FIT5206 Digital continuity
Assignment 2: Developing a Community Archive
Community Group: Yarra Riverkeeper Association
Project Team: Group 11
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................3
2. Background and characteristics...................................................................................... 3
2.1. Background of the Yarra River Keepers Association.................................................. 3
2.2. Mission and Core Business of the Yarra River Keepers Association.......................... 4
2.3. Structure and Core Functions of the Yarra River Keepers Association.......................5
3. Analysis of the Yarra River Keepers Association...............................................6
3.1. Regulatory Environment and Access Rights...............................................................6
3.2. Factors Influencing the Development of Digital Archives............................................8
3.3. Participants and their Resources and Digital Capabilities...........................................9
3.4. Major Risk Analysis..................................................................................................... 9
4. Selection of the preferred archive solutions................................................................. 10
4.1. Selection criteria........................................................................................................10
4.2. Archive solutions....................................................................................................... 13
4.2.1. Specific suggestion for tool selection: github................................................... 13
4.2.2. Specific Suggestion for online platform selection: Conifer............................... 14
4.3. Community Implementation and Participation...........................................................16
4.3.1. Community Support and Cooperation.............................................................. 16
4.3.2. Community Promotion and Training................................................................. 16
4.3.3. Community Control and Feedback...................................................................17
5. Guidelines and rationalization for preferred archive solutions...................................17
5.1. Usage guidelines for software tool GitHub................................................................18
5.2. Usage guidelines for specific online platform Conifer............................................... 19
6. Discussion of the Archive Solutions..............................................................................20
6.1. Strengths................................................................................................................... 20
6.1.1. Centralised data management......................................................................... 20
6.1.2. Data security and integrity................................................................................20
6.1.3. Ease of use and accessibility........................................................................... 21
6.1.4. Community engagement and collaboration......................................................21
6.2. Weakness..................................................................................................................21
6.2.1. Technical mastery difficulty...............................................................................21
6.2.2. Risks of relying on external platforms.............................................................. 22
6.2.3. Challenges of Data migration........................................................................... 22
6.3. Impacts......................................................................................................................22
6.3.1. Multiple benefits of cultural preservation.......................................................... 22
6.3.2. Sustainability of the project and its importance................................................ 23
7. Digital Archive Strategy Development........................................................................... 23
8. Conclusion........................................................................................................... 25
9. References........................................................................................................... 26
10. Appendix 1: Tool and Platform Characteristics Table................................................ 28
11. Appendix 2: UI of Collection Manager..........................................................................28
12. Appendix 3: UI of During Access................................................................................. 29
13. Appendix 4: UI of During Capture................................................................................ 29
14. Group Contributions Statement................................................................................... 30
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1. Introduction
In this report, we will argue about the Yarra RiverKeepers Association which focuses
on preserving the Yaara River, and letting this river be used in future generations. To
achieve their aim, the Yarra Riverkeeper Association organises and holds various
activities with local communities, and related records are produced more and more.
The direct result is that physical records cannot satisfy associations' requirements,
and the trend of using digital records is larger and larger because of the technology
developed. Besides that, the Yarra Riverkeeper Association does not have a fixed
and long-term management strategy for their digital records. That means this
organisation may use different tools and platforms to store the records of the same
objective. If someone wanted to view past records, they would have to spend more
time and energy looking for them. Therefore, the Yarra Riverkeeper Association
needs a viable and long-term archive solution which is used to manage their digital
records for activities and communities.
This report's objective is to search for a kind of long-term digital records archive
solution by analysing the Yarra Riverkeeper Association's factors in each aspect,
including the regulatory environment, risk, resources etc. The archiving solution uses
three software tools and two hosting platforms to manage this organisation's digital
records. Then, there is a usage guideline of the archive solution in this report and
displays this solution's availability. Finally, the archiving solutions are discussed to
identify their strength, weakness and the impacts, especially on resources.
2. Background and characteristics
2.1. Background of the Yarra River Keepers Association
The Yarra River is the most popular and important waterways in this region. Yarra
River's full length is 242 Km, hundreds of plants and animals live near the riverbank,
it also provides 70% piped water for Melbourne. However, Yarra RiverKeeper
Association finds the heavy destruction on this river because of the waste pollution,
disorderly city development, people supply requirements, etc. Besides that, Yaara
River is an important human cultural heritage as well. To protect this river and its
surrounding ecosystems and ensure this river can still be used by future generations,
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the Yarra RiverKeeper Association was established. It is a non-profit environmental
organisation and its location is Victoria, Australia.
2.2. Mission and Core Business of the Yarra River Keepers
Association
The Yarra Riverkeeper Association mission and core business is to protect and
promote the sustainability of the Yarra River and its nearground. There are some key
components and activities involve in their missions and core business:
Protection And Conservation
The association works to protect and restore the Yarra River's natural environment.
This includes efforts to preserve the river's water quality, protect its ecosystems, and
to maintain its biology numbers and variables. The related activities may involve the
planting of native plants , water quality monitoring , and the animals' habitat
restoration etc.
Advocacy
Yarra River Keeper Association can advocate some long-term policies that can be
used for the river's sustainability and orderly development. Besides that, the
association can be opposed to the development policy which may destroy the river
environment. The activities include providing current environment data to engage
with the government bodies to advocate some friendship policies or make some
opposition activities of wrong policies.
Community Engagement
The association actively collaborates with the local community, encouraging and
organising the public to enter the river preservation activities. That can improve the
river protection's management and participate in the awareness of the public. The
specific examples are the workshops or litter recycling activity etc.
