Call for Proposals: Digits Fugit! Preserving Knowledge into the Future

The following is being circulated on the Internet.

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Call for Proposals
DIGITS FUGIT!
Preserving Knowledge into the Future
33rd Annual Museum Computer Network Conference
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Meeting Dates: November 3 - 5, 2005
Proposal Deadline: February 12, 2005
Proposal Forms: http://www.mcn.edu/

Dear Colleagues:

We've all spent a great deal of time and effort organizing vast quantities
of information in a variety of digital formats. We have now realized the
time has come to focus on preserving the valuable results of that tremendous
effort. In response, the theme for the Museum Computer Network's 2005
conference will be Digits Fugit! Preserving Knowledge into the Future. Come
to Boston, where the city's historic downtown will provide a perfect setting
to remind us of the value of preserving a proud past while keeping our eye
firmly on a glorious future.

As an organization, MCN has always championed back-office, mission-critical,
"heavy lifting" aspects of museum technologies. We provided advocacy and
professional development programs to help our membership accomplish basic
networking and database efforts that transformed the record keeping part of
museum work. For years now, we have turned our attention to refining
cataloguing standards, image digitizing technologies, developing smarter
systems for inter-operability, sustainability, and electronic publication.

The good news is that collectively, we have become quite skilled at creating
and delivering digital resources! The not-so-good news is that we now need
to spend equally prodigious efforts at preserving the fruits of our labor.
And as we know, this is not lacking in complexity! Fortunately, we have
kindred spirits and friends in this effort and we will be making every
effort to bring as many of them as we can to our conference. We will join
forces with the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) who will
produce a new two-day curriculum on Digital Preservation at the Omni Parker
House, just before our conference. Speakers from Harvard, MIT, and the W3C
will be on hand to lead workshops and speak on panels, and we will organize
facilities tours of some of the more well-known digital production and
preservation sites in town.

Even though the theme will focus on digital longevity issues, MCN
conferences are always open for presentations on all of the other
technologies and concerns in our field. Accordingly, the Program Committee
is seeking presentations based on current and planned activities or research
that focus on one of the following broad areas of interest:

Preservation Metadata Standards
Preservation Planning
Preservation Policy Development
Research & Evaluation
Storage Technologies
Standards & Interoperability
Digital Rights Management

Multimedia & Streaming Technologies
Collection Information Management
Collaboration & Data Aggregation
Point of Sale & eCommerce
Electronic Publication
Imaging Technologies
Intellectual Property Rights
Management Issues
Membership & Fund Raising

Proposals will be accepted in one of the following three formats: panels,
workshops or roundtables. Each session must have a chairperson responsible
for finding other speakers and coordinating logistics. All chairs must be
affiliated with an institutional member or be an MCN individual member.
Topics for the sessions should fall into at least one of the categories
listed on page 1 of the proposal form. All proposals for sessions and/or
workshops must be submitted on Call for Proposals form. To obtain
additional copies or get more specific information, visit the MCN web site,
www.mcn.edu or contact Susan Rawlyk at
the MCN office by email rawlyks@igs.net or phone (403) 288-9394.

Sincerely,

Sam Quigley
President

Christine Bostick and Cathryn Goodwin
2005 Conference Co-Chairs