title: RETHINKING DIGITAL PRESERVATION: Conceptual Foundations
creators: Stephen Abrams
abstract: In support of a multi-year initiative to revitalize its core digital preservation infrastructure, the Harvard Library is engaged in an open-ended exploration of an ideal system solution.  The individual components of that ideal cohere into abstract functional and informational reference models, which act as aspirational  benchmarks for requirements and subsequent procurement and deployment activities.  The models are  derived through the logical refinement of a small set of high-level axiomatic principles.  These reflect a conceptualization of digital preservation as an inherently communicative enterprise with an ultimate goal of complementing the persistence of authentic digital information objects with that of opportunities for legitimate information experiences.
keywords: abductive inference abstract reference model communicology finite state machine information experience