I wanted to share this announcement on the FIrst International Digital Preservation Challenge (and Prizes) from Digital Preservation Europe. It's designed to bring new ideas and new participants into the digital preservation community, and seems like a splendid idea. Note that the Challenge is open to entrants worldwide, not just from Europe.

Clifford Lynch
Director, CNI
-----------------------------------------

DigitalPreservationEurope (DPE) is delighted to announce its first
international Digital Preservation Challenge.

http://www.digitalpreservationeurope.eu/challenge/

DigitalPreservationEurope (DPE) raises awareness and improves practice in
the management, longevity, and reuse of digital assets. To this end, DPE is
delighted to announce the first international Digital Preservation
Challenge. The Digital Preservation Challenge aims to promote innovation at
all levels from students to researchers, and will provide an insight into
the range of digital preservation risks currently being faced by
international research and practitioner communities.

About the challenge
The challenge invites participants to overcome the barriers hindering access
to six digital objects. Each object is accompanied by a highly abstracted
scenario based on real-life situations. These scenarios are intended to make
the challenge more accessible to participants from all backgrounds while not
trivialising the serious nature of the digital preservation challenges
facing society.

Who is eligible to enter?
The first Digital Preservation Challenge is open to individuals from any
country or discipline. Post-graduate and undergraduate students with a
computing science, engineering, or information science background should be
especially well-placed to tackle the challenge. This first Digital
Preservation Challenge is not open to professional research teams or labs,
however future competitions will be planned for these communities. The rules
and regulations governing this challenge can be found at
http://www.digitalpreservationeurope.eu/challenge/rules.

Evaluating submissions
Submissions to the first Digital Preservation Challenge will be assessed by
a panel of international digital preservation experts and practitioners. The
incremental scoring method the panel will use emphasizes the thoroughness
and quality of the documentation of the processes used to render the objects
rather than the overall outcome itself. In this respect, it may be possible
for an individual to win the challenge even if he/she cannot ultimately
render all of the objects. All submissions to the Digital Preservation
Challenge will be published on the DPE website following the announcement of
the winning entries. The deadline for submissions for the first Digital
Preservation Challenge is 15 July 2007. Submission can be completed online.

Winners will be announced on 18 September 2007 at the European Conference on
Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries (ECDL) Conference
Dinner. ECDL is the premier European conference on innovation in digital
libraries. The conference will take place in Budapest from 16-21 September
2007.

To learn more about or to take part in the Digital Preservation Challenge,
please visit http://www.digitalpreservationeurope.eu/challenge/.

Important dates
Opening of the Challenge: 23 May 2007
Deadline for submissions: 15 July 2007 at 5pm GMT Announcement of winners:
18 September 2007

Awards
First Prize 3000 Euros
Second Prize 1500 Euros
Third Prize 500 Euros

Questions or comments should be sent to
challenge@digitalpreservationeurope.eu.

Best wishes,

Professor Seamus Ross
Principal Director DigitalPreservationEurope (DPE) HATII at the University
of Glasgow
11 University Gardens
Glasgow, G12 8QQ
http://www.hatii.arts.gla.ac.uk
http://digitalpreservationeurope.eu

&

Professor Andreas Rauber
Director of DigitalPreservationEurope's Exchange Programme Vienna University
of Technology Karlsplatz 13 A-1040 Vienna http://www.tuwien.ac.at/tu_vienna/
http://digitalpreservationeurope.eu