[x3d-public] Meaning of X3D Archivability

[Leonard Daly]

Last week I read an article from _Communications of the ACM_ titled 
"Preserving Hybrid Objects". This is from the May 2016 issue. You can 
access the teaser online at 
http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2016/5/201601-preserving-hybrid-objects/abstract. 
If you are an ACM member with Digital Library access you can read the 
whole thing.

The article discusses what is meant by preserving an object. [Side note: 
a couple of examples cited in the text use VRML.] The discussion is 
mostly about art, but to some extent it applies to anything you are 
trying to preserve / archive. The examples cited in the text all take 
inputs from the Internet and generate results (appearance) based on 
those. These include stock prices, images uploaded to Flickr, and other 
data sources.

The author is trying to determine what is necessary to preserve an 
object. Is it strictly the code that generates the display? Is it the 
code plus data? How do you account for the time-varying and (separately) 
3D nature of the displays?

He does not come to a resolution but does ask a lot of questions. One 
question that I derived from the article is

     "What do we mean by X3D is archivable."

Does that mean:
  * the data that generates a particular display needs to be saved?
  * the process of saving X3D files archives everything needed for the 
display?
  * how do you archive a particular user's experience interacting with 
the display?
  * only the code that is capable of generating the display is archivable?
  * is there a difference between archiving code and data for the 
display of scientific work (e.g., CT scan) vs. the display of art?

Since the X3D file is not itself capable of generating and managing a 
display, how important is it to have a program that does so? Are there 
archivability requirements on that software?

I feel that these questions are important because the X3D WG (and 
others) are trying to figure out what it means to be archivable in an 
HTML environment.


-- 
*Leonard Daly*
3D Systems & Cloud Consultant
LA ACM SIGGRAPH Chair
President, Daly Realism - /Creating the Future/
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