<$BlogRSDUrl$> Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant
Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant
Internet Happenings, Events and Sources


Saturday, May 15, 2004  

Virtual Remote Control: Risk Management of Web Resources
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april04/mcgovern/04mcgovern.html

Numerous Web archiving projects exist, most premised on saving copies of sites. But digital preservationists know both the strengths and the weaknesses of the Internet Archive and other similar efforts. Web sites are vulnerable due to unstable URLs, poor site management, and hacker attacks. Unlike most Web preservation projects, Cornell University Library's Virtual Remote Control (VRC) initiative is based on monitoring Web sites over time, identifying and responding to detected risk as necessary, with capture as a last resort. Cornell is building a VRC toolbox of software for cultural heritage institutions to use in managing their Web resources. It's "Virtual" because the VRC approach uses Web tools to develop baseline data models representing essential features of selected sites that enable ongoing monitoring. It's "Remote" because the resources usually reside on remote servers, not owned or managed by the institution itself. "Control" means the monitoring organization may act to protect another organization's resources by agreement or implicit consent through notification and/or action. The VRC approach utilizes six stages of risk management: identification, classification, assessment, analysis and response/implementation. Though VRC monitoring relies primarily on metadata captured from target sites and is designed to predict risks to avoid loss, the option to capture full pages means that the last known version of sites may be cached, providing a safety net for failed or failing resources.

posted by Marcus Zillman | 4:20 AM
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