Xena_vision

To make available an open source, fully documented digital preservation software tool for the normalisation, transformation and viewing of the data objects that make up digital records.

This tool must be of practical benefit to:

• digital preservation work of the National Archives of Australia by being able to meet all the National Archives' needs for normalisation, transformation and viewing
• users of Commonwealth digital records by providing a high-quality viewing and transformation experience for users of digital records.

Digital preservation is a dynamic area. New formats and data object genres are constantly being developed and thus need to be preserved. To ensure that Xena is able to remain a useful, high quality tool it will need continual development. Xena must be easy to modify and extend.

Digital preservation is fast becoming a core activity of many collecting institutions. The National Archives of Australia wants to be seen as a leader in digital preservation and Xena needs to play an important role in establishing such a leadership position.

Xena must facilitate professional relations between the National Archives and other like institutions by having general utility in a wide variety of digital preservation contexts and credibility within the international digital preservation community. To meet this need the National Archives will build an open source community around Xena that will give other digital preservation players both a role and a stake in its continued development and support as well as a forum to discuss digital preservation issues.