Preserving Complex Digital Objects

Abstract

This collection comprises contributions from 33 authors and is based on the results of Jisc-funded Preservation of Complex Objects (POCOS) symposia, which took place in the UK in 2011 and 2012. The symposia brought together international experts on complex digital objects and aimed to review research and practice to date, point to solutions and suggest areas where more work was needed.

The last five years or so of the digital revolution have produced a proliferation of technologies. Many of them are ephemeral and involve social networking, cloud computing, online gaming or virtual art. Digital objects, simple and complex, surround us. Simple digital objects such as documents, images or e-books are fairly easy to make safe and accessible for the future generations. This is considerably more difficult with complex digital objects. For the purpose of this book, the types of complex objects have been narrowed down to simulations/visualisations, digital/software art and gaming/virtual environments. These by no means cover all types of complex objects but represent a selection of most distinct categories.