Chapter 11: Sustainable Preservation Organizations — Building the Archive

Opening: The 50-Year Question

In 1996, Brewster Kahle founded the Internet Archive with a simple but audacious mission: "Universal access to all knowledge." Nearly 30 years later, it's still here—800+ billion web pages archived, 40+ million books scanned, millions of videos and audio recordings preserved.

But walk through the graveyard of digital preservation projects that didn't make it:

• Google's various archiving experiments (Google+, Google Reader, countless other shutdowns)

• Yahoo's acquisitions (GeoCities, Delicious—bought then killed)

• University projects that folded when the PhD student graduated or the grant ended

• Volunteer projects that died when the founder burned out

The brutal truth: Most preservation organizations fail. They launch with enthusiasm, run for a few years, then collapse when funding dries up, founders leave, or technology becomes obsolete.

This chapter asks: How do you build a preservation organization that survives 50 years?

Not 5 years (easy with grant funding). Not 10 years (possible with dedicated volunteers). But 50+ years—long enough to outlive founders, survive technological shifts, weather economic recessions, and fulfill the actual promise of "long-term" preservation.

We'll examine the Internet Archive as a successful model, analyze why most preservation organizations fail, and provide a framework for designing institutions that can endure.

Part I: Why Most Preservation Organizations Fail

Failure Mode 1: The Heroic Founder Problem

The Pattern:

• Charismatic founder with vision and energy launches preservation project

• Founder works 80-hour weeks, sustaining the project through sheer will

• Organization is shaped around founder's skills, networks, and personality

• Founder eventually leaves (burnout, new job, death)

• Organization collapses because it can't function without founder

Examples:

Aaron Swartz and RECAP (Successful Succession)

• Aaron created RECAP to scrape PACER (US court documents) and make them freely available

• When Aaron died (2013), the project could have died with him

• But: He'd built it with institutional partners (Princeton's CITP)

• Survived transition because it wasn't dependent on one person

Countless volunteer archives (Failed Succession)

• Fan archives, forum backups, small community preservation projects

• Typically run by one dedicated volunteer

• When that person stops (school, job, burnout), archive goes offline

• No succession plan, no institutional memory

Why It Happens:

• Founders are often "lone wolves"—prefer doing to delegating

• Building governance structures feels like bureaucracy (slows you down)

• Ego: "I know how to do this best"

• Practical: Hard to find others with same skills/commitment

How to Prevent:

• Distribute leadership early (co-founders, boards, committees)

• Document everything (operations manuals, decision logs, technical docs)

• Build governance structures before crisis (succession plan, transfer protocols)

• Train deputies (people who can step in if founder leaves)

Failure Mode 2: Financial Fragility

The Pattern:

• Organization launches with initial funding (grant, donation, venture capital)

• Operates well during funded period

• Funding runs out (grant expires, donors lose interest, VCs demand profit)

• Organization shuts down or becomes extractive (paywalls, surveillance, ads)

Examples:

Delicious (VC Capture → Death)

• Popular bookmarking service (founded 2003)

• Acquired by Yahoo (2005) then sold to others multiple times

• Each new owner tried to monetize, failed

• Slowly decayed, users abandoned it

• Now zombie platform (technically alive but culturally dead)

Pinboard (Sustainable Model)

• Bookmarking service launched 2009 as Delicious alternative

• Paid model: One-time fee ($11) then yearly archiving fee ($25/year)

• No ads, no surveillance, no investor pressure

• Profitable with one developer (Maciej Cegłowski)

• Still running 15+ years later

Why It Happens:

• Grants are temporary (2-5 years typically)

• Donations are volatile (depend on donor whims, economic conditions)

• VC funding demands exits (IPO or acquisition), corrupts mission

• Free services must monetize eventually (ads/surveillance)

How to Prevent:

• Diversify funding (multiple sources, not dependent on one grant/donor)

• Earned revenue (services, subscriptions, bulk sales to institutions)

• Endowments (build capital that generates interest)

• Non-profit structure (legally protected from acquisition/profit pressure)

• Frugality (keep costs low, avoid growth addiction)

Failure Mode 3: Technical Obsolescence

The Pattern:

• Organization builds preservation infrastructure on current technology

• Technology evolves (storage formats change, APIs deprecate, protocols shift)

