Information Technology Reference
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procedures of creation, management and preservation in order to ensure their
trustworthiness. Archivists informed by archival science and diplomatics are
committed to the protection of records as reliable and authentic evidence of past
actions, and have established through observational principles that trustworthiness is
comprised of reliability, accuracy, and authenticity; thus, a trustworthy photograph
must be simultaneously reliable, accurate, and authentic [9]. If we want assurance of
the trustworthiness of a photograph we need to verify that the photograph is capable
of standing for the facts to which it attests (i.e., reliable), its content is precise, correct,
and free of error or distortion (i.e., accurate), and that the photograph is what it
purports to be and has not been corrupted or tampered with (i.e., authentic). Digital
images created during the activities of law enforcement, journalism, medical
diagnostics, and geospatial exploration are expected to be accurate, reliable and
authentic in order to fulfill their intended purposes. Additionally, as more people live
digital lives, future researchers will want assurance that the digital photographs and
moving images they are consulting are trustworthy records and that the contexts in
which they were created are preserved along with the content. Therefore, the benefits
and risks of adopting cloud-based systems for digital image access, use and storage
need to be explored by archivists using criteria informed by the principles of archival
science and the application of contemporary archival diplomatics.
2
Methods
Prior to launching the web-based survey, an extensive literature review was
conducted exploring key aspects of cloud computing, including infrastructure and
architecture, security and privacy, copyright, and the legal admissibility of records
held within the cloud. The literature review revealed articles in which individuals and
organizations discuss the risks and benefits of adopting cloud computing for the
healthcare industry (e.g., diagnostic images) [10], [11] and the records management
and archives sector [12]. These articles focus on the benefits of cloud computing for
dealing with high volumes of data (e.g., high resolution digital images), which require
limitless storage and are accessed by users on a variety of mobile devices and
platforms, twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week [10]. Furthermore, the
multi-tenancy environment of some cloud services maximize computing and storage
capacities, which provide computing resources at lower costs and enable flexible and
scalable solutions for organizations that may not have in-house IT infrastructure [12].
Solutions provided by cloud computing reflect the changing needs of an increasingly
mobile workforce that may work collaboratively within their organization, but are
geographically dispersed and need access to shared digital resources in order to make
decisions and deliver projects.
In April 2013, a short web-based survey was conducted under the auspices of the
Records in the Cloud project [13]. Invitations to participate in the Cloud User Survey
were sent to records managers, archival listservs and archival associations with the
aim of gathering information about the types of cloud computing services being used
by information professionals for records management and preservation. Following a
pilot study with volunteer respondents, the revised survey questionnaire was launched
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