Education And Awareness
The final mission and core business is about the education and awareness aspect.
The Yarra RiverKeeper Association focuses on educating the public to identify the
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Yarra River's importance in their life and future. Let's the public recognize that river
preservation is necessary and urgent. The activity to achieve this mission includes
producing and spreading the education materials, conducting introductory classes in
school etc.
2.3. Structure and Core Functions of the Yarra River Keepers
Association
In this part, the report will simply introduce the Yarra RiverKeeper Association’s staff
structure and the core functions from the above missions.
Structure
The association operates with a typical non-profit organisation structure. That may
include: the four people in the Board of directors, and three staff members, on the
association’s website. The Board of directors responsible for planning the future
strategy and making decision-making. Warwick Leeson OAM is the president and
chair, ever as a former councillor and mayor. So he has abundant experiences of
politics and laws. So, he can make the legal and best choices of the decisions.
Rachel Fenshm is the deputy Chair and vice president of the Yarra RiverKeeper
Association. She has extensive work experience in digital and creative areas.
Besides that, she also established a better partnership with many communities,
therefore she can use his relationship to let the organisation carry out community
practices.
The final two people on the boards are Gillian Jervis and Janet Bolitho. Hosted and
revised many influential environmental strategic laws by Janet. That means she has
extensive knowledge and experience in strategy, advocacy, and governance. So, she
can help to propose some useful sustainability policies for Yarra River. Gillian is an
accountant and she is responsible for the association's resource management.
The final structure part is the staff member. There are three members on its website,
Charlotte Sterrett, Anthony Despotellis, and Andrew Wood. Charlotte is a
riverkeeper, she always swims and canoes in the Yarra River. Her results can reflect
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some river's situations such as the river's water quality. Anthony is a Litter officer and
graphics Designer, he always recycles litter and reports the degree of the
environmental disturbances. Besides that, he is a designer who can design
educational documents and references. Final staff member is Andrew Wood, he is a
specialist advisor who provides some restore ecosystem advice.
Core Function
The core function of the Yarra RiverKeeper Association is opposite and solves the
association's core business. First function is to monitor the environment and restore
the river's ecosystem. However, the records in this process need to be stored and
easier to view, like water quality data, amount of animal's type, and habitat size. The
second one is to develop and advocate sustainability policies. The association must
collaborate closely with the governance bodies, they can monitor the development
and implement policy process. Ensure the sustainable development of the Yarra
River. Next, the association can organise some community engagement activities or
edit some education materials, that can raise residents' awareness of the Yarra
River's situations and importances. For example, the litter recycling activity or
making educated speeches. The final function is to ensure organisational funds,
labour, and supplies can get effective control and distribution.
To achieve these functions, a large amount, timely and efficient data records is
necessary. But the current data store ways of the Association are complicated and
there are no stable save sites. That increases the usage difficulty degree for these
functions. So, a new and useful archive solution of the data records needs to be
found.
3. Analysis of the Yarra River Keepers Association
3.1. Regulatory Environment and Access Rights
The Yarra Riverkeeper Association (YRKA) operates within a regulatory environment
aligned with several Australian and Victorian state environmental laws, ensuring the
protection and preservation of the river. The major ones will be discussed in the
following context including the Yarra River Protection Act 2017, Water Act 1989, and
the Planning and Environment Act 1987.
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The Yarra River Protection Act 2017 is the first legislation established in Australia
which is specifically designed for the Yarra River to provide a clear framework for the
river’s protection. According to the Victoria State Government (2023), the inclusion of
Woi-wurrung language in the act acknowledges the Traditional Owners’
custodianship in the management of the river in terms of the preservation. It
emphasises the cultural connection of the river to the Traditional Owners in
acknowledging the indigenous knowledge while protecting the Yarra River.
The other acts surrounding the protection of Yarra River ensure the environmental,
planning, and water management issues are addressed. According to Melbourne
Water (2022), the Water Act 1989 controls the management, protection, and use of
Victoria’s water resources. The act supports the rights related to Yarra River on the
water usage and conservation, ensuring the maintenance of Yarra River’s health and
water quality. The Planning and Environment Act 1987 provides a framework for the
plan, use, development, and protection of land in Victoria (Victoria State
Government, 2023). The plan suggests that the land use surrounding the Yarra River
is regulated to minimise the environmental impacts, ensuring the development along
the riverbanks are sustainable and do not negatively impact the river’s condition.
Public open space and access of the river ensures development on public land close
to the Yarra River provides appropriate access and minimises built form impacts.
Yarra River has implemented the planning control policies to control the access of
individuals to the use of the river. Victoria State Government (2017) suggested that
‘a permit system is required for managing construction of building sites and
infrastructure to minimise the pollution to the environment around the Yarra River. It
is significant to prevent unplanned development that poses a threat to the
preservation of the river such as leading to water pollution and the disruption of the
river’s flow.
Public access to the river is restricted only to a few activities with specific conditions.
Activities such as anchoring, personal watercraft, and frequency on radio channels
are not permitted around the river (Parks Victoria, n.d.). Through these restrictions,
YRKA aims to maintain the river as a safe environment and achieve its vision of
protecting and preserving the river for the current and the future generation. The
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restrictions present its respect to the indigenous groups, ensuring the river remains
of cultural significance for them.
