User Documentation
EaaSI User Handbook
The EaaSI User Handbook covers all official documentation related to deploying and using the EaaSI platform. including system requirements, explanation of menus and interfaces, example workflows, a Glossary and FAQ, and more. It should be the first stop for anyone interested in learning what the EaaSI platform looks like and its current functionality.
(All EaaSI platform code is also open source and hosted on GitLab)
EaaSI Community Forum
The EaaSI team also maintains the Community Forum, a hosted Discourse forum for more conversational, direct support and as a public bug tracker. While EaaSI Network node representatives will be added to private sub-categories for Network-only communications, ALL users and on-lookers are welcome to register for an account to discuss and ask questions about the EaaSI program of work, emulation and software preservation, and more.
If looking to file a specific bug report or problem with the EaaSI platform itself, please open a topic in the Support Center on the EaaSI Community Forum and the EaaSI team will respond as soon as able.
Webinars
EaaSI Roundtable #1 (2021): “What We Talk About When We Talk About Emulation”
Summary: “What We Talk About When We Talk About Emulation” is a roundtable discussion featuring Eric Kaltman (California State University Channel Islands), Tracy Popp (University of Illinois), and Fernando Rios (University of Arizona) as guest speakers. You can read more …Continue EaaSI Roundtable #1 (2021): “What We Talk About When We Talk About Emulation”
Resources, Webinars
Software Preservation and Emulation @ Stanford: A Symposium
Every day we all make choices about our individual digital legacies through what we create, keep, and share. Software mediates all of those activities. The 2020 Software Preservation and Emulation Symposium provided an opportunity to discuss our dependence on software …Continue Software Preservation and Emulation @ Stanford: A Symposium
Resources, Webinars
Emulators and Configuration Workflows
Summary: This webinar, the last in the EaaSI Webinar Series, is entitled “Emulators and Configuration Workflows” and addresses questions such as: What is your previous experience in using emulation software? Were there any emulation programs already incorporated into your institutional workflows? …Continue Emulators and Configuration Workflows
Resources, Webinars
EaaSI Metadata Model and Wikidata
This webinar, entitled “EaaSI Metadata Model and Wikidata,” addresses questions such as: How does your organization create, manage or discover metadata about software and related resources now? What would you like to be able to do with software metadata? Do …Continue EaaSI Metadata Model and Wikidata
Resources, Webinars
Why EaaSI? System Overview
Summary: This webinar, entitled “Why EaaSI? System Overview,” addresses questions such as: What problem is EaaSI trying to solve? What are EaaSI core functions and underlying design concepts? Why are approaching it this way? How is EaaSI different from EaaS? …Continue Why EaaSI? System Overview
Resources, Webinars
Legal and Institutional Policy Frameworks
Summary: This webinar, entitled “Legal and Institutional Policy Frameworks,” addresses questions such as: When you don’t collect software as an object, why do you do it? What role(s) does/do software play in your organizations and their long-term collection and preservation …Continue Legal and Institutional Policy Frameworks
Resources, Webinars
Templates
In-Person Meeting Exercises
EaaSI Node Leads convened in November 2018 to review the EaaSI beta implementation process, discuss service design for emulation in local organizational contexts, prioritize project activities and review the Participation Agreement drafted in partnership with the Harvard Law School Cyberlaw …Continue In-Person Meeting Exercises
Resources, Templates
Software Collections Inventory
EaaSI Software Collections Inventory is what is sometimes referred to as a Random (or spot) inventory. Random (or spot) inventories are extremely limited in scope. They are primarily used to verify the location of a representative sampling of objects. They …Continue Software Collections Inventory
Resources, Templates
Scenarios for (Re)Use & Access
EaaSI Scenarios for Use & Access asks each Node Host to brainstorm scenarios for use and access they believe will drive the adoption of EaaSI; identify users whose use cases they believe may correspond with the scenarios for use and …Continue Scenarios for (Re)Use & Access
Resources, Templates
Semi-Structured Interviews
EaaSI Scenarios for Use & Access asks each Node Host to brainstorm scenarios for use and access they believe will drive the adoption of EaaSI; identify users whose use cases they believe may correspond with the scenarios for use and …Continue Semi-Structured Interviews
Resources, Templates
Exploring our Emulation Environment
The purpose of the “Exploring our Emulation Environment” exercise is to unpack and reflect on the range of curatorial decisionmaking required to configure an emulation environment. Participants are asked to consider metadata and technical challenges, as well as, use cases …Continue Exploring our Emulation Environment
Resources, Templates
Soup to Nuts: Simulating Software
The purpose of the Soup to Nuts exercise is to revisit your Software & Collection Inventory and Scenarios for Use & Access to determine if those software cases/examples are still the cases/examples that you want to configure and test in …Continue Soup to Nuts: Simulating Software
Resources, Templates
Prioritizing Software
This purpose of Prioritizing Software is to expose Node Hosts to National Software Reference Library software categories and their contribution to the EaaSI seed library; to provide an overview of the EaaSI software configuration workflow; and to connect the software …Continue Prioritizing Software
Resources, Templates
Prioritizing Features
This purpose of Prioritizing Features is to encourage Node Hosts to articulate and prioritize possible features for each feature category of the EaaSI system including Search/Discovery Resource Import Environment Configuration Metadata/Description User Management User Interface Network Capabilities Data Management Access …Continue Prioritizing Features
Resources, Templates
Envisioning Local Services
This purpose of the Envisioning Local Services exercise is to help your organization consider the specifics of the local service environment and create a list of short, medium and long-term goals that will help to bring software preservation and emulation …Continue Envisioning Local Services