• Organization can't keep up with technical maintenance

• Preserved content becomes inaccessible (bit rot, format obsolescence, broken systems)

Examples:

Early CD-ROM Archives (Format Death)

• 1990s: Libraries burned archives to CD-ROMs (cutting-edge preservation)

• 2020s: CD drives rare, many CDs degraded, formats obsolete

• Content preserved but inaccessible

Floppy Disk Archives (Media Decay)

• Museums have floppy disks with important software/data

• Disks demagnetized over time

• Drives increasingly rare

• Many archives lost because couldn't be read in time

Why It Happens:

• Preservation = long-term, but technology = short-term (5-10 year cycles)

• Format migration is expensive (labor-intensive)

• "Set it and forget it" doesn't work (requires continuous maintenance)

How to Prevent:

• Open formats (avoid proprietary; use standards like WARC, XML, JSON)

• Format migration budget (allocate money/time to periodic updates)

• Redundancy (multiple copies in multiple formats/locations)

• Emulation (preserve both data AND tools to read it)

• Active monitoring (check integrity regularly, don't assume it's fine)

Failure Mode 4: Scope Creep and Mission Drift

The Pattern:

• Organization starts with clear, focused mission

• Success attracts new opportunities (grants for related work, partnerships, expansions)

• Organization takes on too many projects

• Resources spread thin, core mission neglected, eventually collapses

Examples:

Internet Archive (Avoided This)

• Could have expanded into dozens of areas (cloud storage, social media platform, publishing, etc.)

• Instead: Stayed focused on core mission (web archiving, book scanning, media preservation)

• Does new projects (e.g., lending library) but only if aligned with mission

Many University DH Centers (Fell Into This)

• Start as DH research centers

• Get asked to support all tech needs ("Can you help with faculty websites?" "Can you run our server?")

• Become IT support, lose research focus

• Funding cut because they're not producing research

Why It Happens:

• Hard to say no (money, opportunities, helping people)

• Mission creep gradual (each small expansion seems reasonable)

• No clear boundaries (if you preserve web, why not apps? If apps, why not games? If games, why not...")

How to Prevent:

• Written mission statement (refer to it when deciding new projects)

• Clear boundaries (what you do, what you don't do)

• Sunset projects (end things that don't serve mission, even if popular)

• Focus metrics (measure success by depth, not breadth)

Failure Mode 5: Community Disconnection

The Pattern:

• Organization preserves content but doesn't engage community it serves

• Community doesn't feel ownership or investment

• When crisis comes (funding cut, founder leaves), no one fights to save it

Examples:

Academic Archives (Often This Problem)

• Universities build archives of local history

• Store them in basements, minimal access

• Community doesn't know they exist

• When budget cuts come, archives closed (no public outcry)

Wikipedia (Avoided This)

• Millions of contributors feel ownership

• When funding threatened, massive support campaigns

• Community would fight to keep it alive

Why It Happens:

• Preservation seen as expert/institutional work (not community involvement)

• Access restricted (researchers only, not public)

• No communication (organization doesn't share what it's doing)

How to Prevent:

• Public engagement (regular updates, blog posts, social media)

• Open access (make archives usable, not locked in vaults)

• Community involvement (volunteers, advisory boards, user-generated metadata)

• Visible impact (show how archives are used, who benefits)

Part II: The Internet Archive Model — What Works

Why the Internet Archive Has Survived 30 Years

Let's analyze what makes Internet Archive successful as a blueprint for other organizations:

1. Clear, Compelling Mission

"Universal access to all knowledge."

• Simple enough for anyone to understand

• Ambitious enough to inspire

• Specific enough to guide decisions (does this project advance universal access?)

• Defensible in court (when sued, mission provides moral/legal argument)

Lesson: Your mission should be:

• Memorable (one sentence)

• Motivating (people want to support it)

• Actionable (guides what you do/don't do)

2. Non-Profit Structure with Diverse Funding

Legal Structure:

• 501(c)(3) non-profit (US tax-exempt status)

• Can't be acquired by for-profit companies

• Donations tax-deductible (incentivizes giving)

Revenue Sources (diversified):

• Individual donations ($20-$100 from millions of users)

• Foundation grants (Mellon, Sloan, Knight, etc.)

