title: Preserving landmark legacy software with the Software Heritage Acquisition Process
creators: Roberto Di Cosmo Carlo Montangero Guido Scatena Laura Bussi
abstract: The source code of landmark software developed since the beginning of the
  computer era is a precious part of our cultural heritage, and needs to be
  properly rescued, curated, archived and made available to present and future
  generations. In this article, we present the Software Heritage Acquisition
  Process, that has been designed to provide detailed guidelines on how to
  perform this important task, preserving important historical information.
  
  This process has been validated extensively on several important pieces
  of software source code of historical relevance in the University of Pisa,
  in collaboration with UNESCO, and is open to all for adoption and improvement.
  
keywords: software preservation legacy software source code acquisition process