Chronopolis: Federated Digital Preservation Across Space and Time

	This diagram illustrates the multiple facets of the proposed Chronopolis project. Activities span production adminstration and policy, R&D, and a Digital Library Facility. This is underpinned by a collection of technologies and services required to deliver a digital preservation system.

There is a critical and growing need to organize, preserve, and make accessible the increasing number of digital holdings that represent vital intellectual capital, much of which is precious and irreplaceable. Chronopolis is a strategic collaboration among the San Diego Supercomputing Center (SDSC), NCAR/CISL, the University of California Library System, and the University of Maryland, and it is aimed at developing national-scale digital preservation infrastructure that has the potential to serve the broad science and engineering community. This new effort encompasses studying viable models and effective systems that facilitate establishing standard reference datasets, preserving collections that evolve over time, and establishing preservation resources "of last resort" for digital assets that might become lost. Digital collections that must persist for 100 or more years are one important focus of this activity. A special synthesis of relationships and capabilities are required to approach this problem: scientists, librarians, curators, computer scientists, and long-term cyberinfrastructure. The problem spans the gamut of academic scientific disciplines, historical collections, and digital library content.

During FY 2006, we made substantial progress on the plans outlined in CISL's FY 2005 Annual Report. CISL contributed to the formation of the Chronopolis Consortium and continued to develop relationships and explore funding pathways, including joining in a Letter of Intent to The National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP). We executed a Memo of Understanding with SDSC that provides a mechanism and resources to begin the process of geographic replication of critical datasets at each other's sites, an initial step in the direction of a more comprehensive preservation infrastructure. In support of this work, we integrated some of the core Chronopolis software infrastructure on our computational systems. CISL staff also contributed to an NSF-funded workshop on Chronopolis infrastructure and a workshop on New Collaborative Relationships for Digital Data, jointly sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Association of Research Libraries.

In FY 2007, we will deploy additional core Chronopolis infrastructure on our computational systems and on the TeraGrid, integrating and testing end-to-end capabilities that include archival functions on the NCAR MSS. We will place several unique datasets into the preservation environment for geographic replication, with an emphasis on unique atmospheric and solar observations. We expect to continue our activities in pursuit of additional support for this important project, along with a continued focus on advocacy and outreach.

CISL is engaging in Chronopolis as an important strategic thrust, supporting it through a combination of NSF Core funding and NCAR's Cyberinfrastructure Strategic Initiative.