PDF/A - Final Resting Ground for ECM?

Nearly twenty years ago I gave my first ECM seminar.  Cutting edge topics included imaging and optical storage.  Much has changed since then.  Imaging, then a standalone, typically proprietary siloed technology has evolved into a function or feature of an ECM.  Optical storage is no longer viewed as "different and confusing", and has evolved into a mainstream component of a hierarchical storage management strategy (HSM).  Some things haven't changed however.  One of the more frequent questions back then, is still often asked - "If I migrate business content to electronic format, how to I guarantee that the content will still be accessible and readable 20 years from now, 50 years from now, 100 years from now."

The question often caused me, and other presenters to go into the consultant song and dance routine.  There was no one sure fire way to do it.    The industry has made a major step forward in addressing that concern.  The AIIM standards group has developed a electronic archiving file format standard known as PDF/Archival, or PDF/A.   

PDF/A, is the first PDF standard developed in a collaborative manner by AIIM and NPES (The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing, and Converting Technologies). It was developed to define a file format based on top of the Adobe PDF standard, that provides a mechanism for representing electronic documents in a manner that preserves their visual appearance over time, independent of the tools and systems used for creating, storing, or tending the files.  In other words, PDF/A provides a file format for long-term preservation of electronic documents.

In order to raise  market's awareness of the standard, AIIM has developed a new training course on PDF/A.

Beginning in April, this two day training focused on PDF/A (ISO 19005-1) and its use as a file format for archiving and preserving electronic data will be available as either web-based, public or private class offerings. This course will enable the person attending to speak more knowledgeably about PDF/A as well as know how and when to apply the use of PDF/A.

AIIM is responsible for the majority of the PDF family of standards which includes PDF, PDF/E, PDF/UA, PDF Healthcare and PDF/A.

Those who are interested in the training should contact Betsy Fanning (bfanning@aiim.org or 301-755-2682).