Researcher in the Protage project at Luleå University of Technology, Centre for long term digital preservation. The European FP7 Research Programme funded PROTAGE explored the use of intelligent agents to automate tasks in long-term digital preservation, reducing the need for extensive human intervention. Running from November 2007 to October 2010, the project brought together seven partners from six European countries:

• National Archives of Sweden
• Luleå University of Technology (Sweden)
• National Archives of Estonia
• Fraunhofer Gesellschaft (Germany)
• University of Bradford (UK)
• EASY Innova SL (Spain)
• Giunti Labs Srl (Italy)

The project’s goal was to develop flexible and extensible agent-based tools and services to simplify and automate the preservation of digital objects, making the process more accessible and cost-effective for end users. A key development was an agent designed to appraise personal digital files, illustrating the potential of agent technology in managing and preserving digital content over extended periods.

For Protage, I took part in preparing D1.2: Functional Requirements Specification. This deliverable specifies how the PROTAGE system should affect the substance of stakeholders, expressed as requirements organised in functional areas.  More specifically, I was responsible for mapping out requirements specifications for monitoring. The purpose of monitoring is to ensure that digital records can be correctly dealt with, namely, either being transferred to the National Archives and being further archived for long-term preservation or being completely destroyed. Specifically, monitoring is two-fold: a) monitoring for content creation at the agencies, and b) monitoring for digital preservation at the National Archives.