• Earned revenue (digitization services for libraries)

• Government contracts (scanning books for Library of Congress)

• Partnerships (library consortia paying for services)

Why Diversification Matters:

• If one funding source disappears, others sustain operations

• Not beholden to any single funder's whims

• Can maintain independence (no investor pressure)

Lesson: Aim for at least 3 major revenue streams, none exceeding 50% of budget.

3. Technical Excellence with Open Standards

Technology Choices:

• WARC format (web archives, open standard)

• Open-source software (Heritrix crawler, Wayback Machine code)

• Commodity hardware (not expensive proprietary systems)

• Distributed architecture (not single point of failure)

Why This Matters:

• Open standards mean others can replicate/extend their work

• Open source builds community (others contribute code)

• Commodity hardware keeps costs down (can scale cheaply)

• Distributed systems survive disasters (data centers can fail without losing everything)

Lesson: Build on open standards, avoid lock-in, design for redundancy.

4. Institutional Partnerships

Key Partnerships:

• Library of Alexandria (mirror site in Egypt)

• 1,000+ libraries worldwide (distributed preservation network)

• Universities (research collaborations, storage nodes)

• Foundations (funders who understand long-term mission)

Why Partnerships Matter:

• Redundancy (if Internet Archive burns down, partners have copies)

• Legitimacy (respected institutions endorse the work)

• Resources (partners contribute storage, bandwidth, expertise)

• Resilience (distributed network harder to destroy)

Lesson: Don't go alone. Build alliances with institutions that share your values.

5. Public Engagement and Transparency

Engagement Strategies:

• Public-facing website (anyone can browse archives)

• Blog (regular updates on projects, challenges, victories)

• Media appearances (Brewster Kahle gives talks, interviews)

• Open financials (publishes annual reports, 990 tax forms)

• Appeals for support (fundraising drives with clear goals)

Why This Matters:

• Users feel invested (they know what's happening)

• Transparency builds trust (donors see where money goes)

• Public support protects from political threats (when attacked, people defend you)

Lesson: Communicate constantly. Make your work visible. Build constituency.

6. Legal Advocacy and Resilience

Legal Work:

• Fights copyright battles (defended right to lend digital books)

• Joined Brewster Kahle's personal activism (right to repair, DRM opposition)

• Files amicus briefs in tech cases

• Part of broader movement (EFF, Public Knowledge, etc.)

Why This Matters:

• Preservation exists in legal gray areas (fair use, copyright exceptions)

• Without legal advocacy, vulnerable to shutdown

• Fighting back sets precedents (protects other preservation organizations)

Lesson: Budget for legal work. Join coalitions. Fight bad laws.

7. Founder Who Built Succession

Brewster Kahle's Approach:

• Hired strong leadership team (not one-person show)

• Created board of directors (governance beyond himself)

• Diversified expertise (librarians, technologists, lawyers, fundraisers)

• Built institution, not personal fiefdom

Result: If Brewster left tomorrow, Internet Archive would survive (though it'd be hard). It's not dependent on him alone.

Lesson: Build succession from day one, even when it feels premature.

Part III: The Archive Business Canvas

To design a sustainable preservation organization, use this framework:

Section 1: Mission and Values

Core Mission (one sentence):

• What are you preserving? Why?

• Example: "Preserve murdered social media platforms to document 21st-century culture"

Core Values (3-5 principles):

• What guides your decisions?

• Example: "User sovereignty, comprehensive preservation, open access, community accountability, ethical triage"

Success Metrics (how you know you're succeeding):

• Quantitative: TB preserved, items cataloged, users served

• Qualitative: Community trust, cultural impact, policy influence

Section 2: What You Preserve

Scope (be specific):

• What artifacts? (websites, videos, games, software, etc.)

• What time period? (everything since 1990? last 10 years?)

• What geographic/cultural focus? (global? specific communities?)

Triage Criteria:

• Cultural significance thresholds

• What you explicitly DON'T preserve (ethical boundaries)

Curation Philosophy:

• Comprehensive (save everything you can) vs. selective (curate carefully)

• How much metadata/context do you add?

Section 3: Technical Infrastructure

Storage:

• How much capacity needed? (current + growth projections)

• Where stored? (cloud, local servers, distributed network)

• Redundancy? (how many copies, where?)

