p2pnet.net News:- Much of the US government’s digital data from the late 20th and 21st centuries will be lost unless a system is developed to save and store it properly, says the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

Vital digital materials are being lost every day, and the cost of the losses is unknown and unknowable, says Reynolds Cahoon, NARA assistant archivist and chief information officer, quoted in the Federal Times here.

Every program that relies on federal records: a veteran’s ability to get benefits, a doctor’s ability to access patients’ digital medical records, a retiree’s Social Security benefits, the safety of the nuclear stockpile, or the security of US borders, could be threatened, says the story.

The solution? A seven-year, half-billion-dollar project dubbed Electronic Records Archives (ERA) to save and protect US government electronic information.

NARA has awarded two one-year design contracts worth a combined $20 million to Harris Corp of Melbourne, Florida, and Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Maryland, says Federal Times, going on that NARA will choose the winner next year.

“This contract is potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars over the life of the contract, with countless ramifications for individuals, private businesses and government organizations alike, as well as our country and the world. Mark my words: ERA is going to change the world as we know it,” says John Carlin, archivist of the United States, adding:

“When we say ERA will make electronic information available virtually any time, anywhere, and to anyone with Internet access, we are not just talking about information contained in government records. We will start with government records, but there is no end to where ERA can take us.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 5th, 2004 at 12:11 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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