A unified approach to preserving cultural software objects and their development histories

FAIN: HD-51719-13

Regents of the University of California, Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1077)
Noah Wardrip-Fruin (Project Director: October 2012 to May 2016)

A Level 1 pilot project focusing on the preservation of software relevant to humanities scholars.

Software is an increasingly important part of our culture, and the humanities has responded with approaches such as digital culture studies, game studies, and software studies. Simultaneously, we face a growing erosion of computational history as the cycle of technological advancement and obsolescence continues. This project will pilot a new approach to software preservation -- one that draws on the best practices so far identified by those seeking to preserve scientific research and its context (on one hand) and games and virtual worlds (on the other) while being consistently informed by our growing knowledge of the research questions most important to the digital humanities. A team of librarians, computer scientists, and humanists will pilot this methodology by archiving UCSC's groundbreaking social simulation game Prom Week -- making progress towards a more unified approach to preserving software objects and their development histories for future scholars, students, and the public.