Access Systems:

• How do people find/use preserved content?

• Web interface, APIs, physical access?

• Public vs. restricted access?

Preservation Methods:

• Formats used (WARC, JPEG, MP4, etc.)

• Emulation needs (for complex artifacts)

• Format migration schedule (how often you update)

Technical Team:

• Who builds/maintains systems?

• In-house developers? Contractors? Volunteers?

Section 4: Governance

Legal Structure:

• Non-profit (501(c)(3) in US, charity elsewhere)? For-profit social enterprise? Cooperative?

• Why this structure? What does it protect against?

Leadership:

• Who makes decisions? (board, director, community vote?)

• How are leaders chosen? (election, appointment, rotation?)

• Term limits? (prevent capture by entrenched leadership)

Succession Plan:

• What happens if founder leaves?

• Who takes over? How is transition managed?

Accountability:

• How do you ensure mission fidelity?

• Community oversight? Board review? External audits?

Section 5: Funding Model

Revenue Streams (diversify):

Donations:

• Individual (small donors via website)

• Major donors (wealthy individuals/foundations)

• Membership (recurring monthly/yearly)

Earned Revenue:

• Services (digitization for institutions, consulting)

• Bulk sales (datasets to researchers, corporations)

• Licensing (allowing commercial use for fee)

Grants:

• Government (NEH, IMLS, NSF)

• Foundations (Mellon, Sloan, Knight, Mozilla)

• Universities (research collaborations)

Partnerships:

• Institutions pay for shared infrastructure

• Collaborative grants (multiple organizations)

10-Year Budget Projection:

• Years 1-2: Grant-dependent (foundation seed funding)

• Years 3-5: Diversify (add earned revenue, donations)

• Years 6-10: Sustainable mix (no single source >40%)

• Years 10+: Endowment building (create permanent capital)

Section 6: Staffing

Core Team (full-time):

• Executive Director (leadership, fundraising, strategy)

• Technical Director (systems architecture, engineering)

• Curatorial Lead (metadata, collection development, access)

• Development Director (fundraising, donor relations)

Extended Team (part-time or contractors):

• Legal counsel

• Grant writer

• Developers (for specific projects)

• Metadata specialists

• Community manager

Volunteers:

• What roles can volunteers fill? (metadata tagging, quality assurance, community outreach)

• How do you recruit, train, retain?

Growth Plan:

• Start small (2-3 people)

• Add roles as funding grows

• Don't hire until revenue sustains salary long-term

Section 7: Community and Partnerships

Primary Community:

• Who creates the content you preserve?

• Who uses your archives?

• How do you engage them?

Advisory Board:

• Representatives from community

• Guide priorities, review decisions

• Provide legitimacy and accountability

Institutional Partners:

• Libraries, universities, museums

• What do they contribute? What do they get?

• Formal agreements or informal collaborations?

Coalitions:

• Join existing networks (NDSA, DPC, etc.)

• Advocacy coalitions (fight bad laws together)

• Technical collaborations (share tools, standards)

Section 8: Risk Management

Threats:

Financial:

• Major donor withdraws → Mitigation: Diversified funding

• Grant rejected → Mitigation: Multiple applications, earned revenue buffer

Technical:

• Data center fire → Mitigation: Geographic redundancy, backups

• Cyber attack → Mitigation: Security audits, offline backups

Legal:

• Copyright lawsuit → Mitigation: Legal fund, insurance, coalition support

• Government shutdown order → Mitigation: International mirrors, legal advocacy

Organizational:

• Founder burnout → Mitigation: Succession plan, distributed leadership

• Staff turnover → Mitigation: Documentation, redundant expertise

Reputational:

• Scandal (preserved harmful content) → Mitigation: Ethics policy, transparency, community accountability

Existential:

• Mission becomes irrelevant (e.g., problem solved) → Mitigation: Broad mission, adaptable strategy

Section 9: Three Pillars Integrity Check

Declaration:

• Do you own your infrastructure? (Domain, servers, code)

• Can you operate independently of platforms?

Connection:

• Do you engage community directly?

• Can you communicate without corporate intermediaries?

Ground:

• Do you own your data and tools?

• Can you migrate if hosting providers fail?

If any Pillar is weak, strengthen it before launch.

