Report from the Field #29
File and data restoration

Today there are a few open-source tools, such as fq or BitCurator, that can be used to repair broken audio-visual files and bit-level corrupted data. We are exploring this area for two years and a half, while trying to follow the ethics of classic conservation and restoration. Mattias Wadman’s presentation of his fq during the No Time To Wait 6 conference prompted us to publicly present our preliminary results.

What and how

Real-world examples with the theoretical foundations that guided us, presented by Michal Cohen and Reto Kromer, followed by an informal Q&A session and light refreshments. Note that this will be a technical meeting and the participants should be familiar with audio and video file formats, especially so-called raw data.

All the information collected during this meeting may be used, without further notice, both for our developments and for our training courses.

When and where

In-person at the EPFL Innovation Park with webcast on Friday the 20^th of January 2023, starting at 11 o’clock sharp here in Switzerland (that’s 10:00 UTC). We will use a Jitsi-based platform and the link will be provided in proper time.

As usual, the admission to our Reports from the Field is free, but a registration is required, as the seats are limited to a dozen or so, in order to enable in-depth professional discussions and information exchange.

Notes

• This was our first in-person meeting with webcast since the pandemic started more than three years ago. We will possibly continue with this hybrid format, even if it’s more complicated to handle.
• We are very unhappy that our generosity is often betrayed, as many of our materials are distributed without naming their origin. Increasingly, others are even shamelessly claiming authorship of our work, which is just disgusting behaviour. And that’s the very reason why some resources are no longer freely available, but have been moved to password-protected parts of our website.

2023-02-17