CMDP (Cost Model for Digital Preservation)

The Cost Model for Digital Preservation (CDMP) is a tool that calculates the present and future costs of three sets of activities associated with preservation of digital collections.
Homepage:	http://www.costmodelfordigitalpreservation.dk/

Description

The Cost Model for Digital Preservation (CDMP) is a tool that calculates the present and future costs of three sets of activities associated with preservation of digital collections. Incorporating user inputs such as the amount and type of data, the Model addresses expenses incurred during preservation planning, digital migrations, and the Ingest phase of the Open Archival Information System (OAIS).

Provider

Funded by the Danish Ministry of Culture: Committee for Digital Preservation

Licensing and cost

Free – no licensing information available.

Development activity

The CMDP Tool Version 2 was released in March 2011. As of August 2011, members of the project team have stated that they are working on a third phase, estimating the costs of Archival Storage.

Platform and interoperability

CMDP is constructed as a Microsoft Excel 97-2004 workbook.

Functional notes

The CDMP Tool can be applied to calculating the costs of the OAIS entities Ingest and Preservation Planning.  The model assumes that the organisation has chosen migration as its functional preservation strategy.  Costs are stated as the time it takes an employee to perform an activity multiplied by an hourly salary; overhead costs have only been implemented indirectly as part of the salary level. Longer-term financial adjustments such as depreciation and inflation are not incorporated into the calculations. Many of the model’s assumptions are grounded in empirical data from public archive materials, and so the model is currently most suitable for estimating the costs for this particular type of materials. In fact, the documentation warns that it will not give accurate results for all types of records.

Documentation and user support  

Documentation consists of Final Reports for the two phases of the project, available in English and Danish.  The website gives contact emails for the project team.

Usability

The spreadsheets are extremely difficult to navigate, although the complexity does allow for comprehensive transparency in the model’s calculations and assumptions.

Expertise required

Understanding of Excel functionality is helpful. Knowledge of organisational and project costs is essential.

Standards compliance

CMDP structures itself around the functional entities of OAIS and PAIMAS.