Part IV: Three Preservation Organization Models

Model 1: The Institutional Archive (Internet Archive Model)

Characteristics:

• Large-scale, comprehensive preservation

• Professional staff (10-100+ employees)

• $5M-$50M annual budget

• Non-profit, foundation-funded + earned revenue

• Decades-long time horizon

Best For:

• National/international scope

• Multiple content types

• Serving researchers and public

• Long-term stability

Example Adaptations:

• Regional Internet Archive (state or country-specific)

• Subject-specific (gaming archive, music archive, etc.)

Model 2: The Community Archive (Fan Archive Model)

Characteristics:

• Small-scale, focused collection

• Volunteer-run (0-3 paid staff)

• $10K-$100K annual budget

• Donations + community funding

• Community ownership/governance

Best For:

• Specific communities (fandoms, subcultures, local history)

• Grassroots preservation

• High community trust needed

Examples:

• Archive of Our Own (fan fiction)

• Small museum archives (local historical societies)

• Discord/forum archives (community-run)

Challenges:

• Sustainability (volunteers burn out)

• Succession (what happens when founder leaves?)

• Funding (hard to get grants without institutional backing)

Mitigations:

• Rotate leadership (share burden)

• Partner with institution (university hosts/backs you)

• Federate (join network of similar archives)

Model 3: The Cooperative Archive (Distributed Ownership Model)

Characteristics:

• Member-owned (users/creators collectively own it)

• Democratic governance (one member, one vote)

• Revenue from members ($10-$100/year per person)

• Federated infrastructure (multiple nodes)

Best For:

• Communities that want sovereignty

• Platforms with existing user base

• Avoiding corporate capture

Examples:

• Stocksy (photographer cooperative)

• Resonate (musician cooperative)

• Mastodon instances (community-run servers)

Challenges:

• Coordination (democratic = slower decisions)

• Technical (members must understand governance)

• Scale (hard to grow quickly)

Strengths:

• Resilient (distributed ownership)

• Aligned incentives (users are also owners)

• Mission-protected (can't be sold out)

Part V: Launching Your Preservation Organization

Phase 1: Planning (6-12 months before launch)

Step 1: Clarify Mission

• Write one-sentence mission

• Define 3-5 core values

• Set specific scope (what you preserve, what you don't)

Step 2: Assess Feasibility

• Is there demand? (do people want this?)

• Is it sustainable? (can you fund it for 10+ years?)

• Are you the right team? (do you have necessary skills?)

Step 3: Build Core Team

• Find co-founders (don't go alone)

• Recruit advisors (people with relevant expertise)

• Form initial board (if non-profit)

Step 4: Prototype

• Preserve a small sample (prove you can do it)

• Build minimal access system (test usability)

• Get feedback (from potential users)

Step 5: Secure Seed Funding

• Apply for initial grants (Mellon, NEH, Knight)

• Recruit anchor donors (wealthy individuals who believe in mission)

• Estimate 2-year runway (enough to launch and prove viability)

Phase 2: Launch (Months 1-12)

Step 1: Legal Formation

• Incorporate (as non-profit, cooperative, or other structure)

• Apply for tax-exempt status (if non-profit)

• Set up banking, accounting

Step 2: Build Infrastructure

• Secure storage (servers, cloud, or hybrid)

• Build access systems (website, search, API)

• Set up preservation workflows

Step 3: Preserve Initial Collections

• Start with highest-priority content

• Document methods (create operations manual)

• Add metadata and context

Step 4: Engage Community

• Launch public website

• Announce on social media, press

• Recruit volunteers, advisors, users

Step 5: Prove Sustainability

• Diversify funding (don't rely on one grant)

• Track metrics (preservation volume, user engagement, financial health)

• Iterate based on feedback

Phase 3: Growth (Years 2-5)

Step 1: Scale Operations

• Hire staff (as funding allows)

• Expand storage and preservation capacity

• Improve access systems

Step 2: Build Partnerships

• Join preservation networks (NDSA, DPC)

• Partner with institutions (libraries, museums)

• Collaborate with similar organizations

Step 3: Develop Earned Revenue

• Offer services (digitization, consulting, bulk data)

• Launch membership program

• Reduce grant dependency

Step 4: Invest in Governance

• Formalize decision-making processes

• Create succession plans

• Build board capacity

Step 5: Communicate Impact

• Publish annual reports

• Share success stories

• Demonstrate value to funders and community

Phase 4: Maturity (Years 5+)

