User:Flanagan Institute Applicant/sandbox

FIRST DRAFT IN PROGRESS - 10/23/21

Digital obsolescence
Digital obsolescence is the risk of data loss because of inabilities to access digital assets, due to the hardware or software required for information retrieval being repeatedly replaced by newer devices and systems, resulting in increasingly incompatible formats. While the threat of an eventual "digital dark age" (where large swaths of important cultural and intellectual information stored on archaic formats becomes irretrievably lost) was initially met with little concern in the 1990s, modern digital preservation efforts in the information and archival science fields include protocols and strategies such as data migration, technical audits, and the salvage and emulation of antique hardware and software address digital obsolescence and limiting the potential damage to long-term information access.

Background
Four types of digital obsolescence exist in the realm of hardware and software access: functional obsolescence X; postponement obsolescence X; systemic obsolescence X; and technical obsolescence x.

Hardware
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Software
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Prevention strategies
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