The digital preservation community's favorite competitive event, the Great Digital Preservation Bake Off, is returning with a flavorful twist at iPRES 2024. Originating as a showcase in 2014 and transformed into the Digital Preservation Bake Off in 2019 in Amsterdam, this unique event has quickly become a highlight of the conference, offering both seasoned and emerging tool developers a platform to demonstrate the impact and usefulness of their digital preservation tools in a lively and engaging environment.

Why the Bake Off is a Must-Attend Event

The Bake Off is more than just a competition; it’s a vibrant community gathering that allows participants to engage directly with the tools that shape our field. Contestants use a “pantry” of digital content —both valid and invalid— to showcase their applications in real-time, providing a dynamic way to demonstrate capabilities and troubleshoot in a live setting. Organized into "tasting menus," the event offers a playful yet insightful look into the future of digital preservation, making it a fun and educational experience for all.

Call for Pantry Contributions

Currently, our pantry features a wide range of tasty ingredients, including 3D Data, Geodata, email, web content, disk images, PDFs of all flavors, databases, AV materials, Mac and Microsoft Office formats, Google Drive files, and – for the discerning chefs – some exotic ingredients. We’re always looking for new files of any kind, so if you can donate, please do so.

This year, we’re excited to expand our pantry and we need your help! We are seeking donations of additional types of digital content to enrich our pantry:

• Signed PDFs to test identification and authentication capabilities

• Metadata datasets in various serializations, utilizing multiple standards to challenge and enhance metadata handling functionalities

• Files whose names and embedded metadata contain non-Latin character encoding or non-printing characters

Contributing to the Bake Off pantry is not only a great way to support digital preservation research and development but also turns your content into a valuable test bed for application testing. To submit your digital ingredients, simply upload them through Box with the appropriate license for use and reuse. Remember, only submit content for which you can assign or obtain a license. You can view the iPRES 2024 Bake Off pantry on Google Drive.

Showcase Your Tools

Do you have a tool that can transform the landscape of digital preservation? We want to see it in action! The call for Bake Off submissions is open until June 30th, 2024. Whether you're a developer at a large institution or a solo innovator, this is your chance to shine and receive immediate, unfiltered feedback from both peers and potential users in a supportive and enthusiastic environment.

For more details on how to submit your tool and what to expect, visit our Call for Contributions information page. This is an incredible opportunity to engage with the community, demonstrate your innovation, and contribute to the advancement of digital preservation practices.

Join Us for an Unforgettable Experience

Mark your calendars and join us at iPRES 2024 for an exciting edition of the Great Digital Preservation Bake Off. Whether you’re contributing to the pantry, showcasing a tool, or cheering on your favorite contestants, your participation is what makes this event a success. Let’s bake, taste, and preserve together in what promises to be a delightful and insightful gathering of the brightest minds in digital preservation. See you there!