Digital Bedrock will be at the Society of American Archivists ARCHIVES*RECORDS 2024 conference in Chicago August 15-16th. Visit us at Booth No. 206 and learn why we are a unique leader in providing affordable, sustainable, and secure managed digital preservation services. If you are among the thousands of archivists and records and information professionals from around the world attending the event, we look forward to meeting you during the Expo hours on Thursday, August 15th, 5:00 pm – 6:30pm, and on Friday, August 16th, 8:30 am – 5:00 pm.
Notable and Newsworthy
Digital Bedrock Founder and CEO Linda Tadic has recently been featured in two articles. First, a SMPTE Spotlight profile highlights her leadership in the field of digital preservation, specifically regarding archiving and sustainability.
“All of these technologies require data centers to function, all of which are cooled with massive amounts of water when the globe encounters intense droughts. These data centers use hard drives and solid-state drives, both are made with rare Earth minerals, which are scarce. With millions of users involved, this has an impact on the environment. But this technology is here to stay, and that’s why industry leaders need to recognize and take responsibility for the way we use these advancements."
Linda was also interviewed by Montreal’s McGill University’s Office for Science and Society for an article on the life expectancy of physical media formats (CD, DVD, and Blu-ray discs), and the challenge to preserve information when the media that they are written on inevitably become obsolete.
CEO Linda Tadic Interviewed at NAB 2024
While attending NAB 2024, Digital Bedrock was honored to be the focus of a NAB interview conducted by the wonderful Larry Jordan.
In this short video, Founder and CEO Linda Tadic discusses the latest sustainability initiatives and explains the current conflict regarding the use of AI tools in digital preservation.
Digital Bedrock is part of the Media Tech Sustainability Series for NAB 2024
Digital Bedrock is a proud to have earned the MTSS Sustainability Booth Stamp for the 2024 NAB show. The Media Tech Sustainability Series is a collaborative non-commercial initiative with a mission to foster sustainability within the media tech sector. MTSS partners with organizations within the media tech sector that champions sustainability, innovation, and responsible practices. More info here: https://www.mtsseries.org/
Digital Bedrock at the National Association of Broadcasters Show, April 14th -17th
Digital Bedrock is headed back to NAB April 14-17 in Las Vegas. Come visit us in South Hall, SL10083, and learn why our clients consider us their trusted partner to care for their assets. Digital Bedrock can preserve everything from documents to digital film masters to NFTs.
New for NAB 2024: Our system can extract C2PA and other provenance metadata for media created using generative AI tools, which helps clients identify deep fakes or falsified content in their collections.
“The Silent Fire”: Hollywood Reporter article on digital preservation
The Hollywood Reporter (March 14th edition) published an article on the problems surrounding digital preservation of film and TV shows. CEO Linda Tadic was interviewed along with leaders in the field. The article details the preservation challenges that Linda calls "the silent fire."
CEO Linda Tadic to lead “Future-Proofing Digital Assets” Webinar, Thursday, April 4, 2024, 10:00AM PST/1:00PM – EST
Traditional storage solutions often struggle with the complex workflows and demanding requirements of digital preservation. Quobyte’s software-defined storage solution improves Digital Bedrock’s ability to manage client data prior to preservation.
This webinar will highlight the significance of advanced storage in safeguarding digital assets and showcase a real-world application in use by Digital Bedrock. CEO, Linda Tadic will explore the challenges that Digital Bedrock faced with their previous storage solution, including: bottlenecks that slowed down data processing and increased project completion times, complex configuration and maintenance requirements, and limited scalability to accommodate growing data volumes.
Participants will learn how Digital Bedrock's use of Quobyte for asset management overcame these digital archiving challenges with strategic insights and better efficiency.
More information and registration can be found here:
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/2117099173804/WN_5X5EM8C-Qi6hqK0t0hB9zw#/registration
Identifying Digital Content Created Using Generative AI
Creating content using generative AI is now a part of our lives that is here to stay. While there are occasions when content consumers are aware that AI tools were used, there are times when the source or provenance of AI-generated digital content is not transparent. This can lead to deepfakes (manipulated images or video) and other misleading information.
The Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) works to build tools that can identify digital content created using generative AI. Some of these tools are developed to meet the technical standards set by the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA).
Digital Bedrock has joined the CAI community. Our Digital Preservation Application (DPA) can already automatically extract C2PA metadata from image files as part of our standard digital preservation processing, and we are testing and expanding our tools adoption in other format and content types. Please follow our website and social media as we continue to implement services to help our clients identify generative AI content in their archives.
Missing Movies Interviews CEO Linda Tadic
Missing Movies is a nonprofit organization that seeks to publicize the problem of films that are unavailable for broadcast and home entertainment release due to rights/clearance issues, lack of available materials or “distributor indifference.” Digital Bedrock CEO Linda Tadic was honored to be interviewed to talk about the importance for filmmakers to preserve their work, and on the current DIY state-of-the-art methods of digital preservation: HERE
This consortium of film artists and professionals is working to save great films that have fallen into obscurity, one reel at a time. Read the “Missing Movies” Manifesto to gain a better understanding of what a “missing movie” means and how to make your movie more available by better understanding having the proper physical elements as well as the permission of the copyright holder. Learn more with the Missing Movie Preservation Guide: HERE
Digital Bedrock Completes Library of Congress Epubs Analysis
Through a contract with Digital Bedrock, the Library of Congress recently completed a project to analyze the technical characteristics of a substantial set of eBook and eJournal files in the Library’s permanent collection and available for onsite access in Stacks, the Library’s access system for rights restricted content, that will inform current action plans for access and preservation.
The project was started last June with an analysis of 150,000 files made up of formats such as EPUB, PDF, HTML, and XML. Digital Bedrock’s Linda Tadic and Henry Rosen shared the results from their research and analysis at a recent summit hosted by the Library. Read more about the summit and their findings here:
https://blogs.loc.gov/thesignal/2023/08/ensuring-enduring-access/?loclr=eadpb
Digital Bedrock’s Approach to Sustainability Featured in NAB Show Daily
The 2023 NAB show had a focus on sustainability in media & entertainment. Digital Bedrock’s approach to green digital preservation was featured in the opening day’s NAB Show Daily on April 16, 2023 in the article: Going Green: The Media and Entertainment World Shines Spotlight on Sustainability
Digital Bedrock CEO Linda Tadic Interviewed in TVBEurope's April issue
Today’s multi-channel television world has produced an increased demand for programming, both new and old. This has put even greater pressure on archives, which are not only having to store modern digital media as well as older formats but do so in a sustainable way. TVB Europe April 2023
Digital Bedrock to Assist the American Archive of Public Broadcasting
LOS ANGELES (February 10, 2023) – Digital Bedrock, a provider of secure, managed digital preservation services, has been selected by the American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB), to help in the preservation of historically significant public radio and television programs from producers and stations across the United States.
A collaboration between the Library of Congress and public media leader GBH in Boston, the AAPB digitizes, preserves and makes accessible this content. A recent grant from the Mellon Foundation will support digitization of up to 150,000 items, doubling the current size of the AAPB collection.
Approximately 4 PB of data will be produced from the digitization efforts. Digital Bedrock will participate in the workflow by storing and maintaining preservation files awaiting ingestion by the Library of Congress. The company will receive digitized public broadcasting radio and TV programs, organize them, create checksums, write the files to 2 copies LTO8 media, and then perform annual fixity checks for the Library of Congress. The work is set to begin by the summer 2023, with the timeframe for the entire project extending for several years.
To perform this work, Digital Bedrock will use its appraisal and data organization tool, called the Data Appraisal and Reorganization Tool (DART). This is a different system than Digital Bedrock’s core Digital Preservation Application (DPA), which performs full preservation, file metadata extraction, format validation, and obsolescence checks. DART is used to select files received from clients based on the client’s appraisal policies, organize and rename (where required) batches of files, copy the data to a target destination, and initiate fixity (checksum creation and verification) actions.