Step 1: Build Endowment

• Capital campaign (raise money for permanent fund)

• Interest sustains base operations

• Reduces financial volatility

Step 2: Ensure Succession

• Executive transitions (leadership changes smoothly)

• Institutional memory preserved

• Independence from any one person

Step 3: Expand Impact

• Influence policy (testify, draft legislation)

• Train next generation (offer internships, workshops)

• Export model (help others start similar organizations)

Step 4: Maintain Mission

• Regular reviews (are you still serving original purpose?)

• Resist scope creep

• Sunset projects that don't fit

Step 5: Plan for Century

• What happens in 50 years?

• How will technology change?

• How do you ensure continuity?

Part VI: Case Studies of Successful Archives

Case Study 1: Archive of Our Own (AO3)

Context:

• Fan fiction archive (user-written stories based on existing media)

• Founded 2008 by Organization for Transformative Works (OTW)

• Response to FanFiction.Net's increasing restrictions and commercial archive shutdowns

Model:

• 501(c)(3) non-profit

• Volunteer-run (100+ volunteers, no paid staff for archive itself)

• Donation-funded ($200K-$300K annual budget from small donors)

• No ads, no data mining, no corporate ownership

Key Success Factors:

• Community ownership: Users feel it's "theirs"

• Clear values: Pro-fan, anti-censorship, anti-commercial

• Distributed volunteer team: No single point of failure

• Legal backing: OTW provides legal support (copyright defense)

Challenges:

• Volunteer burnout (high turnover)

• Scaling (millions of works, storage costs growing)

• Governance (democratic but can be slow)

Lessons:

• Community archives can work at scale if values align

• Volunteer models require strong succession/rotation

• Clear mission attracts passionate contributors

Case Study 2: Software Heritage

Context:

• Archive of all public source code (GitHub, GitLab, etc.)

• Founded 2016 by INRIA (French research institute)

• Mission: Preserve "software commons" for future

Model:

• Non-profit foundation

• Government/foundation grants + institutional partnerships

• €2M-€5M annual budget

• Professional staff + academic researchers

Key Success Factors:

• Institutional backing: INRIA provides stability

• UNESCO partnership: Cultural heritage recognition

• Technical excellence: Advanced deduplication, graph structures

• Open data: Anyone can access archives

Challenges:

• Scope (40+ million projects and growing)

• Legal ambiguity (copyright on archived code unclear)

• Sustainability (still grant-dependent after 8 years)

Lessons:

• Institutional backing accelerates legitimacy

• Technical innovation can be competitive advantage

• Even well-funded projects face sustainability challenges

Case Study 3: Perma.cc

Context:

• Preserves links cited in legal and scholarly documents

• Founded 2013 by Harvard Library Innovation Lab

• Prevents "link rot" in citations

Model:

• University-backed (hosted by Harvard)

• Hybrid funding (free for individuals, subscriptions for institutions)

• Small team (2-3 people)

• Narrow, well-defined scope

Key Success Factors:

• Focused mission: One problem, solved deeply

• Institutional integration: Adopted by law reviews, journals

• Sustainability: Small budget, university-backed, subscription revenue

Challenges:

• Limited scope (only preserves cited links, not comprehensive)

• Dependent on Harvard (if university cuts funding, vulnerable)

Lessons:

• Narrow scope can be strength (easier to sustain, clear value proposition)

• University backing provides stability but creates dependency

• Hybrid funding (free + paid) balances access and sustainability

Conclusion: Building to Last

The graveyard of digital preservation projects is vast. Most fail within 5 years. But it doesn't have to be this way.

The keys to building archives that last:

1. Mission clarity (know what you're preserving and why)

2. Financial diversity (never depend on one funding source)

3. Technical openness (use standards, avoid lock-in, design for migration)

4. Community engagement (build constituency that will fight for you)

5. Governance beyond founders (succession plans, distributed leadership)

6. Legal resilience (budget for fights, join coalitions, advocate for policy)

7. Realistic scope (focus deeply, resist mission creep)

The Internet Archive is 30 years old. It could live another 50—or 100. Not because Brewster Kahle is superhuman, but because he built an institution, not a project.

