Digitally Signed Records – Friend or Foe?

Long-term preservation of digitally signed records may be a challenging task. Digital signatures expire and digital certificates may be revoked, thus influencing the trustworthiness of archived digital records. The authors firstly explain the problems and then proceed to a description of the planned research. The research will be conducted on a sample of digitally signed and archived electronic forms stored in the PDF file format, originating from the period from 2006 to 2009

Best Archival Practice in the Regulation of Medicines : Work on the Guidelines for Agencies for Medicinal Products

This paper announces the beginning of the work on the standardization of filing of electronic medicinal dossiers in agencies for medicinal products. Medicinal products electronic dossiers have to be preserved for the long-term because of the requirements for protection of patients’ safety and standardization of archiving procedures

Development of Health Care e-Services in the European Union

Development and implementation of e-services has become a common practice of state and public administrations in the developed countries around the world since the usage of information and communication technologies has enabled a faster processing of user applications and more efficient functioning of the service. This paper analyses the level of development of e-services in health care systems of eight European countries, both in terms of safety and reliability from the perspective of end users, i.e. citizens. Furthermore, the concept of trust in eservices based on the availability of information on the Internet on applied technological solutions, storage and data protection and their availability is considered. Implementation of services like e-health records and e-prescriptions requires a well-developed strategy and a very transparent way of their functioning because of the sensitive nature of health data. For this study official websites of the services were searched through, as were other sources on the Internet. The research results indicate a lack of certain key information, especially those related to data storage, their protection and long-term preservation

Long-term Preservation of Validity of Electronically Signed Records

The authors explain the context in which electronic records are being preserved. They explain the concept of authentic electronic records and proceed with the analysis of the technologies supporting trust in electronic records. They start by explaining the Public Key Infrastructure as the requirement for electronic signatures, digital certificates, the concept of non-repudiation, trusted archive service, timestamps and trusted digital timestamping. Further, they analyse formats of electronic signatures – XMLDSig, XAdES, CAdES, PAdES – and their possible influence on the long-term preservation of validity of electronically signed records. The authors conclude that although strict requirements of certain types of electronic signatures can ensure authenticity, integrity and non-repudiation of preserved records, they will still require preservation action on the level of medium and files

Progress and diversity – new paradigm of development

Cultural diversity is important feature of humankind. Globalisation is latest incarnation of imperialism. Technological progress tends to replicate exact copies, instead to manufacture original functional solutions. In order to keep power, information society standardises world at it’s own image. Homogenization of world shifts balance between humankind and nature. Mankind is at unique spot in it’s history, not only as a cultural, but also as a biological being. Extinction of wildlife and extinction of languages are two faces of the same process. Technological progress focuses on narrow aspect of the world, while polluting all the others. We can separate technological progress from development. Technological progress is nomadic, and it’s property is constant expansion on new ‘feeding grounds’. Sustainable development is more evolutive, and focused on expansion in different niches of the same environment. Technology tends to make world standardized and easy to control, while neglecting it’s chaotic behaviour tendencies. From time of industrialization onwards the human impact on the Earth grew, and now is considerable factor of disbalance. Intellect is a limited problem solver. Digital divide is a great problem. While everyone is allegedly invited, to actively participate in the life of information society one must have infrastructure within reach, and some resources to either bid or use while participating. Equal standards in different contexts bring social stratification. Paradoxicaly, the greater the homogenization, the greater the social differences

Planning and Designing of Digital Archival Information Systems

Digital archival information systems can be planned and designed by following the most prominent records management methodologies like ISO 15489, related standards and DIRKS, or by following project management approach. Project management approach means planning and designing of digital archival information system as a cost and time-bound project and performing monitoring and evaluation activities in these perimeters. This approach can be done by following different project management methodologies like PRINCE2 or Project Cycle Management. The aim of this article is to explain these available options, to compare them and to make recommendations based on assessment of capabilities of an organisation in which the potential digital archival information system is to be planned and designed. Project cycle management is suitable methodology for organisations in which digital archive developers do not have sufficient administrative capabilities or enough staff with technical know-how to develop digital archive without outsourced technical assistance, but are allowed to apply for European financial aid, such as IPA or other funds in the future