Resources, Templates
Baseline Cost Measurement
This purpose of the baseline cost calculator is to capture as much granular information about the costs of software preservation in different organizational contexts as possible – inlcuding start-up costs. We understand that every organization will vary in terms of …Continue Baseline Cost Measurement
Resources, Templates
Training Modules
EaaSI Training Module #8: Beyond the PC – Emulating Closed Systems
Intro to Beyond the PC – Emulating Closed Systems: During this module, participants will learn about: What is a “closed system”, and how does it differ from an “open system”? What’s a “ROM” file? What factors limit the capabilities of …Continue EaaSI Training Module #8: Beyond the PC – Emulating Closed Systems
Resources
EaaSI Training Module #7: Implementing Metadata Standards
Intro to Implementing Metadata Standards: During this module, participants will learn about: What kind of metadata does EaaSI (the program of work) gather? What metadata has been directly incorporated into the EaaSI platform? Which standards are influencing EaaSI system design? …Continue EaaSI Training Module #7: Implementing Metadata Standards
Resources
EaaSI Training Module #6: Building an EaaSI Network
Intro to Building an EaaSI Network: During this module, participants will learn about: What are EaaSI “nodes” and how do they communicate with each other? What is OAI-PMH? What happens when I “publish” an EaaSI resource? Questions for Discussion/Reflection In …Continue EaaSI Training Module #6: Building an EaaSI Network
Resources
EaaSI Training Module #5: Disk Images
Intro to Disk Images: During this module, participants will learn about: What is a disk image? How do disk images relate to Software, Content, and Environment resources in EaaSI? What is the advantage of copy-on-write disk images? Questions for Discussion/Reflection …Continue EaaSI Training Module #5: Disk Images
Resources
EaaSI Training Module #4: Emulation, Virtualization, Containerization
Intro to Emulation, Virtualization, Containerization: During this module, participants will learn about: What is the difference between emulation, virtualization, and containerization? Why does the difference matter for long-term preservation? How, why, and when does the EaaSI platform make use of …Continue EaaSI Training Module #4: Emulation, Virtualization, Containerization
Resources
EaaSI Training Module #3: EaaS|EaaSI Stack
Intro to the EaaS|EaaS Software Stack: During this module, participants will learn about: What are the essential components of the Emulation-as-a-Service (EaaS) stack? How does the EaaSI platform build on EaaS? Where are EaaSI resources (Environments, Software, Content) stored relative …Continue EaaSI Training Module #3: EaaS|EaaSI Stack
Resources
EaaSI Training Module #2: Software and Content
Intro to Software and Content Resources: During this module, participants will learn: What is the difference between Software and Content resources? How (and why) does the EaaSI platform treat them differently? Questions for Discussion/Reflection Pick a file in your Downloads …Continue EaaSI Training Module #2: Software and Content
Resources
EaaSI Training Module #1: Emulation Environments
Intro to Emulation Environments During this module, participants will learn about: Why does the EaaSI team refer to emulation and computing “environments”? What is an EaaSI “Environment” resource? What sort of details do we need to describe and maintain environments? …Continue EaaSI Training Module #1: Emulation Environments
Resources
Presentations
Towards a Universal Virtual Interactor (UVI) for Digital Objects
Presentation given at iPRES 2019
Presentations, Resources
Participatory Design for Software Preservation and Emulation Services
Presentation given at the International Conference on Digital Preservation (iPRES) 2018
Presentations, Resources
Complex Data Sets, Software Preservation, and Emulation: A distributed approach to long-term care
Presentation given at Research Data Archiving & Preservation (RDAP) Summit 2018
Presentations, Resources
Investigating Emulation as a Service for Reproducible Research at Yale
Presentation given at the 2020 Librarians Building Momentum for Reproducible Research virtual conference.
Presentations, Resources
An Introduction to Emulation
Presentation at the NYU Institute for Fine Arts’ workshop “Digital Preservation: Caring for Digital Art Objects.”
Presentations, Resources
Software Curation: Intersection of Policy and Practice
Panel presentation at Maintainers III in Washington, D.C. in October 2019 featuring perspectives on the materials that have to be maintained around the software in order to make the software meaningful including: research data curation librarian, service provider, legal expert, …Continue Software Curation: Intersection of Policy and Practice
Presentations, Resources
Participatory Design for Long-term Access: User Research, Software Preservation, and Emulation
EaaSI presentation given at Open Repositories in Hamburg, Germany in June 2019
Presentations, Resources
Software Curation: An Ecosystem of Users, Tools, and Services
Panel presentation at PASIG in Mexico City, Mexico in February 2019 featuring perspectives from different niches in the software curation ecosystem including: software sustinability trainer, software preservation and emulation infrastructure providers, a disciplinary liasion, and a legal expert.
Presentations, Resources
Scaling Software Preservation & Emulation Services
EaaSI presentation at Digital Library Forum in Las Vegas, Nevada in October 2018.
Presentations, Resources
Participatory Design for Software Preservation and Emulation Services
EaaSI presentation given at International Conference on Digital Preservation (iPRES) in Boston, Massachusetts in September 2018
Presentations, Resources
Complex Data Sets, Software Preservation and Emulation: A distributed approach to long-term care
EaaSI presentation at Research Data Archiving & Preservation Summit in Chicago, Ilinois in March 2018
Presentations, Resources
Symposia
Software Preservation and Emulation @ Stanford: A Symposium
Every day we all make choices about our individual digital legacies through what we create, keep, and share. Software mediates all of those activities. The 2020 Software Preservation and Emulation Symposium provided an opportunity to discuss our dependence on software …Continue Software Preservation and Emulation @ Stanford: A Symposium