Piql Book of References

GitHub Case study

We’re excited to partner with Piql to help preserve open source software for future generations,” said Kyle Daigle, Director of Special Projects at GitHub. “Piql’s custom film and archiving technologies will allow us to store terabytes of data on a durable medium designed to last for over 1,000 years. We’re delighted that every active public GitHub repository will be written to this film, and safeguarded in the Arctic World Archive in Svalbard, for the centuries and generations to come. “

Information that is born digital can be difficult to keep alive. Modern data storage options are de signed for the short term and data can become inaccessible after just a few years. GitHub realised the way they were running their archival process es to protect their valuable code assets today was not sufficient. Wanting to learn about both the technical processes as well as the contextual processes of how to keep digital information safe guarded for decades and even centuries, as well as how to ensure guaranteed future access to this information, Github engaged a panel of experts. These experts, known as the best of the best within the different parts of the digital archiving processes, include the Long Now Foundation, the Internet Archive, Software Heritage Preservation, Stanford Library and Microsoft Research. When it’s a matter of securing the world code heritage, nothing is left to chance, and only state of the art solutions where considered to solve their chal lenges of keeping source code secured and acces sible for hundreds of years. THE SOLUTION With a key focus on perpetuity, Github engaged Piql for its unique and unmatched technology that could withstand any technological obsolescence in a time perspective of 1000+ years. Github also wanted a secure sustainable storage facility for storing information in a secondary location out side of the United States. Piql’s unique approach to archiving data, built on principles of open source and future access, of fered many benefits to the technology giant. With authenticity measures, no need for data mi gration and vendor independence, piqlFilm can do what no other technology can. Offer perpet ual storage whilst being completely self-contained

ensuring that the data can be read back both by machines as well as the human eye, guaranteeing future access to the original data independent of how much time passes. In addition, storage in the Arctic World Archive (AWA), a safe, resilient and remote repository of digital world memory, aligned perfectly with Github’s objectives. Data stored here can last for over 1000 years, with ensured readback access re gardless of future technology. In the initial deposit, GitHub stored 6,000 of its most significant repositories in AWA for perpe tuity, capturing the evolution of technology and software. This collection includes the source code for the Linux and Android operating systems; the programming languages Python, Ruby, and Rust; web platforms Node, V8, React, and Angular; cryp tocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum; AI tools Ten sorFlow and FastAI; and many more. In its second AWA deposit, GitHub stored a snap shot of every active public repository, featuring millions of individual contributions. These two deposits collectively provide an overview of the state of open source software development and use in the world today. THE FUTURE Piql and GitHub are continuing collaboration through the GitHub Archival Program, co-design ing new elements of perpetual storage as part of the Arctic Code Vault project.

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