The Second Digital Preservation Challenge
Sponsored in part by XEROX
 

Digital Preservation Europe is delighted to announce its second 
international Digital Preservation Challenge.


About the Digital Preservation Challenge
DigitalPreservationEurope (DPE) raises awareness and improves practice in 
the management, longevity, and reuse of digital assets. To this end, DPE 
is delighted to announce the second international Digital Preservation 
Challenge. The Digital Preservation Challenge aims to promote innovation 
at all levels and will provide an insight into the range of digital 
preservation risks currently being faced by international research and 
practitioner communities.

The challenge invites participants to overcome the barriers hindering 
access to five digital objects. Each set of objects is accompanied by a 
highly abstracted scenario based on real-life situations. These scenarios 
are intended to make the challenge more accessible to participants from 
all backgrounds while not trivialising the serious nature of the digital 
preservation challenges facing society.

The first DPE Digital Preservation Challenge ran from 25 May to 15 July 
2007, Miguel Ferreira of the University of Minho, Portugal, who was 
awarded the first prize commented:

“The problems proposed in the challenge made me realize how diverse 
preservation scenarios can be and how difficult it is to find good sources 
of information, tools and services for carrying out preservation 
interventions. The challenge also made me realize how specific and time-
consuming preservation interventions can be and how difficult is to find 
good and general solutions applicable to all sorts of preservation 
contexts.” 

Evaluating submissions
Submissions to the second Digital Preservation Challenge will be assessed 
by a panel of international digital preservation experts and 
practitioners. The incremental scoring method the panel will use 
emphasises the thoroughness and quality of the documentation of the 
processes used to solve a challenge task rather than the overall outcome 
itself. In this respect, solutions to single tasks or sections of the 
challenge will also be considered and it may be possible for an individual 
to win the challenge even if he/she cannot ultimately render all the 
objects.  Winning submissions to the Digital Preservation Challenge will 
be published on the DPE website following the announcement of the winning 
entries.

Important dates
Opening of the Challenge: 15 January 2008
Deadline for submissions: 30 May 2008 at 4pm GMT
Announcement of winners:  ECDL  17 September 2008, Aarhus, Denmark

Awards
First Prize 3000 Euros
Second Prize 1500 Euros
Third Prize 500 Euros

To learn more about or to take part in the Digital Preservation Challenge, 
please visit http://www.digitalpreservationeurope.eu/challenge/.

Questions or comments should be sent to 
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Best wishes,

Professor Seamus Ross                        
Principal Director DigitalPreservationEurope (DPE)
HATII at the University of Glasgow
11 University Gardens
Glasgow, G12 8QQ
http://www.hatii.arts.gla.ac.uk
http://digitalpreservationeurope.eu
&
Professor Andreas Rauber
Director of DigitalPreservationEurope's Exchange Programme (DPEX)
Vienna University of Technology
Karlsplatz 13
A-1040 Vienna
http://www.tuwien.ac.at/tu_vienna/
http://digitalpreservationeurope.eu