What Do We Mean by Authentic? (original) (raw)
Related papers
Journal of Applied Logic, 2008
Authenticity is a difficult and taxing notion in both the digital and the analogue world. It is a retrospective and by implication dynamic notion, a reaction to whether or not we are dealing with the genuine article, that an object is what it purports to be at a moment in time and its content can be validated using available technology. It is not an end in itself like a fresh herring, but a red herring which, because of the pungent smell of the smokehouse, can put the hounds off the scent. Moreover it is not an absolute: an object that might appear perfectly authentic from one perspective may be considered to lack sufficient tokens of authenticity in another, and may later from both viewpoints be considered invalid. documents and objects. We are convinced that only by adopting such a stance can any progress be made in the sterile debate about digital preservation which logically must be downstream from the resolution of notions of authenticity that themselves are reactive to issues of intellectual content and available technology that following Aristotle we characterise as techné.
Authenticity as a Social Contract—We Are Our Records
This poster presents the authors’ work to date on developing an application profile for authenticity metadata (the IPAM, or InterPARES Authenticity Metadata), including (1) the functional requirements, (2) metadata elements derived from the Chain of Preservation model from the InterPARES research project, (3) a crosswalk of a sample of IPAM elements to Dublin Core, PREMIS, and MoReq2010, (4) those elements deemed essential to presume the authenticity of a record as it moves from creation to permanent preservation, and (5) next steps, integrating the application profile into the Archivematica preservation system the core elements of the application profile relating to maintaining the presumption of authenticity through preservation and access.
Testing Our Truths: Delineating the Parameters of the Authentic Archival Electronic Record
The American Archivist, 2002
Based on the work of the first phase of the International Research on Permanent Authentic Electronic Record Project (InterPARES 1), this paper argues that emerging considerations specific to electronic records necessitate that the archival community delineate mechanisms for establishing, maintaining, and certifying the authenticity of preserved and reference copies of electronic records. The paper reviews how the InterPARES 1 Project identified such mechanisms through the conduct of a series of case studies of electronic information and record-keeping systems. The paper places a discussion of the case study data collection, analysis, and outcomes in the context of the quest and rationale for effective methods and a research design that would allow InterPARES researchers to discern the parameters of the electronic record and what supports a presumption of its authenticity. I n t r o d u c t i o n Aut hor Timothy Garton Ash opines of historical facts that: Like the materials used in a collage, these pieces of evidence have different textures: here a fragment of hard metal, there a scrap of faded newspaper, there again a wisp of cotton wool. Reporters, investigators and historians will
A metadata model for authenticity in digital archival descriptions
Archival Science , 2023
The advent of the information paradigm has shaken many of the principles of archival theory and practice. One key issue is knowing to which extent can digital information be trusted. Digital resources are represented by metadata, and trust consists in demonstrating their authenticity. Since the traditional elements used to verify the authenticity of analog records are not suitable in the digital world, the field faces a major challenge. The use of abundant, pertinent and constantly captured metadata seems to one of the most relevant solutions. This article aims to contribute to tackle this issue by setting the goal of proposing a model that attempts to include the most relevant metadata elements to capture the information that contributes for ascertaining the authenticity of digital archival descriptions. To that end, mixed methods methodology are employed. A qualitative documentary research is used to collect, analyze and interpret a corpus of scientific literature. As a complement, the quantitative technique requirements engineering is used to extract from international description standards the metadata requirements that can assist in the presumption of authenticity. Both approaches are then combined through a critical lens into a single unifying model for authenticity that is deemed as complete as necessary but as simple as possible. The model can be used by organizations or as a contribution to the discussion of authenticity and trustworthiness in digital archival descriptions.
A Foundation for Trust in Digital Preservation
2019
Over any time frame that spans multiple generations of information technology, there is uncertainty whether digital objects or outputs from digital objects can be verified as the same things they were originally. The Preservation as a Service for Trust (PaaST)Project of the InterPARES Trust collaboration addressed this challenge with the objective of enabling determination of wether preserved digital information objects remain authentic. This paper, first presented at the InterPARES International Symposium in San Jose, Costa Rica on 19 February 2020, sets out the conceptualization of authenticity that guided the articulation of functional and data 1 requirements to support verifiable preservation and, thus provide a foundation of trust. It then summarizes the services that comprise the requirements and discusses the variety of ways the services can be implemented.
Stephen Mason and Daniel Seng eds. Electronic Evidence and Electronic Signatures 5th edn (London, UK: University of London, 2021), 236–278., 2021
The chapter discusses the meaning of authenticity through time. It introduces the concepts of identity and integrity, accuracy and reliability, and shows how authentication in the digital world will be increasingly based on circumstantial evidence—such as the system(s) in which a record has been stored through time—rather than on the electronic material submitted as evidence itself. In fact, we cannot preserve such material, but only our ability to re-produce or re-create it, and we need to distinguish between stored and manifested evidence and assess both. Ultimately, authentication might have to be an inference based on security.