Ontology for mapping the technological dependence of digital objects in the context of digital curation and preservation

Introduction: The technological transformations that affect the generation, treatment and storage of digital objects have challenged the professionals regarding the dependence on hardware and software to create, consume and monitor the content of such objects in order to ensure access to its contents. The paper presents the problems arising from the paradigm shift of information fixed on paper to the digital environment; the progress made in the theories and techniques of curation and preservation of digital objects; and the description of ontology to systematize the basic concepts of technological dependency of objects digital. Method: The study is based on bibliographic and documental research presenting concepts and techniques developed in the field of digital preservation and curation. Describes an ontology developed with the Protege software. Results: Introduces the concepts of document, digital document, digital object, digital preservation and digital curation and proposes an ontology to support the process of mapping technology to decode the digital objects for signal intelligible to humans. Conclusions: An adequate conceptualization of the digital document and digital object allows the development of solutions aimed at digital preservation. The proposed ontology can assist organizations on mapping risks and losses inherent in a replacement or deactivation of technology components in computer environments. In future work the ontology should be improved and validated, seeking to investigate its alignment to standards and requirements already specified for digital preservation.