3.2. Factors Influencing the Development of Digital Archives
The emergence of technological advancement has transformed the way information
is stored and accessed. While dealing with digital archives with Yarra River and its
regulatory framework and access rights, the development of archives could pose
some significant challenges.
One primary factor comes from the regulatory framework related to the Yarra River.
The set regulations and access rights could potentially restrict the type of records
that can be collected. The restrictions are designed to ensure that the digital archives
are in alignment with the existing laws and policies overseeing the Yarra River and
its environment. Some of these regulations may require specific data storage,
sharing, and accessibility, ensuring the archives align with best practices in digital
preservation (Digital Preservation Coalition, 2014). It is then significant to handle
certain sensitive information more carefully especially while concerning indigenous
groups like the Wurundjeri people. Such data involving cultural significance need to
be encrypted and stored in specific ways to ensure its security and confidentiality.
The other factor influencing the development of digital archives is the need for data
preservation and update of the YRKA’s existing records. With the evolution of
technology changes, it is essential to ensure that digital content remains accessible
and usable over time (National Archives of Australia, 2021). YRKA handles critical
environmental data such as water quality assessment and land usage (Yarra
Riverkeeper Association, 2021); It emphasises the needs of having a secure robust
database. It does not only act as a repository but also a tool to facilitate the
monitoring and analysis of the river conditions over time. The river’s condition
requires consistent data monitoring and updating.
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3.3. Participants and their Resources and Digital Capabilities
In managing digital archives of the Yarra River, there are few key participants with
their resources and digital capabilities, ensuring the protection and preservation of
the river for the generations.
Firstly, YRKA’s collaboration with the government could offer a repository of
information including gaining access to resources including legislative documents,
historical records, and other official documents. These resources capture information
on the laws, rights, and policies related to the river. Such documents can offer
insights into the river’s historical significance with its evolution over time, along with
the legal frameworks that protect it. Besides, the government’s advanced digital
infrastructure is notable. Government’s implementation of the Preservation
Digitisation Standards (PDS) is in line with Yarra River’s mission to ensure the
preservation for both the current and future generations (National Archives of
Australia, 2021). The collaboration provides a secure database designed for
extensive data storage and specialised digital platforms for data management and
analysis.
Furthermore, the YRKA’s teams including both members and volunteers play a
significant role in digital archiving. These individuals possess a range of skills and
expertise from research and data collection to multimedia content creation. The
reports containing the multimedia content such as videos and photos provide a clear
view on the river’s states and condition. The team’s digital capabilities extend to the
management of the organisation’s online presence through the organisation’s
website, social media channels, and a database system that stores the collected
data, ensuring the public is informed and engaged. Their contribution ensures that
the digital archives remain updated, relevant, and easily accessible to the public
concerning the Yarra River’s health and preservation.
3.4. Major Risk Analysis
The development of digital archives for the YRKA presents various challenges. One
of the most major concerns is the data security and privacy issue. The rise of digital
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threats poses risk of unauthorised access and potential data breaches. This is
particularly significant to sensitive information such as the financial statements,
records on the Traditional Owners, and detailed environmental assessments.
Unauthorised access and misuse of the information may result in damage to the
reputation of the association as it may lead to a loss of trust from the community and
stakeholders with legal compliance associated with YRKA.
However, challenges are not limited to data security. The cost of implementing a
robust database system is another concern relating to YRKA. YRKA as a non-profit
organisation may not have sufficient funds to maintain and preserve the digital
archives. The rapid evolution of technology could potentially lead to an obsolescence
of the current database system, posing threat to the reliability and accessibility of the
stored data. One potential mitigation strategy could be forming partnerships with
other NGOs that share the same value of protecting and preserving the Yarra River.
Through these partnerships, YRKA could leverage shared resources or obtain
funding to support digital archiving initiatives.
4. Selection of the preferred archive solutions
4.1. Selection criteria
In implementing the YRKA's digital archive project, choosing the right platform and
tools is essential. The appropriate technology selection can not only meet the
project's current needs but also adapt to future development and provide solid
support for the association's long-term goals. This section briefly explains the
importance of choosing the right platforms and tools and outlines the guidelines and
rationalization process for developing these choices. Through clear selection criteria
and processes, we ensure that the selected platforms and tools best meet the needs
of the association while also preparing for the challenges that may arise in the future.
The criteria for selecting online platforms and tools suitable for YRKA’s digital archive
project should carefully consider the specific needs and objectives of the project. The
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following are the criteria for selecting online platforms and tools in conjunction with
the Yarra Riverkeeper Association digital archive project:
Security
The YRKA’s Digital Archive project, involves essential data such as river
development planning, water quality and pollution, so the security of the archiving
platform and tools chosen is of Paramount importance. Therefore, the selected
software should provide robust access control and data encryption functions to
ensure data security and privacy. In addition, its security reputation and history are
also critical factors in the selection. By choosing safe and reliable software, the
project can be effectively guaranteed(Zhao&Yang, 2019).
Cost-effectiveness
When selecting an archiving platform and tool for YRKA, cost-effectiveness was
critical due to the organisation's not-for-profit status and budget
constraints(NORTON-WISLA&WYNNE, 2017). It is critical to select an affordable
platform and tools that provide valuable features and services that ensure a positive
return on investment in functionality, increase productivity, minimise the risk of data
loss, and improve data accessibility. It is also essential to be aware of hidden costs,
such as staff training, data migration expenses, and costs associated with integrating
the new platform with existing systems. These considerations are crucial in selecting
an affordable option that meets YRKA's needs and expectations and provides true
cost-effectiveness.
