What’s the goal for my digital images?

I still need to post the results and added questions from the Born Digital Survey that I modified. At the end of that exercise, I created a more succinct goal specifically for digital images, and then developed some guiding questions to structure the rest of my work. Tortuously thorough, I know.

Goal for Digital Images: I want to have an export (save-from-camera), storage, management, access, and sustainability plan in place that let’s me, or trusted people, manage and see digital images independent of a digital device or network at any time (within reason) and a migration plan that ensures the images are accessible and manageable at least 50 years in the future.

• Priority: Remove redundancy in existing digital images.
• Priority: Maintain datestamp and time for all photos.

Guiding Questions for Digital Images: I’ll answer them in separate posts and sub-posts.

1. What are the optimal settings for my image capture devices to promote saving the images, including moving them through several environments?
2. What is the process for moving digital images off my digital camera?
3. What is the process for moving digital images off my cell phone, out of email or chat sessions, or from another mobile device?
4. How should these images be organized once they are off the individual devices (e.g., file/folder structure)?
5. Do I want to modify the filenames?
6. Do I want to / need to convert the images to a different format?
7. How will I indicate the priority level for “saving” the digital images?
8. How will I indicate the access level associated with the digital images? Should this occur at the folder level?
9. How will I indicate the rights associated with the digital images?
10. How do I ensure that the image metadata moves with the image itself?
11. Where should the digital images be stored: for organization; for migration; for immediate access; for long-term access?
12. Who should assume control of my digital images if I die?
13. Who should have access to my Flickr account if I die?
14. How much storage space do I need to plan for now and going forward?
15. What’s a reasonable cost to establish and maintain a preservation program for my images in terms of my effort, hardware, software, storage, and general goodwill of friends and family?