This is just to give teachers and trainers an idea how they could implement hands-on exercises of the PET.
Individual or group work – Create a scenario:
To create a hands-on exercise with the PET, we advise to provide a scenario describing a challenge (inaccessibility or partial loss of data) and then use the same situation as an exercise running the scenario with PET. What information would in retrospect have been useful to avoid the problem or mitigate the circumstances?
Examples:
Scenario 1:
A former temporary worker or freelancer with a design company provided their end result (e.g. a company website design and layout proposal), and now that the client has chosen the result, but months later it needs to be amended in parts, and bugs appeared that need to be tweaked, there is no way to contact the designer. It is e.g. not clear where the images were taken from, if there is IPR constraint on using them. It is unclear with which software parts were produced, and if originals were manipulated etc.
What information would be useful for this scenario to capture in order to have a workable, amendable, IPR clear digital object?
Scenario 2:
A pdf file is used in a software-based art installation. The PDF format gives the ability to embed the font types used in a document, to guarantee faithful reproduction of the document even when the digital object is moved to an environment that does not include them. However, it is still possible to create PDF documents without including the necessary fonts (for example, it can be a user choice or a the font can be blacklisted in the PDF creating application). This may lead to inaccurate rendering. How could that be avoided by using the PET during the creating of the pdf?
Scenario 3:
An archive receives the bequest of the private archive of a known photographer. The archivist needs to inventorise the material, i.e. has to go through each, and then appraise it. Some of the material cannot be opened. Some seem to use old software versions that might soon conflict with the archive’s digital systems and equipment. If the photographer had installed the PET for her private archive, which movements within and what parts of her digital environment should the PET capture in order to facilitate the appraisal process? This process includes deciding on what to keep. Sometimes this might imply costs, e.g. for proprietary software to be kept updated, for software to be migrate, for specific equipment to run the data etc. Which PET captured data will help understand the long-term impact of committing to keep a digital object accessible?
Group work – Discuss the choices made with the PET
Discuss the choices you are making in the PET “scenario” (indicating what should be automatically extracted), keeping in mind that the amount of choices can reduce your computer’s work speed, that you might infringe privacy or copyright issues.
Using the PeriCAT
It is advisable to encapsulate the information extracted with the PeriCAT tool presented in the next chapter, to ensure that the object and the SEI metadata are kept together.
Decapsulate the encapsulated information.
Compare the results from the decapsulation with the files before encapsulation. What do you notice?