Functionality
Functionality is a critical criterion in selecting archiving platforms and tools, and it
directly impacts the efficiency and effectiveness of the YRKA's digital archive
management project. First, platforms and tools must support multiple file formats and
data types, including text, images, videos and datasets, to ensure that all critical data
can be stored and managed effectively. In addition, to optimise the user experience,
the chosen platform should provide fast and accurate search and retrieval
capabilities, allowing users to quickly find the required archives through keywords,
tags or other metadata. Finally, considering management efficiency and data
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security, the platform should also support automated data backup and archiving
processes and allow users to customise related settings and processes.
Ease of use
Ease of use is critical in choosing platforms and tools, especially for community
voluntary organisations like YRKA, whose members may not have a professional
technical background, so using platforms and tools must be simple and
straightforward. An intuitive user interface is critical; it can simplify the user's learning
process and improve work efficiency, so the choice of platforms and tools needs to
have a simple design and intuitive operation. In addition, to help users solve
problems encountered during use, the selected platform and tools should provide
adequate user manuals and online help resources. Therefore, when choosing
platforms and tools, preference should be given to those options that provide users
with detailed guidance and quick customer support.
Scalability
With the development of the YRKA’s project and the ongoing focus on the Yarra
River, the volume of data is expected to continue to grow, covering river
development and planning, flow and water supply, water quality and pollution,
biodiversity and related social issues. Therefore, the platforms and tools must be
well scalable to accommodate this data growth without compromising performance
or stability. This means that platforms and tools need to be able to handle large
amounts of data and, as the project evolves, easily add and integrate new functions
or modules to address changing and growing data and information needs. Such
scalability will ensure that the platform and tools can support the YRKA's goals and
tasks over the long term, providing ongoing technical support for the conservation
and management of the Yarra River.
Sustainability
As a long-term community voluntary organisation, the RYKA’s digital archive project
had to ensure that the selected online platforms and tools were sustainable. This
means that the chosen solution can provide stable and reliable support over the long
term to meet the YAKA’s digital archive project needs.During the selection process,
to ensure the availability and reliability of the platform and tools, consider whether
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the provider has a long-term commitment to technical support and update services
should be considered. In addition, choosing an open-source tool and platform , an
active and supportive community is vital as it can provide an organisation with
ongoing support and resources to help solve technical issues and challenges that
may arise.
Integration
Integration was a core consideration when choosing the platform and tools for the
YRKA's digital archive project. The selected solution should seamlessly integrate into
the association's existing systems, streamlining workflows and increasing efficiency.
Seamless integration helps simplify operations and keep data accurate and
consistent. The open API is critical, allowing custom integration and development to
meet the association's specific needs and providing flexibility and customizability to
make the platform and tools better fit the association's needs. Therefore, choose
platforms and tools that integrate with standard systems and provide open APIs and
detailed documentation to ensure the project is effectively supported and extended.
4.2. Archive solutions
4.2.1. Specific suggestion for tool selection: github
GitHub was chosen as the preferred tool for the Yarra Riverkeeper Association
digital archive project because it fully meets the selection criteria for the project. Here
are the main reasons to choose GitHub:
Improve remote collaboration and user accessibility.
As a code hosting platform, GitHub allows team members of the Yarra Riverkeeper
Association to collaborate remotely and ensures that its user-friendly interface
makes it easy to share and access project data and resources from different
locations (GitHub, 2023). The intuitive interface supports multi-user roles and
permission Settings, enabling team members to manage data based on their roles
and responsibilities, enhancing collaborative efforts while maintaining structured data
management protocols.
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Comprehensive data management and visualisation
Equipped with tools such as Streamlit and Pyroscope, GitHub offers the dual benefit
of turning the diverse data of the Yarra River Guardians Association into interactive
pages and helping teams identify and resolve performance issues. This ensures that
the data is not only visually accessible and interpretable but that the performance of
data-driven applications can be optimised by identifying and resolving bottlenecks.
Powerful network archiving and real-time data sharing
GitHub offers tools like ArchiveBox and TermPair, respectively, to facilitate the
automatic conversion of web pages to static formats and enable real-time sharing
and control by terminals. These tools are critical for projects that require web content
archiving and real-time data sharing, ensuring that web content is preserved and
real-time data is effectively shared and controlled.
Scalability, stability and cost performance
GitHub has demonstrated a strong ability to adapt to the growing needs of theYAKA’s
digital archive project, ensuring that it can accommodate increased data and user
volume while maintaining stable and reliable performance. Although the YAKA is a
non-profit organisation , GitHub's free options and valuable paid services remain
affordable and offer a favourable price/performance ratio.
Community and technical support
With an active community and clear documentation(GitHub, 2023), GitHub provides
strong technical support and assistance to ensure that team members can quickly
learn and adapt to the use of the platform, reducing learning difficulty and promoting
smoother operations.
In summary, GitHub, with its multifaceted features and services, has skillfully met the
needs and expectations of the YAKA's Digital archive project, presenting Github as
the ideal tool for the initiative by balancing collaboration capabilities, data
visualisation, archiving capabilities, and scalable solutions.
4.2.2. Specific Suggestion for online platform selection: Conifer
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Based on the selection criteria, the following are the main reasons why YARA chose
to use Conifer as its online platform for digital archive project:
Streamlined data acquisition and interactive documentation
Conifer's automation and interactive content capture capabilities converge into a
robust framework that significantly advances the YARA’s digital archiving project.
