Digital obsolescence is the risk of data loss because of inabilities to access digital assets, due to the hardware or software required for information retrieval being repeatedly replaced by newer devices and systems, resulting in increasingly incompatible formats.Mason, S. (2018). Digital preservation at Oxford and Cambridge training programme pilot. University of Oxford. Retrieved 17 December 2021 from https://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/digitalpreservation/risks. While the threat of an eventual "digital dark age" (where large swaths of important cultural and intellectual information stored on archaic formats becomes irretrievably lost) was initially met with little concern until the 1990s, modern digital preservation efforts in the information and archival fields have implemented protocols and strategies such as data migration and technical audits, while the salvage and emulation of antiquated hardware and software address digital obsolescence to limit the potential damage to long-term information access.Deljanin, Sandra. (2012). Digital Obsolescence. INFOtheca, 13(1), 43–53. Rothenberg, J. (1999). Avoiding technological quicksand: Finding a viable technical foundation for Digital Preservation: A report to the Council on Library and Information Resources. Council on Library and Information Resources.
Background
A false sense of security persists regarding digital documents: because an infinite number of identical copies can be created from original files, many users assume that their documents have a virtually indefinite shelf life. In reality, the mediums utilized for digital information storage and access present unique preservation challenges compared to many of the physical formats traditionally handled by archives and libraries. Paper materials and printed media migrated to film-based microform, for example, can be accessible for centuries if created and maintained under ideal conditions, compared to mere decades of physical stability offered by magnetic tape and disk or optical formats. Therefore, digital media have more urgent preservation concerns than the gradual change in written or spoken language experienced with the printed word.
Little professional thought in the fields of library and archival science was directed toward the topic of digital obsolescence as the use of computerized systems grew more widespread and commonplace, but much discussion began to emerge in the 1990s. Despite this, few options were proposed as genuine alternatives to the standard method of continuously migrating data to increasingly newer storage media, employed since magnetic tape began succeeding paper punch cards as practical data storage in the 1960s and 1970s. These basic migration practices persist into the modern era of hard disk and solid-state drives as research has shown many digital storage mediums frequently last considerably shorter in the field compared to manufacturer claims or laboratory testing, leading to the facetious observation that "digital documents last forever—or five years, whichever comes first."
The causes for digital obsolescence are not always purely technical. Capitalistic accumulation and consumerism have been labeled key motivators toward digital obsolescence in society, with newly introduced products frequently assigned greater value than older products.Roedl, D. J. (2016) Making things last: Digital obsolescence and its resistance by DIY culture. (Publication No. 10151383) [Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. Digital preservation relies on the continuous maintenance and usage of hardware and software formats, which the threat of obsolescence can interfere with. Four types of digital obsolescence exist in the realm of hardware and software access:. Functional obsolescence, or the mechanical failure of a device that prevents information access, which can be the result of damage through rough handling, gradual wear from extended usage, or intentional failure through planned obsolescence; Postponement obsolescence, or intentionally upgrading some information systems within an institution, but not all of them, that is often implemented as part of a "security through obsolescence" strategy; Systemic obsolescence, or deliberate design changes made to programs and applications so that newer updates are increasingly incompatible with older versions, forcing the user to purchase newer software editions or hardware; Technical obsolescence, or the adoption of newer, more accessible technologies with the intention to replace older, often outdated software or hardware, occurring on the side of the consumer or manufacturer.
Examples of digital obsolescence Because the majority of digital information relies on two factors for curation and retrieval, it is important to separately classify how digital obsolescence impacts digital preservation through both hardware and software mediums.
Hardware
Hardware concerns are two-fold in archival and library fields: in addition to the physical storage medium of magnetic tape, optical disc, or solid-state computer memory, a separate electronic device is often required for information access. And while proper storage can help mitigate some environmental vulnerabilities to storage formats (including dust, humidity, radiation, and temperature) and extend preservation for decades, there are other inevitable endangering factors.Schüller, D. (2008). Audio and video carriers: recording principles, storage and handling, maintenance of equipment, format and equipment obsolescence (Presentation text). Training for Audiovisual Preservation in Europe (TAPE). Magnetic tape and floppy disks are vulnerable to both the deterioration of adhesive holding the magnetic data layer to its backing or the demagnetization of the data layer, commonly called "bit rot"; optical discs are specifically susceptible to physical damage to their readable surface, and to oxidation occurring between improperly sealed outer layers; a process referred to as "disc rot" or, inaccurately, "laser rot" (particularly in reference to LaserDiscs). Older forms of floating-gate MOSFET based read-only-memory storage such as (some) cartridges and (most) memory cards encounter their own form of bit rot when the charges representing individual bits of binary information dissipate beyond a certain level (called "flipping") and the data is rendered unreadable.
