The growing problem of accessing old digital file formats is a "ticking time bomb", the chief executive of the UK National Archives has warned.
Natalie Ceeney said society faced the possibility of "losing years of critical knowledge" because modern PCs could not always open old file formats.
She was speaking at the launch of a partnership with Microsoft to ensure the Archives could read old formats.
Microsoft's UK head Gordon Frazer warned of a looming "digital dark age".Costly deal
He added: "Unless more work is done to ensure legacy file formats can be read and edited in the future, we face a digital dark hole."
Research by the British Library suggests Europe loses 3bn euros each year in business value because of issues around digital preservation.
The National Archives, which holds 900 years of written material, has more than 580 terabytes of data - the equivalent of 580,000 encyclopaedias - in older file formats that are no longer commercially available.
Ms Ceeney said: "If you put paper on shelves, it's pretty certain it is going to be there in a hundred years.
"If you stored something on a floppy disc just three or four years ago, you'd have a hard time finding a modern computer capable of opening it."
"Digital information is in fact inherently far more ephemeral than paper," warned Ms Ceeney.
She added: "The pace of software and hardware developments means we are living in the world of a ticking time bomb when it comes to digital preservation.
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Natalie Ceeney said society faced the possibility of "losing years of critical knowledge" because modern PCs could not always open old file formats.
She was speaking at the launch of a partnership with Microsoft to ensure the Archives could read old formats.
Microsoft's UK head Gordon Frazer warned of a looming "digital dark age".Costly deal
He added: "Unless more work is done to ensure legacy file formats can be read and edited in the future, we face a digital dark hole."
Research by the British Library suggests Europe loses 3bn euros each year in business value because of issues around digital preservation.
The National Archives, which holds 900 years of written material, has more than 580 terabytes of data - the equivalent of 580,000 encyclopaedias - in older file formats that are no longer commercially available.
Ms Ceeney said: "If you put paper on shelves, it's pretty certain it is going to be there in a hundred years.
"If you stored something on a floppy disc just three or four years ago, you'd have a hard time finding a modern computer capable of opening it."
"Digital information is in fact inherently far more ephemeral than paper," warned Ms Ceeney.
She added: "The pace of software and hardware developments means we are living in the world of a ticking time bomb when it comes to digital preservation.
Discuss Add this link to... Bury
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