The automatic capture function plays a crucial role in efficiently preserving essential
information on YARA web pages that document the importance of the Yarra River,
organisational goals, mission, and various vital issues such as river development,
planning, and water quality. This ensures that critical data supporting the
organisation's day-to-day operations and long-term goals is accurately and efficiently
archived (Conifer, 2020).
At the same time, Conifer's ability to capture interactive content and user behaviour
became indispensable in documenting and understanding YARA's interactions on
various social media platforms, such as X and Facebook. It accurately records user
interactions and relationships, providing a comprehensive archive of organisations'
digital engagement and communication across various platforms (Conifer, 2020).
Together, these features ensure a thorough and accurate record of YARA's online
presence and interactions, protect the digital footprint, and facilitate future reference
and analysis.
Optimised data management features
Conifer provides a range of optimised data management features to enhance
YARA's efficiency and flexibility in digital archiving projects. For example, the "Log in
and Capture" feature allows organisations to capture website content while logged
in, ensuring that user-specific information is recorded while keeping user credentials
secure when sharing archived pages(Conifer, 2020). In addition, the "Publish and
Share" feature provides flexible data access control, allowing YARA to choose to
keep its data collections public or private to suit different data sharing and privacy
needs(Conifer,2020). The "Own Your Data" feature ensures data ownership and
portability(Conifer,2020). It allows YARA to download its web archive in the
internationally standard WARC file format, ensuring that organisations can migrate
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and leverage their data when needed. These features provide YARA with a secure
and flexible digital data management and archiving solution.
Persistent online access
Given that links to websites may fail, information may be removed from the network,
and services may disappear or be redesigned, Conifer ensures that critical content
will remain available, essential for the long-term preservation and access to relevant
information on the Yarra River.
4.3. Community Implementation and Participation
In selecting the preferred archival solution, the implementation and involvement of
the community become critical factors in ensuring the project's success. YAKA's
digital archive project will focus on technical and management solutions and ensure
active participation and contribution from the community. The following is a detailed
guide on community implementation, divided into three parts:Community Support
and Cooperation, Community Promotion and Training, Community Control and
Feedback：
4.3.1. Community Support and Cooperation
We will actively establish partnerships with community organisations and institutions
and encourage the participation and contribution of members and volunteers by
holding activities such as archive solicitations and digital archive exhibitions. In terms
of community support, we will provide technical assistance to help community
members create and use digital archives more conveniently and, at the same time,
establish a community support team focused on project implementation and
management.
4.3.2. Community Promotion and Training
We will promote the project through multiple channels and produce compelling
promotional materials. At the same time, we will introduce a variety of educational
materials and activities to increase community members' participation and
contribution to the project. To ensure broader community participation, we will ensure
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the accessibility of all educational materials, which includes making materials and
resources available in multiple languages. This strategy not only enhances the
promotion of the project but also ensures that community members and volunteers
can actively participate in the project through various training and educational
resources.
4.3.3. Community Control and Feedback
We will develop clear community guidelines for archives submission and formatting
and establish a quality control process to ensure that community submissions meet
the project's standards and requirements. In terms of community feedback, we will
provide convenient feedback channels, such as online surveys and feedback forms,
and promise to promptly respond to and process feedback and suggestions from the
community to optimise the project's implementation and management continuously.
5. Guidelines and rationalization for preferred archive solutions
After discussing the factors driving YARA's shift to electronic records and identifying
the characteristics of three archive tools and two platforms (Appendix 1: Tool and
Platform Characteristics Table), we selected Github as a free software tool and
Conifer, as a free platform for digitally hosted archives. We can identify the following
technical requirements for archiving tool:
● Digitise and manage paper or Excel data, and quickly archive and store it.
● Subsequent use or view, the need to quickly and accurately find the data
information.
● For larger amounts of data, it is hoped that automatic archiving processing
can be realised.
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5.1. Usage guidelines for software tool GitHub
GitHub is a code hosting platform that allows people to collaborate on projects
remotely. (GitHub, 2023) Speaking of GitHub's user testimonials, I think a bit of this
is what makes Github a good fit for YARA.
● A Python framework for quickly visualising data
Streamlit is a Python framework for quickly turning data into visual, interactive pages.
For example, YARA's different types of data into more granular charts. At the same
time the project can be online through a free sharing platform to facilitate data
sharing and discussion, supporting Windows, Mac and Linux.
● Open source real-time performance analysis platform
Pyroscope is an open source real-time performance analysis platform based on Go.
By adding a few lines of code, it can help to find out performance problems and
bottlenecks in the source code, as well as the reasons for high CPU utilisation. It
supports Go, Python and Ruby languages, and can store multiple years of profiling
data from multiple applications, providing rich graphical presentations and retrieval
capabilities.YARA's business activities over the years can also be archived and
categorised, making them more accessible and secure.
● ArchiveBox: Web archiving platform
ArchiveBox is a powerful Python-based web archiving solution that automatically
turns web pages into static pages (HTML, PDF, images) and automatically extracts
and saves text, audio, etc. It can be used for mirroring sites, archives, offline reading,
and more.
● TermPair: Remote terminal control tool
TermPair allows developers to share and control terminals in real time, view and
control remote terminals from your browser through end-to-end encryption,
especially suitable for server non-desktop system environments. This allows YARA
data to share terminals in real time and stay synchronised.
