In 2024, the Flickr Foundation was funded by the Mellon Foundation to conduct co-design workshops about Data Lifeboat, and the concept of a Safe Harbor Network with peers from within cultural institutions, technologists, and academics.
The structure for our workshops moved from introducing our prototyping work to ground everyone in the idea, discussing responses, ethical considerations of preserving networked images (which may not be yours), developing use cases for Data Lifeboat within institutions, and a deep dive on affordances of a README for future viewers of a digital archive.
Our Research Lead, Fattori McKenna, led the development of the workshops and drove the creation of this report. It’s a fantastic record of very detailed conversation and deep thinking on possibilities for social media archiving, and networked image preservation. Based on our findings in this research we have adjusted our work on Data Lifeboat and Safe Harbor Network development.
Executive Summary
This document contains findings from co-design workshops and in-depth interviews conducted with digital cultural heritage practitioners in Washington D.C. and London during October-November 2024. Funded by the Mellon Foundation Public Knowledge Grant, this research explored the development of the Data Lifeboat tool for preserving networked image content from Flickr and the speculative Safe Harbor Network of trusted institutions for maintaining Data Lifeboats in the long-term.
Our research revealed a strong institutional need for tools that preserve the valuable content and rich contextual information of networked images from social media platforms, such as Flickr. Practitioners identified several possible institutional use cases for Data Lifeboat, from streamlining metadata collection to securing critically at-risk content.
Ethical considerations also emerged as central to the networked image preservation process. Drawing from Indigenous data sovereignty frameworks like the C.A.R.E. principles, we’ve enhanced the Data Lifeboat tool with reflective README prompts that encourage creators to consider issues of purpose, future access, storage, context, cultural sensitivities, privacy, and copyright. Our research also established the viability of a Safe Harbor Network while identifying key governance, policy, and resource challenges that need addressing.