According to Linda Tadic, Digital Bedrock CEO and Founder, “The radio and television programs included in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting’s collections, originating from all sizes of public broadcasting stations across the United States and its territories, is an important record of American and even global history. The programs document news, history, and culture, at the local level to the national. Digital Bedrock is honored to assist the AAPB’s important work.”
The AAPB contains nearly 100,000 items online available for the public to stream for free, dating back more than 70 years, with thousands more available for research access. Collections and content range from full episodes of groundbreaking public affairs programs like WNET’s Black Journal, unedited interviews recorded for series like Eyes on the Prize, the kid-driven ‘70s series ZOOM, and the entire “gavel-to-gavel” coverage of the Watergate Hearings. Exhibits delve into public media’s coverage of protests in America, Latino empowerment, Indigenous representation and much more. The AAPB was initiated by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with a series of pilot projects before granting stewardship to the Library of Congress and GBH in 2013.
More information about this grant award can be found here: GBH press release.
Digital Bedrock Selects Quobyte’s Software-Defined Storage for Data Preservation Services
As part of Digital Bedrock’s services, the company incorporates online storage to analyze, process, and validate digital content before the files are brought through its digital preservation system. It now utilizes Quobyte’s software-defined storage solution, which improves Digital Bedrock’s ability to manage client data prior to preservation.
At any one time up to 1 PB of storage can be stored on its local servers. These can be files from a variety of sources, including large media files, time- based artworks that can incorporate code and software, and digital works that contain thousands of individual files.
“Paradoxically, one of the significant challenges in providing exceptional digital preservation services is deletion,” said Linda Tadic, CEO, Digital Bedrock. “As preservation actions are completed, and multiple copies are written to LTO media and stored in multiple offline locations, there is a need to delete large data volumes from the servers so we can continue processing new batches of client data. Quobyte’s ability to seamlessly integrate with the workflow makes deletion much easier.”
Digital Bedrock Joins DNA Data
Storage Alliance
Digital Bedrock joins the DNA Data Storage Alliance to contribute to developing interoperability standards for DNA storage as an effective and eco-friendly solution to the explosive growth of data
Los Angeles, CA — May 16, 2022 —Digital Bedrock, an affordable, secure digital preservation service provider, is excited to announce that it has joined the DNA Data Storage Alliance.
Formed in October 2020 by Illumina, Microsoft, Twist Bioscience and Western Digital, the DNA Data Storage Alliance is the world’s first and most extensive alliance of industry, venture capital, academic and non-profit organizations in DNA data storage. The Alliance shares a mission to create and promote an interoperable storage ecosystem based on DNA as a data storage medium. This is done via public education, awareness raising, and the publication of white papers outlining the technology and its potential uses. Membership consists of a diverse range of stakeholders, combining a range of expertise, all essential for DNA data storage.
Linda Tadic, the Founder/CEO of Digital Bedrock commented: “We are looking forward to contributing to the Alliance’s work developing interoperable DNA data storage requirements for long-term preservation of digital content. I am especially interested in the potential for DNA storage technologies to have less of an impact on the environment and earth’s natural resources than today’s traditional storage media and infrastructures.”
Digital Preservation's Impact on the Environment: Free Webinar From the American Library Association
As part of its Preservation Week programming in April 2022, the American Library Association’s Core division presents a free webinar on digital preservation’s impact on the environment led by CEO/Founder Linda Tadic. The general public is invited to participate.
The one-hour free webinar will be held on Thursday, April 28, 2022, 11:00AM PST/2:00PM EST.
This free webinar will explore the energy consumption and e-waste generated in current preservation infrastructures and actions, and review the environmental impact embodied in the full lifecycle of these infrastructures. It will include recommendations for actions and policies to mitigate digital preservation’s impact on the environment.
In addition to libraries and cultural heritage organizations concerned about their impact on the environment, the organizers invite the general public to participate this Preservation Week event as it will review digital storage media and technologies that individuals take for granted.
