Winner of the Digital Preservation Challenge Announced: Miguel Ferreira, University of Minho, Portugal

    "The problems proposed in the Challenge made me realize how diverse preservation scenarios can be and how difficult it is to find good sources information, tools and services for carrying out preservation interventions. The challenge also made me realize how specific and time-consuming preservation interventions can be and how difficult is to find good and general solutions applicable to all sorts of preservation contexts." Miguel Ferreira

The Digital Preservation Challenge aims to promote innovation at all levels from students to researchers, and provide an insight into the range of digital preservation risks currently being faced by international research and practitioner communities. DigitalPreservationEurope's (DPE) 1st Digital Preservation Challenge ran from 25 May to 15 July 2007.

The challenge invited participants to overcome the barriers hindering access to six digital objects. Each object was accompanied by a scenario based on a real-life situation. These scenarios were intended to make the challenge more accessible to participants from all backgrounds while not trivialising the serious nature of the digital preservation challenges facing society. Submissions were encouraged from postgraduate and undergraduate students in the computing science and engineering disciplines.

Submissions to the 1st Digital Preservation Challenge were assessed by a panel of international digital preservation experts and practitioners. An incremental scoring method was developed by the panel to emphasise the value of thoroughness and high-quality documentation of the processes used to render all the object rather than the overall outcome itself.

The first digital preservation challenge attracted numerous high-quality submissions and our first prize winner, Miguel Ferreira from the University of Minho, Portugal, successfully managed to solve all six sections of the challenge. A formal announcement of the winners and an overview of the submissions was presented at ECDL in Budapest, Hungary on 18 September 2007.

The 2nd Digital Preservation Challenge will be opened in early 2008. Details will be posted shortly on the DPE website.

Questions or comments should be sent to challenge@digitalpreservationeurope.eu

Read the 1st prize submission [PDF, 3.24 MB] - http://www.digitalpreservationeurope.eu/challenge/DPC_revised.pdf

URL: http://www.digitalpreservationeurope.eu/challenge/