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5.2. Usage guidelines for specific online platform Conifer
Conifer can provide thoughtfully crafted content that captures not only the content,
but also the behaviour of users and the relationships between them. (Conifer, 2016)
YARA Becoming a user of Conifer allows you to create, manage and share your own
collection of web material. This includes free and unlimited access.Conifer was
formerly known as Webrecorder.io.Between 2015 and 2020, Rhizome hosted the
project, and during that time created open source components more suited to what is
now Conifer. Rhizome manages the service in perpetuity with the support of The
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
● In Collection Manager, there are settings that mediate usage preferences,
Collection resources and lists that work in tandem to manage information
about hosted web resources, and a Metadata Panel that enables YARA to
check and enter information describing image content, copyrights, and usage
rights. (Appendix 2: UI of Collection Manager)
● In the scenario During Access, in addition to being able to directly open web
resources and browse web information including URLs and Selectors, you
can still see the Metadata Panel and the Resource Panel. (Appendix 3: UI of
During Access)
● And in Developing Capture, YARA is able to share the URL, interact with the
page, and ultimately review the captured content in the collection manager.
(Appendix 4: UI of During Capture)
The process involves capturing a webpage by following these steps: enter the URL,
select a collection, choose a browser, add session notes if needed, start the capture
process, interact with the page, monitor the capture size, stop the capture, and
review the captured content in the collection manager.
Conifer is a free, flexible, secure and expandable platform. Very simple to use,
almost no learning costs, web UI interface is clear, the operation is almost the same
as windows, in line with the user's habits, in reducing the cost of enterprise
document management at the same time, to eliminate document security risks, and
improve the efficiency of the team office. Because the file belongs to a relatively
"heavy" unstructured data, large volume, eat storage and traffic; and Conifer
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relatively "light" structured data, a string of fields, neither storage nor traffic
consumption. It also provides a history version function, which will keep all the
history versions, so you don't have to worry about the files being changed and
difficult to restore. File uploads will be automatically detected in the cloud, the same
data block without repeated uploads. In addition to file archiving, it can also become
a file resource sharing space for the whole company.
6. Discussion of the Archive Solutions
6.1. Strengths
6.1.1. Centralised data management
Correlation Analysis
With the centralised data management of GitHub and Conifer, YRKA can more
effectively conduct correlation analysis, for example, analysing the relationship
between river development and planning and water quality and pollution, and how
these factors affect biodiversity.
Historical data Tracking
Centralised data management enables organisations to track and analyse historical
Yarra River data to understand river trends and potential future challenges better.
6.1.2. Data security and integrity
Protect Sensitive Information
YRKA may have sensitive information about community members or river research.
GitHub's data security features ensure that unauthorised users cannot access or
compromise this information.
Data recovery
Data integrity also includes the ability to recover in the event of data loss or
corruption, which is particularly important when dealing with critical environmental
data about the Yarra River.
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6.1.3. Ease of use and accessibility
Community education and advocacy
The ease of use of Conifer allows YRKA to more effectively share its research and
findings about the Yarra River with the community, thereby increasing community
awareness and engagement.
Open Data Access
GitHub's accessibility supports the principles of open science and data sharing,
ensuring that YRKA's data and research can be accessed by more organisations,
communities, and stakeholders.
6.1.4. Community engagement and collaboration
Cross-organisational collaboration
YRKA can take full advantage of the collaborative nature of GitHub and Conifer to
work with other organisations and research institutions, for example, by sharing data
and resources with other conservation organisations or research institutions to
advance Yarra River conservation efforts.
Community Data Contributions
Through GitHub and Conifer, YRKA can more easily collect data and information
from community members, for example, observational data on river water quality or
community survey results on river use.
Building on these strengths, YRKA can more effectively manage its digital archives,
protect and share its research and data on the Yarra River, and foster community
engagement and collaboration. This supports YRKA's core business and objectives
and the long-term conservation and management of the Yarra River.
6.2. Weakness
6.2.1. Technical mastery difficulty
While GitHub and Conifer are designed to be relatively user-friendly to take full
advantage of all their functions and features, users still need to invest a certain
amount of time and effort to learn and adapt to these tools. For YAKA’s members
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and volunteers, this can mean extra time and training to familiarise themselves with
these platforms and tools, which can cause delays and challenges in the initial
stages of the project.
6.2.2. Risks of relying on external platforms
Hosting data storage and management on third-party platforms like GitHub and
Conifer, while convenient, also means that YRKA relies to some extent on the
stability and security of these platforms. If these platforms experience technical
issues, security breaches, or other issues, it may affect YRKA's data access and
integrity. In addition, the platform's policies and price changes may also impact
YRKA's long-term data management strategy.
6.2.3. Challenges of Data migration
In the future, data migration could become particularly complex and challenging if
YRKA decides to switch platforms. Migrating data requires ensuring its integrity and
accuracy are preserved and maintaining its version history and associated metadata.
This process can be time-consuming and requires specialised technical knowledge
to ensure data is recovered and maintained during migration. This potential
complexity and risk could impact YRKA's data management strategy and continuity.
These shortcomings are not to say that GitHub and Conifer are not excellent
platforms for YRKA, but rather to highlight some potential challenges and risks that
need to be considered when choosing these tools to prepare better and implement
strategies to address them.