At the end of this free webinar, attendees will be able to:
1. Be aware of their individual and organizational practices that could adversely impact the environment;
2. Have ideas on how to change their practices.
More information and to register: Webinar Registration, https://www.ala.org/alcts/preservationweek/, Twitter (#PreservationWeek) and Instagram.
CEO Linda Tadic to co-lead AMIA 2021 Keynote: Environmentally Sustainable Preservation: Challenges, Solutions, and What’s Ahead, Wednesday, November 17, 2021, 9:00AM PST/12PM EST
The Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) celebrates its 30th anniversary and opens its 2021 annual conference with a Keynote discussion on Environmentally Sustainable Preservation: Challenges, Solutions, and What’s Ahead with Linda Tadic, Founder/CEO of Digital Bedrock, and Henry Newman, CTO for Seagate Government Solutions, moderated by Tre Berney, Director of Digitization and Conservation at Cornell University Library. The Keynote will address environmental concerns directly interfacing with the AV archival community, as well as choices archives can make to both lower their environmental impact and improve their long‐term sustainability.
The Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) brings together a broad range of moving image experts in corporate and national archives, media companies, libraries, historical societies, laboratories, post production, universities, and more, to address the best ways to preserve and provide access to our media heritage in digital and analog formats. More information and to register: AMIA 2021, www.AMIAnet.org, Facebook, Twitter (@AMIAnet) and Instagram (@AMIArchivists).
Linda Tadic will speak on the relationship between digital audiovisual archives and the environment at the IV International Congress of Digital Archives
CEO/Founder, Linda Tadic will be giving the keynote address (in English) on the relationship between digital audiovisual archives and the environment at the IV International Congress of Digital Archives on Thursday, November 11th, 13:00-ECT (Ecuador) / 10AM-PST (Los Angeles) / 1:00PM-EST. https://www.uasb.edu.ec/congresos/iv-congreso-internacional-de-archivos-digitales/?area-info=programa
Organized by the Simón Bolívar Andean University, Ecuador, and at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the IV International Congress of Digital Archives will take place from November 10 to 13, 2021, online. Conference information (in Spanish) can be found HERE.
Founder/CEO Linda Tadic Honored With 2021 SMPTE James A. Lindner Archival Technology Medal
We are excited to announce that Founder/CEO Linda Tadic will receive the 2021 SMPTE James A. Lindner Archival Technology Medal, in recognition of her leadership, research, and work in the field of digital asset management, audiovisual and digital preservation, copyright, metadata, and the impact of digital preservation on the environment.
The James A. Lindner Archival Technology Medal, established in 2012 and sponsored by James A. Lindner, honors the recipient by recognizing significant technical advancements or contributions related to the invention or development of technology, techniques, workflows, or infrastructure for the long-term storage, archive or preservation of media.
Founded in 1916, SMPTE is an internationally recognized standards organization. It has published more than 800 technical standards and related documents for broadcast, filmmaking, digital cinema, audio recording, information technology, and medical imaging.
This year’s SMPTE Awards Gala will take place virtually in November 2021. More information can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/4mdrzvre
Digital Archives, Climate Change, and the Pandemic: SEAPAVAA Keynote on June 22, 2021
The Southeast Asia-Pacific Audiovisual Archive Association (SEAPAVAA) held its 25th Conference virtually from June 22nd – 24th, 2021. Digital Bedrock Founder/CEO Linda Tadic delivered the keynote address on June 22nd 7:30pm PDT / 10:30pm EDT (June 23rd 9:30am UTC + 7). Her presentation addressed how digital archives can mitigate their environmental impact through their preservation actions, technology and human choices, including observations and opportunities presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Linda’s talk can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/seapavaa/videos/162731872541806. Scroll forward to 21:50 for the beginning of the keynote address.
SEAPAVAA is a professional non-profit association of organizations and individuals involved or interested in the development of audiovisual archiving in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. It aims to promote audiovisual archiving and preserve and provide access to the region's rich audiovisual heritage.
Recordings of the conference sessions and the live Vietnamese cultural performance are available on SEAPAVAA’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/seapavaa.