The operability of a format’s appropriate playback or recording device possess their own vulnerabilities. Cassette decks and disk drives rely on the functionality of precision-manufactured moving parts that are susceptible to damages caused by repetitive physical stress and foreign materials like dust and grime. Routine maintenance, calibrations, and cleaning operations can help extend the lifetime of many devices, but broken or failing parts will need repair or replacement: sourcing parts becomes more difficult and expensive as the supply stock for older machines reaches scarcity, and user technical skills grow challenged as newer machines and storage formats use less electromechanical parts and more integrated circuits and other complex components.
Only a decade after the 1970s Viking program, NASA personnel discovered that much of the mission data stored on magnetic tapes, including over 3000 unprocessed images of the Martian surface transmitted by the two Viking probes, was inaccessible due to a multitude of factors. While in possession of indecipherable notes written by long-departed or deceased programmers, the computer hardware and source code needed to correctly run the decoding software had been replaced and disposed of by the agency. Information was eventually recovered after more than a year of reverse engineering how the raw data was encoded onto the tapes, which included consulting with the original engineers of the Viking landers’ cameras and imaging hardware. NASA experienced similar issues when attempting to recover and process images from 1960s lunar orbiter missions. Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory acknowledged in 1990, following a one-year search that located a compatible data tape reader at a United States Air Force base, that a missing part might need to be rebuilt in-house if a replacement could not be sourced from computer salvage yards.
Software
Over the past several decades, there have been a number of various, once industry-standard file formats and application platforms for data, images, and text that have been repeatedly replaced and superseded by newer iterations of software formats and applications, often with increasingly greater degrees of incompatibility between each other and along their own product lines. Such incompatibilities now frequently extend to which version of the operating system is installed on the system (such as instances of Microsoft Works predating Version 4.5 being unable to run on the Windows 2000 operating system and beyond). One example of a developer cancelling an instance of planned obsolescence occurred in 2008, when Microsoft retracted intentions of an Office service package dropping support for a number of older file formats, due to the intensity of public outcry.
Systemic obsolescence in software can be exemplified by the history of the word processor WordStar. A popular option for WYSIWYG document editing on C/PM and MS-DOS operating systems during the 1980s, a delayed port to Windows 1.0 caused WordStar to lose significant market share to competitors WordPerfect and Microsoft Word by 1991. Further development of the Windows version stopped in 1994, and WordStar 7 for MS-DOS was last updated in 1999. Over time, any version of WordStar grew increasingly incompatible with modern versions of Windows beyond 3.1 to the frustration of long-devoted users, including authors William F. Buckley, Jr. and Anne Rice.
Digital obsolescence has a prominent effect on the preservation of video game history, since many older games and hardware were regarded by players as ephemeral products, due to the continuous process of computer hardware upgrading and home console generation cycles. Such cycles are often the result of both systemic and technical obsolescence. Some of the oldest computer games, like 1962's Spacewar! for the PDP-1 commercial minicomputer, were developed for hardware platforms so outdated that they are virtually nonexistent today.McDonough, J. P. (2010). Packaging videogames for long-term preservation: Integrating FRBR and the OAIS reference model. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 62(1), 171–184. Many older games of the 1960s and 1970s built for contemporary mainframe terminals and microcomputers can only be played today through software emulation. While video games and other software applications can be orphaned by their parent developers or publishing companies, the copyright issues surrounding software are a very complicated hurdle in the path of digital preservation.
One prime example of copyright issues with software were those encountered during preservation efforts for the BBC Domesday Project, a 1986 UK multimedia data collection survey that commemorated the 900th anniversary of the original Domesday Book. While the project's specially customized LaserDisc reader resulted in its own hardware-based preservation problems, the combination of one million personal copyrights belonging to participating civilians, in addition to corporate claims on the specialized computer hardware, means that publicly accessible digital preservation efforts might be stalled until 2090.
Prevention strategies