This month the Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to welcome Artefactual to its international Supporter Program. The company behind Archivematica and AtoM, Artefactual Systems Inc. works together with cultural heritage organisations, providing their expertise and technology in the domains of digital archiving and digital preservation. With the goal of advancing the capacity of heritage institutions to preserve and provide access to the cultural assets of the world, Canada-based Artefactual develops free and open-source software and promotes open standards as the best means of enabling this goal.
“As the Coalition diversifies and expands globally, it is essential that we can demonstrate the diversity and breadth of the digital preservation marketplace too,” explains Executive Director of the DPC, William Kilbride. “I am, therefore, delighted to welcome Artefactual to the DPC Supporter Program and look forward to learning more about their open-source and open knowledge approach, which I am sure will enable DPC members to participate in and benefit from new and existing open initiatives.”
The DPC Supporter Program provides an environment where solution providers and members can collaborate. The Program’s events and activities offer opportunities for greater insight into the requirements of members. The DPC Supporter Program of activities delivers exciting opportunities, activities and benefits designed to enable a positive dialogue between members and solution providers on ‘neutral’ ground.
“Artefactual wants to learn about the experiences of DPC members,’ explains Justin Simpson, Managing Director of Artefactual. “We hope to find a forum to share our experiences with others and, ultimately, we hope to help advance the capacity for digital preservation globally. Supporting the DPC is an ideal means to that end.”
“We have a great respect for the mission and work of the DPC,” he continues. “Artefactual is a company that provides digital preservation services to cultural heritage organisations around the world. As such we can survive only when the need for digital preservation is understood, the capacity is developed, and the efforts are funded. We have benefitted from the past work of the DPC, and now it is time for us to pay some of that back, by becoming a DPC Supporter.”
Artefactual’s commitment to understanding the digital preservation need will begin immediately with an addition to the Digital Preservation Futures Webinar Series on 12th June 1500 – 1600 BST, and attendance at the Community Forum in Dublin on 2nd July.
DPC Members, find out more and register for the webinar on 12th June
As with previous episodes, the webinar will showcase Artefactual’s product and service offerings before the DPC's Paul Wheatley challenges the team to respond on a series of themes which represent DPC member concerns. This series aims to present - in the context of these member concerns - a portion of the digital preservation marketplace offerings, in order to help identify community needs.
Any organization which provides products or services to the digital preservation community may apply for DPC Supporter status and in return will be invited to join and extend the activities of the Coalition. Supporters also enjoy early access to draft outlines of DPC Technology Watch Reports and other published output, an invitation to an annual trade fair and horizon scanning meeting with DPC members, as well as the opportunity to showcase products and services through webinars and relevant briefing days.
All funds raised by the Supporter Program will be used in first instance to support grants to members for training and workforce development as well as the Annual Student conference, to subsidize training workshops or to sponsor DPC membership for charities and not-for-profits.
The not-for-profit DPC is an international advocate for digital preservation, helping members around the world to deliver resilient long-term access to digital content and services through community engagement, targeted advocacy work, training and workforce development, capacity building, good practice and standards, and through good management and governance. Its vision is a secure digital legacy.