You can do the same. Whether you're building a massive institutional archive, a small community collection, or a cooperative platform, the principles are the same:

Design for decades. Plan for crisis. Build to outlast yourself.

In the next chapter, we'll turn to the Anvil—the practice of building platforms and tools that embody sovereignty. Archives preserve the past; Anvils forge the future. But both require the same institutional discipline: building things that last.

Discussion Questions

1. Failure Analysis: Which failure mode (heroic founder, financial fragility, technical obsolescence, scope creep, community disconnection) seems most dangerous? Why?

2. Internet Archive Sustainability: Could Internet Archive survive without Brewster Kahle? What would change? What vulnerabilities remain?

3. Funding Ethics: Is it ethical for preservation organizations to charge for access (paywalls)? Where's the line between sustainability and extracting value from public goods?

4. Community vs. Institution: Should archives be community-run (like AO3) or institutionally-backed (like Software Heritage)? Trade-offs?

5. Your Own Organization: If you were launching a preservation organization, which model (institutional/community/cooperative) would you choose? Why?

6. 50-Year Horizon: What threats to long-term sustainability do you think we're not considering? What will matter in 2075 that we can't predict now?

Exercise: Design Your Preservation Organization

Task: Design a preservation organization using the Archive Business Canvas.

Scenario: Choose one of:

• (A) Archive for a specific murdered platform (e.g., Vine, Tumblr NSFW, Google+)

• (B) Archive for a living but endangered community (e.g., small forums, indie web, etc.)

• (C) Federated preservation network (distributed across institutions)

Part 1: Mission and Scope (500 words)

• One-sentence mission

• 3-5 core values

• What you preserve (specific artifacts, time period, cultural focus)

• What you explicitly DON'T preserve

Part 2: Technical Infrastructure (500 words)

• Storage strategy (how much, where, redundancy)

• Access systems (how users find/use content)

• Preservation methods (formats, emulation, migration schedule)

Part 3: Governance and Staffing (500 words)

• Legal structure (non-profit, cooperative, etc.)

• Leadership (who decides, how chosen)

• Succession plan

• Team composition (who you hire, when)

Part 4: Funding Model (500 words)

• 3+ revenue streams

• 10-year budget projection

• Path to sustainability

• Risk mitigation (what if major funder withdraws?)

Part 5: Community Engagement (500 words)

• Who are your primary users/community?

• How do you engage them?

• Advisory structures

• Partnerships

Part 6: Risk Assessment (500 words)

• Top 5 threats to your organization

• Mitigation strategies for each

• "What would kill us?" analysis

Part 7: Three Pillars Check (300 words)

• Does your organization embody Declaration, Connection, Ground?

• Any weaknesses? How do you address them?

Further Reading

On Organizational Sustainability

• Ostrom, Elinor. Governing the Commons. Cambridge University Press, 1990.

  • Principles for sustaining shared resources long-term

• Benkler, Yochai. The Wealth of Networks. Yale University Press, 2006.

  • Economics of peer production and commons-based organizations

• Bollier, David. Think Like a Commoner. New Society Publishers, 2014.

  • Accessible introduction to commons governance

On Non-Profit Management

• Worth, Michael J. Nonprofit Management: Principles and Practice. 5th ed. SAGE, 2019.

  • Practical guide to running non-profits

• Kim, Sojung, and Mason, David. "Governance and Accountability in Nonprofit Organizations." In The Jossey-Bass Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management, edited by David Renz, 317-345. Wiley, 2016.

On Digital Preservation Institutions

• Lavoie, Brian, and Lorcan Dempsey. "Thirteen Ways of Looking at...Digital Preservation." D-Lib Magazine 10, no. 7/8 (2004).

  • Strategic perspectives on preservation organizations

• Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access. Sustainable Economics for a Digital Planet. 2010.

  • Economics of long-term preservation

Primary Sources

• Internet Archive. "About the Internet Archive." https://archive.org/about/

• Archive of Our Own. "About the OTW." https://www.transformativeworks.org/about/

• Software Heritage. "About Software Heritage." https://www.softwareheritage.org/mission/

• Perma.cc. "About Perma.cc." https://perma.cc/about

End of Chapter 11

Next: Chapter 12 — The Economics of Sovereignty: Building the Anvil