6.3. Impacts
6.3.1. Multiple benefits of cultural preservation
Using GitHub and Conifer as digital archival tools, YRKA enables the long-term
preservation and management of cultural and historical data related to the Yarra
River, which not only ensures that this valuable data is not lost due to physical
damage or loss but also provides an online platform for community members,
researchers and the public to access and share. This ease of access and sharing
further enhances the visibility and impact of cultural heritage. In addition, these
digital archives provide
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● a rich resource for cultural education and research,
● supporting scholars and researchers to explore the history and culture of the
Yarra River in depth,
● providing valuable teaching resources for educational institutions.
By preserving and sharing the culture and history of the Yarra River, YRKA can
strengthen community members' sense of identity and belonging to the local culture,
thereby promoting community cohesion and sustainable development.
6.3.2. Sustainability of the project and its importance
By implementing a comprehensive preservation management plan and using GitHub
and Conifer as its data storage and management tools, YRKA ensures that its digital
records are preserved and protected for the long term and manages its digital
records more effectively, ensuring their security, integrity and accessibility. This
enhanced data management capability further enhances community engagement
and transparency, as providing a centralised, online accessible data storage and
management platform enhances YRKA's interaction and engagement with the
community and the transparency of its activities and initiatives. The preservation and
access of long-term data not only supports future environmental protection and
research work but also provides stable data support for the continuous operation and
development of the project.
7. Digital Archive Strategy Development
Digital record keeping becomes a subject of research for business scientists
because according to Kirsch et al. (2023), digitising a business does not mean that
digital archives can be produced. Metadata poses a challenge to researchers.
Because researchers still need special privileges, special tools to access it. Web
archives are records of web resources. Digital record-keeping is characterised by the
ability to re-engineer business processes and relationships, and records can be
transferred and ingested automatically. (National Research Council et al., 2005b)
Necessary functionality and user-friendly features can support content sharing and
improve the user experience of YARA archiving. In light of the Enron digital
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communications records fraud investigation presented in Nix and Decker (2021), we
reflect on two different approaches to handling digital resources, aggregation and
format tuning. The digital shift inevitably leads to richer preservation of business
materials. The analysis of large information-rich data requires us to consider new
archiving processes and strategies.
With the continuous development of mobile office and enterprise digital office,
document archiving platform becomes an essential requirement for every enterprise.
Due to the large amount of data, low access frequency, paper preservation or Excel
preservation data is easy to be lost and tampered with, and the security risk is very
high. The platform should be based on the actual needs of automated archiving
processing, for those who often do not change the data, direct archiving operations
to ensure the data readability, availability, security, stability. Ultimately save time and
effort spent manually archiving a large amount of data.
I believe that the choice of archiving strategy should be made by analysing the Yarra
River Keeper Association (YRKA) data types as a breakthrough to plan for
technological changes and user expectations.The main business activities of Yarra
River Keeper Association (YRKA) require the long term preservation of a large
number of compliance Documentation such as river activity reports, water health
reports, and analytical data on water quality make up the Yarra River keeper
Association's (YRKA's) primary business activities, as well as the financial and
compliance records needed to maintain operations.
As a social movement organisation, it was only natural to opt for a more
environmentally friendly paperless archive. NARA's experience with the Electronic
Records (ERA) program, which was launched in 1988, can be cited here, as NARA
reports that computer technology has given online archiving a competitive advantage
over paper records. Advantages include, but are not limited to, lower cost, lower
carbon footprint, easier access, greater granularity, and greater security. Dynamically
generated information is formatted through a database. At this point, the entirety of
the data needs to be locked down i.e. archived, which cannot be edited even by
administrators after archiving. By archiving data at the product level, application
designers no longer need to design read-only for each view, while at the same time
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controlling the root cause of the problem of administrators accidentally changing
data. As a result, YARA's per-unit storage costs can be reduced over time, and the
YRKA can audit and track all information activity. (National Research Council et al.,
2005a) The integrity of business activity data and the availability of long-term access
can demonstrate an organisation's core competency in digital record-keeping.
8. Conclusion
The Yarra Riverkeeper Association's Digital Archive Project explores many aspects
of the field of digital archives with a particular focus on the management and
conservation of the Yarra River's ecological, cultural and historical data. In selecting
GitHub and Conifer as key digital archive platforms, the project focused on protecting
critical data and sought to enhance YRKA's engagement and transparency with the
community. Through an in-depth analysis of YRKA's background and regulatory
environment, including compliance with several Australian and Victorian
environmental laws, the project ensures that river resources are managed, protected
and used following local law and indigenous recognition. In addition, the guide and
rationalization of preferred archival solutions, including their advantages and
disadvantages, provides a comprehensive perspective and guidance on YRKA's
digital archival needs, ensuring the effective utilisation of the platform, as well as the
security, accessibility and long-term preservation of data.
Yarra Riverkeeper Association's Digital Archive Project is expected to bring
significant benefits to the future of the Yarra River by creating a solid foundation of
digital archives to protect its valuable environmental and cultural data. This project
not only ensures the long-term preservation and accessibility of important
information but also provides a platform to promote community engagement and the
preservation of cultural heritage, providing a valuable resource for future research
and conservation efforts.