Proposing the Model for Croatian Remote Access Safe Center for Statistical Microdata

The data collected in National Statistical Offices (NSOs) present a valuable source for the research community. These data, when put to some secondary analyses, bring new benefits for society. The growing need for researchers’ easy access to publicly funded data is recognised in the European Statistical System (ESS). There are on-going efforts for establishment of pan-European network for Remote Access (RA) to Microdata in official statistics and there are several projects concerned with these issues coming along. In this research paper the authors will explore the current state of establishment of infrastructure for researchers’ RA to statistical microdata in ESS and they will propose a model for development of infrastructure for researchers’ RA to statistical microdata in Croatia with the aim of integrating the Croatian system for RA to statistical microdata in the currently developing ESS’s infrastructure for the same purpose

Progress and Diversitiy - New Paradigm of Development

Cultural diversity is important feature of humankind. Globalisation is latest incarnation of imperialism. Technological progress tends to replicate exact copies, instead to manufacture original functional solutions. In order to keep power, information society standardises world at it’s own image. Homogenization of world shifts balance between humankind and nature. Mankind is at unique spot in it’s history, not only as a cultural, but also as a biological being. Extinction of wildlife and extinction of languages are two faces of the same process. Technological progress focuses on narrow aspect of the world, while polluting all the others. We can separate technological progress from development. Technological progress is nomadic, and it’s property is constant expansion on new ‘feeding grounds’. Sustainable development is more evolutive, and focused on expansion in different niches of the same environment. Technology tends to make world standardized and easy to control, while neglecting it’s chaotic behaviour tendencies. From time of industrialization onwards the human impact on the Earth grew, and now is considerable factor of disbalance. Intellect is a limited problem solver. Digital divide is a great problem. While everyone is allegedly invited, to actively participate in the life of information society one must have infrastructure within reach, and some resources to either bid or use while participating. Equal standards in different contexts bring social stratification. Paradoxicaly, the greater the homogenization, the greater the social differences

Usage of Virtualization Technologies in Long-Term Preservation of Integrity and Accessibility of Digital Data

The concept of virtualization making a transition from expensive hardware systems over to the affordable software field, capabilities that modern virtualization environments allow are becoming multidimensional and not many software designers can allow their applications not to include some type of virtualization system compatibility. Many applications allow virtualization systems to utilize them in such a manner that the performance is increased rather than hindered, and the level of collaboration among the users to be increased. Distribution of information, resources as well as entire operating environments can be very successfully and appropriately applied and used in systems for maintaining authenticity and preserving long term usability of data. The authors analyse requirements and suggest some initial high-level architectural solutions for the users of virtualization in the long term preservation process

Long-term Inactive Data Retention through Tape Storage Technology

Increasingly the need to retain digital documents indefinitely for legal, administrative or historical purposes is simply leading to a “save everything forever” approach. The authors argue that due to the technological reasons it is much easier to preserve large amount of documents in the electronic than in the paper form. Thus the selection procedures tend to be less restrictive than they used to be. Nevertheless, for most organizations it would be impossible to sustain this data growth forever. Archives, libraries, museums, institutions holding cultural heritage, as well as other companies and firms, are implementing solutions for creating digital archives, digital libraries, digital repositories and other types of storage systems aiming at long-term preservation of digital materials. Most of the data held in such systems are inactive for a long time, i.e. only a small set of data is frequently retrieved. Therefore, due to the specific needs of every organization, the storage planning process and the technology that is going to be used for storage and long-term preservation requires individual approach. The focus of this paper is on the retention of the long-term inactive data through tape storage technology. The authors will discuss current state of the art tape storage capabilities, and their advantages and disadvantages as a long-term storage and preservation solution