The project to perform digital preservation on the PAW/DOC collection (PawdocDP) started at the beginning of 2017 with myself and four other participants: Matt Fox-Wilson (Ambient Design), Ross Spencer and Jan Hutar (Archives New Zealand ), and Nicolaie Constantinescu (Kosson). We have exchanged introductory emails (see below), and the team is now reading background material to get up to speed with what the collection is and what state it is in. We aim to hold a screen sharing conference call in March to demonstrate and explore the digital collection and its supporting systems. The introductory texts sent by each member of the team are shown below.
From: Paul Wilson [mailto:pwilsonofc@btinternet.com] Saturday, 14 January 2017 12:15 a.m.
Hello Ross, Jan, Nicolaie and Matt. Very pleased to have you all on board at the start of this project undertaking Digital Preservation on the pawdoc collection (PawdocDP). To give us all some background on each other, I suggest you reply-to-all to this email with a brief intro about yourself. My intro is below. I’m a retired computer consultant living in Lavendon between Northampton and Bedford in the UK. I got a degree in Ergonomics from Loughborough University in 1972 and got my first job with Kodak where I first started working on the application of computers. In 1978, I joined the UK’s National Computing Centre where I investigated best practice in Office Automation – that’s when the pawdoc collection came into being. I then spent 28 years with Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) as, first, a computer consultant, and then as a Bid Manager for IT outsourcing deals. During my professional career I’ve been particularly involved in Office Systems, Requirements Analysis, Process Definition, Workflow Technology, HCI, CSCW, and Architecture Definition and Management. I play golf, and collect stamps and first edition books. My study window looks out on a side road with open fields beyond and 7 wind turbines in the far distance.
From: Constantinescu Nicolaie <kosson@gmail.com> 16 Jan at 7:25 AM
Hello! I’m an information architect for a library and information science community online – kosson.ro and a private enterprise manager. I have been involved with building useful content for all parties from my country that are interested in digital practices and resources preservation since over 10 years now. Right now I’m toiling on a JavaScript manual in Romanian needed so much for a solid foundation that will be followed by a series of data management for librarians. My languages is JavaScript and the Web APIs. Part of my time is dedicated now to writing essential learning materials and advocating for Open Access in Romania.
From: Ross Spencer < Ross.Spencer@dia.govt.nz> Monday, 16 January 2017 7:34 a.m.
Hello everyone! Thank you Paul. I am a digital preservation analyst at Archives New Zealand. My background is in software engineering and digital humanities. I have worked at Archives New Zealand for three years, and before then, The National Archives, UK. My primary interests are developing tools for others to use to analyse and sentence digital records within an archival context. I release open source tools on GitHub. My languages are Python and Golang, with a modern day preference for Golang because of its easy portability across platforms without the need to run an interpreter. Outside of work I’m still a programmer, but, I’m also a cyclist. Interested in movies and music. I’m also attempting to learn French – but I have been attempting that endeavour for a long long time now!
From: Jan Hutar <Jan.Hutar@dia.govt.nz> 17 Jan at 11:33 PM
Hi all, Similarly to Ross I am a digital preservation analyst at Archives New Zealand, same role, different focus as you would expect. My background is classic archival science and then libraries. Before joining Archives NZ in February 2012 I was at the National Library of the Czech Republic in Prague, managing the Digital preservation team there for 5 years. I have got a PhD, my dissertation was about metadata for digitisation and digital preservation, the proposed metadata standard and schema is being used across Czech republic libraries since 2012. My main focus at Archives NZ is keeping our digital preservation system in shape, managing the data in it, getting data in and dealing with all sorts of digital preservation problems. Also digital preservation related policies. Mountain biking is my thing.
From: Matthew Fox-Wilson <ambientmatt@me.com> 22 Jan at 9:52 AM
Hi everyone, Sorry for the slow introduction! My exact job is sort of hard to describe but technically I’m the director/owner of a software development company here in New Zealand specialising in creative software for the consumer / prosumer market. My main focus here is on application architecture and UI design, but I’m also responsible for coding application structure and front end systems for our products. We’ve been in operation since 2001 but before then I’ve worked for a variety of companies in NZ and remotely for the US on consumer and pro-level graphics software, and consulted on a variety of projects relating to data sorting and natural methods for presentation, hence my interest in this project. When I’m coding I’m mainly old-school, focused primarily on C++ with a bit of Objective C, for Windows, MacOS, and iOS. Outside work I enjoy trying to recover from work, which mainly takes the form of gym, running, and a sword based martial art.