[game_preservation] EFGAMP and Art History of Videogames

[Andrew Perti]

I would like to say hello and apologize for not being as active in this 
group as I can be/should have been.  I do read everything that comes 
through though and appreciate all of your comments.  This email will be 
relatively long winded and I apologize ahead of time for that.

I approached Chris last year and on June 24th (2011) we had an hour and 
a half lunch about this very topic, the topic of video game preservation 
standards bodies.  In the lunch I outlined some of my preliminary ideas 
and strategies for CIMPL -- The Consortium of Interactive Media 
Preservation Logistics.  "Video Game Preservation is CIMPL" (pronounced 
simple).  Unfortunately I haven't had much time to handle the paperwork 
for incorporation, recruit board members, or formally outline all of the 
intricate details.  After all, I'm developing The Seattle Interactive 
Media Museum (SIMM) right now and filing paperwork, recruiting board 
members, and formally outlining all of the details for it.  More in 
CIMPL in a moment.

One central component to SIMM's development is the creation of a new 
database.  For over a year now I have been in collaboration with several 
faculty members of the iSchool at the University of Washington on 
developing the groundwork for UMLAUT -- Ubiquitous Museum, Library, 
Archive Unification Technology.  Umlaut is a German word which loosely 
translates to "a change in sound or tone for emphasis".  Changing the 
video game preservation landscape worldwide is reasonably emphatic if 
you ask me.  UMLAUT is a unified artifact management platform for 
institutions.  In the system artifacts are designated in one of three 
categories; Physical, Digital, Abstract.  For the purposes of UMLAUT, 
SIMM, and CIMPL, abstract artifacts are anything we can't either 
physically touch, like Sonic the Hedgehog the character, OR physical 
items we cannot house/preserve internally such as industry 
professionals, locations, or events.

The conceptual network architecture for UMLAUT is being developed by a 
good friend of mine who is a systems programmer at Rensselaer 
Polytechnic Institute.  Within the conceptual model we have safeguards 
for handling private (dark) information for each individual institution, 
different tiers of data proliferation restrictions, and how light 
(public) information permissions get handled and where that info can get 
populated to.  We're also conceptualizing information auto-population so 
that each new artifact that gets entered into the database can have an 
overwhelming amount of information fill in as long as another 
institution, or your own, has already processed a similar or the exact 
same artifact.  Think of WorldCat but for video games and video game 
artifacts.  Those are just a few components of UMLAUT.  Quickly, some 
other components of UMLAUT are; the ability to tell you where an 
artifact should be placed when newly entered into the system based on 
your available shelving/storage space (virtual shelving taxonomies), a 
3D exhibit development tool (think Google Sketch-Up), website 
population, facilitated restoration guides and techniques for different 
types of artifacts, and a whole lot more.

Back to CIMPL.  We do have a website (www.cimpl.org) which serves merely 
as a placeholder for now.  I would be happy to install WikiMedia on the 
server to get the ball rolling on a concerted effort for developing 
these universal guidelines.  One of our goals right now at SIMM is to 
publish our up-to-date guidelines for CIMPL by December 31.  The wiki 
could be used as a platform for significantly expanding the content we 
could publish by then.  Here are two documents I typed up in August and 
October of last year after being inspired by the PAX East 2011 panel.  
Needless to say after reading through these documents I find them to be 
very incomplete but at least it gives you an idea of what we're striving 
towards.

http://www.cimpl.org/temp/Best_Practices_Doctrine.docx
http://www.cimpl.org/temp/System_Ideas.docx

There is so much more to talk about, both what we have done so far and 
what we're planning on in the future, and I look forward to talking with 
you all about this going forward.  Together, let's make video game 
preservation simple.

Andrew Perti
Founder | Seattle Interactive Media Museum
andrew.perti at thesimm.org | www.thesimm.org
Mobile: 518 653-5864


On 5/17/2012 8:28 AM, Devin Monnens wrote:

> First off, I wanted to post this here on the list. Yes, I knew about 

> it for about a month now, but have been so busy with moving and a new 

> job that I haven't had time to sit down and actually READ the article 

> to give some sort of meaningful summary of it.

>

> http://www.aiomi.it/news/efgamp-joining-forces-to-preserve-gaming-legacy/?goback=%2Egmp_4158855%2Egde_4158855_member_103892326 

>

>

> Basically, EFGAMP is Europe's answer to game preservation. This 

> article announces its launch and gives a detailed summary of everyone 

> involved in the project.

>

> The thing is, while I know a lot of you here should know about it, I 

> am VERY surprised that it was never announced on the mailing list (or 

> at least I never saw it). I don't really see any involvement with the 

> SIG in this for that reason, and I think that's a bad thing, 

> especially when we see one of the bullet points farther down:

>

>   * Network with other digital preservation communities worldwide

>

> So yeah, that international game preservation network is something a 

> bit far off. I'm not blaming it on EFGAMP or the SIG, but I would have 

> thought the SIG would have talked about it sooner (or was that at the 

> GDC meeting I missed?).

>

> Anyway, in relation to this is an interview from December with Chris 

> Melissinos. Is he on our list?

>

> http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/701849/qa-chris-melissinos-curator-of-the-smithsonians-art-of-video-games-exhibition/ 

>

>

> Here's the section dealing directly with preservation:

>

> *G4: So we should expect an entire video game wing of the Smithsonian 

> in the near future?*

>

> CM: If I had my way, absolutely. And depending on the success of this, 

> it could be the very first step. And more than just the Smithsonian 

> American Art Museum. I see a real opportunity to create an advisory 

> body or consortium that drives a global standard for curation, 

> information gathering and collection. Adhering to this, we could still 

> have the private collections, and at the same time, able to 

> cross-reference each other, so we can get a holistic view, globally, 

> of the entire industry.

>

> And honestly, this sort of database was something I'd been interested 

> in doing for awhile. I started research on the database of 

> preservation institutions around the world, but I have to admit I 

> never really got the ball rolling on that one (online database is the 

> trouble, and I know I'd briefly discussed with Andrew on this). I 

> think the EFGAMP project shows that the Europeans are already taking 

> that step forward.

>

> My opinion was that we should:

>

>   * a) provide a space for international conversation about

>     preservation of games (basically, where anybody who is doing

>     anything with preservation can share ideas) and

>   * b) use that network to build the database. (i.e. Who is doing

>     what, and what still needs to be done)

>

> Any thoughts on this?

>

> -- 

> Devin Monnens

> www.deserthat.com <http://www.deserthat.com>

>

> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>

>

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