Scaling Up Knowledge of Digital Preservation Risk: From Concept to Reference Model and Risk Assessment with CHARM

Risk is a frequently used term in digital preservation, though the literature and solutions of the field often portray and describe risk in different ways. CHARM addresses this with a newly innovative, comprehensive reference model and corresponding vocabulary for the digital preservation risk domain. Inspired by risk science, a signature feature of CHARM is its applied distinction between conceptual and characterized digital preservation risk. CHARM establishes a conceptual definition of digital preservation risk built around a purposeful definition of digital preservation as a goal and value-based endeavour, then deconstructs this to develop a cascading and logical series of abstract models for the whole digital preservation risk domain.

This paper introduces the methodology through which CHARM was developed, presents and explains some of the key CHARM models, and discusses some of the methods through which CHARM can support scoped yet holistic risk identification and risk assessment exercises. This holistic, domain-level solution represents a significant 'scaling up' of our disciplinary understanding of digital preservation risk.