1. RLG Digital Certification Task Force
Don Sawyer
2 November 2004

2. Background (from David’s Montreal report)
RLG and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) are the joint creators of this task force. Its purpose is to produce certification requirements for establishing and selecting reliable digital information repositories. This effort is part of ongoing work with the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) model, and RLG and NARA intend the results to go into the standardization process through the International Organization of Standardization (ISO) Archiving Series.

3. Team members (Montreal Report)
Bruce Ambacher, Co-Chair
National Archives and Records Administration
Kevin Ashley
University of London Computing Centre
John Berry
Internet Archive
Connie Brooks
Stanford University
Judith Cobb
OCLC
Dale Flecker
Harvard University
David Giaretta
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils, UK
Maggie Jones
Digital Preservation Coalition, UK
William LeFurgy
Library of Congress 
Julien Masanes
Bibliothèque nationale de France
Nancy McGovern
Cornell University
Don Sawyer
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Johan Steenbakkers
Koninklijke Bibliotheek
RLG staff liaison: Robin Dale
Task Force Co-Chair - RLG Program Officer

4. Main inputs
OAIS Reference Model
RLG: Trusted Digital Repositories

5. Status
Original framework, described in Montreal, being replaced by alternatives
Content was in terms of item descriptions with identified metrics/standards
Wide range of detail and overlapping issues made it difficult to make progress
Several alternative frameworks proposed
David and Don proposed an alternative more closely aligned to OAIS and, initially, more textually oriented
Current framework is OAIS and process oriented, with following major sections:
Administrative/organizational process
Ingest process
Preservation planning process
Archival Storage process
Data Management process
Access process
Members volunteered to fill out the various sections
Too soon to say how it is working, but appears to be improvement
OAIS sub-functions provide text to encourage ‘certification view’ from members
Telecon now every 2 to 3 weeks

6. Personal Thoughts
Certification wrt “preservation” and/or “performance”?
David and I proposed focus on ‘preservation’ only
Not accepted at this point - both currently in play
Migration not clearly identified topic
Potentially in ‘Administration’ from OAIS view
No clear distinction between broad applicability criteria and specializations
Believe needed for successful result

7. Backups from David’s Montreal Report, May 2004

9. Team activities
Examples of documentation that might be used as indicators of compliance
The metrics and methods that might be used to document compliance
Places that might require more detailed breakouts or specifications
Items that might be merged to simplify the process
Potential levels of compliance
Mandatory, desirable, optional levels
Relevant standards that might form the basis for certification protocols

10. Wiki
Wiki has been created to allow Team members to edit the document on-line