[ Thanks to Jason
Greenwood for this link. ]
“Open systems software could become a key topic at December’s
World Summit on the Information Society. Many governments are
inclining towards open source platforms like Linux, and the
question of longevity of records has also arisen.“A number of governments at the recent preparatory conference
for the summit, notably Korea, say records stored in proprietary
formats such as Microsoft Word could become unreadable as new
versions of software are produced and support for the old versions
removed. They want a policy adopted of storing records in open
source formats. The US and Canada were significant dissenters from
this point of view.“Archives New Zealand has discussed the question of long-term
electronic document storage, but appears to favour a strategy of
controlled migration to newer versions of proprietary formats as
they become available rather than exploring open
alternatives…”