Activity 5 aims to engage the target stakeholder communities of data creators, solution providers and repository owners, and to promote and accelerate the uptake of eArchiving Building Block components in their respective contexts. E-ARK CEF User Engagement will build long-term relationships proactively. It is also vital to maintain a close working relationship with the European Commission CEF Programme, and the other Building Blocks within the Programme, to ensure a coordinated approach when engaging with stakeholder communities. The E-ARK CEF outreach activities support six hierarchical, strongly-interlinked goals:

  • Raising awareness in the wider community on the challenges and issues related to the long-term preservation of digital assets, to encourage an open and non-proprietary approach, to support political initiatives in this area; to address the shortage of digitally skilled resources in the archival profession and the lack of archival and conservation awareness within the wider pool of IT solutions.
  • Informing our target communities about E-ARK CEF specifications, tools, testing, training, and all other activities, to ensure they are kept aware of developments and engaged.
  • Promoting the uptake of E-ARK CEF specifications, tools and services, by supporting commercialisation, providing advice, and encouraging the adoption of E-ARK CEF ‘Best Practice’ in repository management.
  • Cooperating at all levels with user communities to encourage an active dialogue, in order to elicit the widest possible contribution to the development of new tools and services and the effective tailoring of existing ones. It is critically important to obtain input and feedback from subject/domain experts, and key actors, as we seek to ensure that E-ARK CEF specifications, tools, methods, events, and training materials, are equally effective across the full range of user groups.
  • Influencing the key stakeholders who shape the eArchiving ecosystem by providing cost-benefit information on our recommendations, making available management briefing material, key talking points, and other aterial which provides effective support to decision-makers in implementing E-ARK CEF outputs. Similarly, reaching regulators and standardisation bodies in order to lift specifications to a recognised level, thus raising the profile of European Initiatives in this area.
  • Assuring the effectiveness of our user engagement and outreach activity by effectively monitoring our performance and taking corrective action where necessary. This will ensure that our interactions with users reach the highest level of satisfaction.