Birds of a Feather

Section 1.5 of the OAIS Reference Model includes an item 'standard(s) for accreditation of archives', reflecting the long-standing demand for a standard against which Repositories of digital information may be audited and on which an international accreditation and certification process may be based.

Following the publication of the TRAC, nestor and DRAMBORA tools, this working group, led by David Giaretta, is attempting to produce an ISO standard upon which a full audit and certification of digital repositories can be based.

The aim will be to take this work into ISO in the same way as the OAIS Reference Model (ISO 14721), namely via ISO TC20/SC13, of which the working arm is the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS).

The first step required by CCSDS procedures is the creation of a Birds of a Feather (BOF) group in order to judge the level of effort which is likely to be available for the writing of this standard. If, as seems likely, there is adequate support then a CCSDS Working Group will be created.

The subsequent steps will be, as was done with the OAIS Reference Model, the setting up of open international workshops to debate and edit the document which will be submitted via CCSDS into ISO, with full open international review.

Membership of this group is self-nominating, and a wide range of expertise is available. Minutes of the discussions and intermediate drafts and working papers are available for public scrutiny and comment from the Digital Repository Audit and Certification Wiki.

The DCC is funded by

Joint Information Systems Committee