Bug 247 - 3.3.1 and 3.3.2 Address issue of "general public" as part of Designated Community
Summary: 3.3.1 and 3.3.2 Address issue of "general public" as part of Designated Commu...
Status: RESOLVED CHANGE AGREED
Alias: None
Product: Audit and Certification of Trustworthy Digital Repositories
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Section 3 : Organisational Infrastructure (show other bugs)
Version: Sept 2011
Hardware: Yes All
: --- Updates needed for clarification
Assignee: David Giaretta (david@giaretta.org)
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2019-04-28 09:23 UTC by John Garrett (garrett@his.com)
Modified: 2020-01-07 16:06 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Organisation of the submitter: Garrett Software
Disposition of the suggested change:
Category of the suggested change: ---
Due date: 2019-12-05
Explanation of the reason for the suggested change:
Many archives have general public as customers, but there can be problems if they are included in Designated Community.


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Description John Garrett (garrett@his.com) 2019-04-28 09:23:46 UTC
Need to address "general public" as part of Designated Community. General pulic does not work as DC unless it is qualified by level of understanding (perhaps only able to access/display contents) to be provided.
Comment 1 John Garrett (garrett@his.com) 2019-11-05 16:07:10 UTC
The current draft of OAIS added the concept of Preservation Objectives.  Tying a Preservation Object for the general public might be a useful way to approach this.  For example, we may be able to specify that the general public should be able to obtain the text but their Knowledge Base may not be sufficient to "understand" the text they get.

It is also possible that we could discuss the difference between Consumers and Designated Community.  Consumers would generally include DC as well as possibly also citizen or general public.
Comment 2 John Garrett (garrett@his.com) 2019-11-12 15:53:55 UTC
Possibly there could also be a discussion of the individuals who make up the Designated Community change over time. New people gain the knowledge base to become part of the community.  
Also, the knowledge base itself is possibly increasing and tools are changing.
And perhaps the information is understood by the community as a whole and the individuals may not individually understand it all.
How does the metric cover this?
Comment 3 Mark Conrad (mark.conrad.iso@gmail.com) 2019-11-16 19:27:52 UTC
Suggest adding the following text:

General Public v Designated Community

Many repositories have as part of their mission/mandate to serve the general public. In other words, the repository must disseminate any information that the Consumer is allowed to access without violating any restrictions on the release of the requested information. Some repositories have raised concerns about the tension between their requirements to serve the general public and the OAIS requirement to serve the repository’s Designated Community(ies). 

The purposes for designating these two different classes of Consumers do have some overlap, but they also have some substantive differences. Indicating that a repository serves the general public means that anyone (with a few exceptions) can be a Consumer of the OAIS’ information. Indicating that a repository serves a particular Designated Community(ies) means that the members of the Designated Community may access any information the OAIS holds subject to any restrictions on the release of the data. NOTE: The OAIS Reference Model, and this standard, do not require repositories to limit their Consumers to members of their Designated Communities. 

Designated Communities serve a distinct purpose related to the Long Term Preservation of the information held by the repository. Long Term Preservation is, “[t]he act of maintaining information, Independently Understandable by a Designated Community, and with evidence supporting its Authenticity, over the Long Term.” One of the mandatory responsibilities of an OAIS is to ensure that the information it holds is Independently Understandable by the Designated Community. The OAIS must periodically assess whether or not the information held for a specific Designated Community is still Independently Understandable by that Designated Community using their current Knowledge Base. If it is not, the OAIS must add additional Representation Information or PDI to make it so. If a repository collects information across many topics/domains, it may need to have multiple Designated Communities for the different topics/domains. 

Under the OAIS Reference Model, and this standard, an OAIS does not have to ensure that its holdings are Independently Understandable to any Consumer outside its Designated Community(ies), though it may choose to try. In practical terms ensuring its holdings are and remain Independently Understandable to the general public would be a nearly impossible task. Consider, for example, maintaining enough Representation Information and PDI to make Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity Independently Understandable to a 6-year-old who reads only Korean. While many repositories will say they serve the general public, there are usually unwritten limits to the types of services the repository provides. By contrast, an OAIS must ensure that the information it provides remains Independently Understandable to the relevant Designated Community through time.
Comment 4 Mark Conrad (mark.conrad.iso@gmail.com) 2019-12-03 15:42:06 UTC
General Public v Designated Community

Many repositories have as part of their mission/mandate to serve the general public. In other words, the repository must disseminate any information that the Consumer is allowed to access without violating any restrictions on the release of the requested information. Some repositories have raised concerns about the tension between their requirements to serve the general public and the OAIS requirement to serve the repository’s Designated Community(ies). 

