVATION OF MOBILE APPLICATIONS: Progress with the long-term preservation of access to mobile applications using the EaaSI platform
creators: Euan Cochrane Jurek Oberhauser Rafael Gieschke
abstract: Mobile devices have revolutionized computing and democratized access to it. The applications we use on our mobile devices play a critical role in shaping our online experiences, our culture, our politics, and our access to information. Mobile applications are also widely used for data gathering and asset management in many domains from scientific research to infrastructure maintenance. With such a wide-reaching impact it is critical that the preservation community is able to maintain access to mobile applications for future generations. In this short paper we outline progress in using the Emulation as a Service Infrastructure (EaaSI) platform to run obsolete versions of the Android operating system in virtualization and emulation in order to maintain access to mobile applications. We also detail the current limitations of virtualizing and emulating mobile devices and provide a list of future challenges to address as we move forwards with ensuring long-term access to this essential part of our history.
keywords: emulation mobile apps applications