The Technological Infrastructure Working Group addresses one of the most fundamental challenges of software preservation: building and maintaining the systems that make preserved software usable over time. This group focuses on identifying and advancing practical, scalable infrastructure that supports long-term access and maintenance of software across a wide range of institutions and use cases.
Overview
In alignment with SPN’s mission, the group works to develop shared infrastructure and guidance that make software preservation more accessible, sustainable, and community-driven by:
- Evaluating Tools and Platforms: Assessing existing tools, platforms, and systems to determine what’s already working in software preservation—and where gaps remain.
- Enhancing Usability: Identifying which tools are practically usable in real-world settings and helping adapt or extend them to better meet the community’s needs.
- Promoting Best Practices: Providing guidance on defining, describing, and documenting software and its dependencies, so preservation efforts are technically sound and future-friendly.
- Developing Scalable Solutions: Designing infrastructure that improves the discoverability, usability, and long-term reliability of preserved software collections.
- Collaborating for Collective Impact: Working with partners across the digital preservation ecosystem to test tools, share knowledge, and build a community-driven roadmap for software infrastructure.
The Tech Infra Working Group drives coordinated, community-led improvements to the technical foundations of software preservation: By developing a shared roadmap and improving key tools, the group ensures that solutions align with the real-world needs of preservationists. It also provides best practices and documentation to help the community effectively define, describe, and maintain software systems.
How You Might Engage
The Technological Infrastructure Working Group brings together practitioners who want to solve real-world challenges in software preservation. Whether you’re hands-on with tools or shaping strategy, we invite you to join our collaborative, solution-oriented community. Here’s how you can take part:
Contribute to Experimentation:
Join group efforts to assess and experiment with existing software preservation tools and platforms. Your feedback helps identify what works in real-world settings.
Shape the Roadmap:
Contribute to shaping a shared development roadmap that outlines the infrastructure needs and priorities of the software preservation community.
Collaborate Across the Ecosystem: Partner with peers across libraries, archives, museums, and research institutions to co-develop strategies and infrastructure that supports sustainable access.
Provide Expertise:
Whether you’re a technologist, archivist, or developer, your experience can inform best practices and help the community better navigate technical challenges in software preservation.
If you’re excited about improving the tools and infrastructure that enable scalable software preservation, we invite you to join the Technological Infrastructure Working Group.
Resources
Scaling Software Preservation and Emulation
This episode will explore current programmatic and project based initiatives to create the processes and infrastructure that will support a growing number of software (re)use cases/organizational users. Guests will highlight challenges and opportunities associated with scaling an institutional software preservation …Continue Scaling Software Preservation and Emulation
Resources, Webinars
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
If you’re passionate about making software preservation more feasible and sustainable through legal and policy work, we encourage you to join the Tech Infrastructure Working Group and help shape the future of this critical area.