NOTE: The OAIS Reference Model, and this standard, do not require repositories to limit their Consumers to members of their Designated Communities. The purposes for designating these two different classes of Consumers do have some overlap, but they also have some substantive differences. Indicating that a repository serves the general public means that anyone (with a few exceptions) can be a Consumer of the OAIS’ information. Indicating that a repository serves a particular Designated Community(ies) means that the members of the Designated Community may access any information the OAIS holds subject to any restrictions on the release of the data. 

Designated Communities serve a distinct purpose related to the Long Term Preservation of the information held by the repository. Long Term Preservation is, “[t]he act of maintaining information, Independently Understandable by a Designated Community, and with evidence supporting its Authenticity, over the Long Term.” One of the mandatory responsibilities of an OAIS is to ensure that the information it holds is Independently Understandable by the Designated Community. The OAIS must periodically assess whether or not the information held for a specific Designated Community is still Independently Understandable by that Designated Community using their current Knowledge Base. If it is not, the OAIS must add additional Representation Information or PDI to make it so. If a repository collects information across many topics/domains, it may need to have multiple Designated Communities for the different topics/domains. 

Under the OAIS Reference Model, and this standard, an OAIS does not have to ensure that its holdings are Independently Understandable to any Consumer outside its Designated Community(ies), though it may choose to try. In practical terms ensuring its holdings are and remain Independently Understandable to the general public would be a nearly impossible task. Consider, for example, maintaining enough Representation Information and PDI to make Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity Independently Understandable to a 6-year-old who reads only their native language which is different from the language of Einstein's work. While many repositories will say they serve the general public, there are usually unwritten limits to the types of services the repository provides. By contrast, an OAIS must ensure that the information it provides remains Independently Understandable to the relevant Designated Community through time.
Comment 5 David Giaretta (david@giaretta.org) 2020-01-07 13:07:41 UTC
Mark's proposal is good. Presumably should be appended to the discussion of 3.3.1
Comment 6 Mark Conrad (mark.conrad.iso@gmail.com) 2020-01-07 16:00:26 UTC
The OAIS Reference Model, and this standard, do not require repositories to limit their Consumers to members of their Designated Communities. However, many repositories have as part of their mission/mandate to serve the general public. In other words, the repository must disseminate any information that the Consumer is allowed to access without violating any restrictions on the release of the requested information. Some repositories have raised concerns about the tension between their requirements to serve the general public and the OAIS requirement to serve the repository’s Designated Community(ies). 

The purposes for designating these two different roles, the Designated Community and the general public, do have some overlap, but they also have some substantive differences. Indicating that a repository serves the general public means that anyone (with a few exceptions) can be a Consumer of the OAIS’ information. The repository assigns a Designated Community for each AIP or group of related AIPs. The repository then must ensure that the AIPs remain Independently Understandable to the relevant Designated Community.

Designated Communities serve a distinct purpose related to the Long Term Preservation of the information held by the repository. Long Term Preservation is, “[t]he act of maintaining information, Independently Understandable by a Designated Community, and with evidence supporting its Authenticity, over the Long Term.” One of the mandatory responsibilities of an OAIS is to ensure that the information it holds is Independently Understandable by the Designated Community. The OAIS must periodically assess whether or not the information held for a specific Designated Community is still Independently Understandable by that Designated Community using their current Knowledge Base. If it is not, the OAIS must add additional Representation Information or PDI to make it so. If a repository collects information across many topics/domains, it may need to have multiple Designated Communities for the different topics/domains. 

Under the OAIS Reference Model, and this standard, an OAIS does not have to ensure that its holdings are Independently Understandable to any Consumer outside its Designated Community(ies), though it may choose to try. In practical terms ensuring its holdings are and remain Independently Understandable to the general public would be a nearly impossible task. Consider, for example, maintaining enough Representation Information and PDI to make Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity Independently Understandable to a 6-year-old who reads only their native language which is different from the language of Einstein's work. While many repositories will say they serve the general public, there are usually unwritten limits to the types of services the repository provides. By contrast, an OAIS must ensure that the information it provides remains Independently Understandable to the relevant Designated Community through time.
Comment 7 Mark Conrad (mark.conrad.iso@gmail.com) 2020-01-07 16:05:49 UTC
At a DAI Meeting on 20200107 we adopted the text in Comment 6 and agreed to place it in the Discussion under 3.3.1.
Comment 8 John Garrett (garrett@his.com) 2020-01-07 16:06:50 UTC
I concur with the suggested change.