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9. References
Conifer. (2016). About Conifer. Conifer. https://conifer.rhizome.org/_faq
Conifer (2020). Collect and revisit web pages. Conifer. https://conifer.rhizome.org/
Digital Preservation Coalition. (2014). Implement Digital Preservation. DPC.
https://www.dpconline.org/digipres/implement-digipres/dpeg-home/dpeg-risk
GitHub. (2023). Adding locally hosted code to Github. GitHub Docs.
https://docs.github.com/en/migrations/importing-source-code/using-the-comm
and-line-to-import-source-code/adding-locally-hosted-code-to-github
GitHub. (2023). Hello World. GitHub Docs.
https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/quickstart/hello-world
GitHub. (2023). GitHub Community. Community. https://github.com/community
Kirsch, D. A., Decker, S., Nix, A., Shubhangkar Girish Jain, & Santhilatha Kuppili
Venkata. (2023). Using born-digital archives for business history: EMCODIST
and the case of E-mail. Management & Organizational History, 18(1), 16–23.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17449359.2023.2183220
Melbourne Water. (2022, October 26). Water Act.
https://www.melbournewater.com.au/about/what-we-do/legislation/water-act
National Archives of Australia (2021). Preservation Digitisation Standards.
https://www.naa.gov.au/about-us/who-we-are/accountability-and-reporting/arc
hival-policy-and-planning/preservation-digitisation-standards
National Research Council, Committee on Digital Archiving and the National
Archives and Records Administration, Computer Science and
Telecommunications Board, Eisenberg, J., & Sproull, R. F. (2005a). Ongoing
Technology Change and Rising User Expectations. In Building an Electronic
Records Archive at the National Archives and Records Administration (pp.
18–34). National Academies Press.
National Research Council, Committee on Digital Archiving and the National
Archives and Records Administration, Computer Science and
Telecommunications Board, Eisenberg, J., & Sproull, R. F. (2005b).
Reengineering Processes to Meet the Electronic Records Challenge. In
Building an Electronic Records Archive at the National Archives and Records
Administration (pp. 35–45). National Academies Press.
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NORTON-WISLA, L. O. T. U. S., & WYNNE, M. (2017). Community-based digital
archiving. Chicago: American Library Association.
Nix, A., & Decker, S. (2021). Using digital sources: the future of business history?
Business History, 65(6), 1048–1071.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2021.1909572
Parks Victoria. (n.d.). Recreational Boating Guide Yarra and Maribyrnong.
https://www.parks.vic.gov.au/-/media/project/pv/main/parks/documents/get-int
o-nature/events-and-filming-permits/recreational-boating-guide-yarra-and-mari
byrnong.pdf?la=en&hash=7FE03C18B4B42ED1F8E40B407DBFDD2A81BBB
D3A
Victoria State Government. (2023, June 14). Legislation and Regulations.
Department of Transport and Planning.
https://www.planning.vic.gov.au/guides-and-resources/legislation-regulation-a
nd-fees/legislation-and-regulations
Victoria State Government. (2023, September 8). Yarra River Protection/ Wilip-gin
Birrarung murron Act 2017. Energy, Environment and Climate Action.
https://www.water.vic.gov.au/waterways/protecting-the-yarra-birrarung/yarra-ri
ver-protection-wilip-gin-birrarung-murron-act-2017#:~:text=The%20Act%20giv
es%20effect%20to,as%20a%20 single%2C%20 living%20entity.
Yarra Riverkeeper Association. (2021, January 25). What We Do?
https://yarrariver.org.au/what-we-do/
Yaara RiverKeeper. (2023). Your Yaara. https://yarrariver.org.au/yarra/
Yarra RiverKeeper. (2023). Meet The Team. https://yarrariver.org.au/about/team/
Zhao, Y., & Yang, H. (2019). Postgraduates' personal digital archiving practices in
China: Problems and strategies. The Journal of Academic Librarianship,
45(5), 102044.
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10. Appendix 1: Tool and Platform Characteristics Table
11. Appendix 2: UI of Collection Manager
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12. Appendix 3: UI of During Access
13. Appendix 4: UI of During Capture
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14. Group Contributions Statement
Our team worked well together and successfully completed the assignment. We use
Google Cloud to track individual contributions and share ideas in a timely manner.
Each member contributed to the project in their own unique way, and we are proud
of the final result. Here’s the contribution description:
Member Contributions
Everyone found a group in different fields. We finalized our group's
community group by voting.
I created a PPT and Report template and assigned tasks to team
members based on the task instructions, videos, and grading
criteria.
Presentation
● I helped with the formatting of the group members' PPTs.
● I found the free archiving platforms and tools chosen for the
Yarra Riverkeeper Association and wrote their characteristics.
Report
● I helped to reform the structure and draft of the report.
● I identified guidelines and rationalization for preferred archive
solutions and wrote the Digital Archive Strategy
Development.
Everyone found a group in different fields. We finalized our group's
community group by voting.
Presentation
● I wrote the background and characteristics of the Yarra
Riverkeeper Association.
Report
● I wrote the introduction of this report.
● I looked for and wrote the Yarra RiverKeeper Association's
backgrounds, including the association objectives, core
business or mission and structure etc.
30
Boya Liu
31200583
Everyone found a group in different fields. We finalized our group's
community group by voting.
Presentation
● I wrote the guidelines used for identifying suitable free
archiving platforms and tools for the Yarra Riverkeeper
Association.
Report
● I helped to reform the structure and draft of the report.
● I wrote three parts: Selection of the preferred archive solutions,
Discussion of the Archive Solutions and conclusion
Everyone found a group in different fields. We finalized our group's
community group by voting.
Presentation
● I wrote the evaluation of the Yarra Riverkeeper Association in
terms of its capacity for recordkeeping resources and
determined competencies.
Report
● I have explained the regulatory environment and access
rights of the Yarra Riverkeeper Association along with the
factors influencing the development of digital archive,
participants and their resources and digital capabilities, and
the major risk analysis.
Signatures: