# Ross Spencer

> Ross Spencer is a digital preservation solutions specialist, systems
architect, and software developer. Ross has worked for The National Archives,
UK; Archives New Zealand; Artefactual LTD; and Ravensburger AG. Ross's b
ackground is in digital preservation workflows from create to maintain;
from agency to archive.

- Ross has more recently worked in commercial contexts as a contractor but
is interested in non-profit opportunities and continuing in further education
to explore more deeply many of the building blocks of digital preservation
and information records management. Ross is also keen to explore the
possibility of publishing texts on digital preservation.

- Ross has extensive experience working with memory institutions, with an
interest in democratizing tools and processes to facilitate digital
preservation across different communities and collectives.

- Ross has an Master of Arts (MA) in Digital Culture and Technology within
the digital humanities.

## Skills

- File format identification and digital forensics: having worked on PRONOM
and consulted on other technical registry efforts from UDFR to the NSLA
technical registry in the early 2010's. Previously Ross worked on reverse
engineering VoIP protocols for RedBox Recorders.
- Digital preservaiton workflows: a seasoned software developer Ross is adept
at developing software architecture for solving a variety of preservation
problems.
- Software development: Ross has worked in open source since he started
writing software at college. Professionally he writes open source code by
default. His preferred languages are Python and Golang but has an interest
in learning Rust. Ross has also worked in PHP, C and C++.
- Linked open data: Ross has worked with linked open data since 2010 and
still sees it as a foundational technology of many future solutions.
- Blockchain: Ross has worked on the Cardano blockchain learning much about
cryptographic primitives that can be leveraged to improve the provenance
and security of digital collections. Ross has also developed a keen
understanding of digital ledger technology (DLT) and the strengths and
weaknesses of different DLT's out there.
- IPFS and P2P: having dipped his toes into the waters of IPFS and
peer-to-peer (p2p) technologies Ross is keen to explore these more and
perhaps put them to use in an archival or information management context.

## Tools

Ross has developed over a hundred pieces of open source software and
maintains a number of GitHub organizations.

- [JSONID (JSON-IDentification)](https://github.com/ffdev-info/jsonid/): a
parser-driven serde (serialization/deserialization) file format
identification tool. Identifies JSON, YAML, TOML, and JSONL.
- [PRONOM signature development utility](https://github.com/ffdev-info/signature-development-utility):
utility for the development of PRONOM compatible signatures and live
testing using Siegfried WASM.
- [Wikidata extension for Siegfried](https://www.digipres.org/publications/ipres/ipres-2021/papers/wikidata-a-magic-portal-for-siegfried-and-roy/):
enabling the download of file format signatures hosted on Wikidata for use
in the Siegfried file format identification tool.
- [Demystify](https://ross-spencer.github.io/demystify-lite/): Static analysis
tool for file format identification reports.
- [HTTPreserve](https://github.com/httpreserve): Provides statistics on earliest
and latest memento records for web-pages and demonstrates the use of Robust Links.
- [KVAl: Key-Value Access Language](https://github.com/kval-access-language): A
high-level declarative language for working with nested key-value stores.

## Research and Papers

Ross' ORCID ID is:

- [0000-0002-5144-9794](https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5144-9794).

Key papers that Ross has published are:

- [Fractal in detail: What information is in a file format identification report?](https://journal.code4lib.org/articles/16351).
- [PREMIS Events Through an Event-sourced Lens](https://journal.code4lib.org/articles/17264).
- [Binary trees? Automatically identifying the links between born-digital records](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01576895.2017.1330158).
- [Wikidata: A magic portal for Siegfried and Roy](https://www.digipres.org/publications/ipres/ipres-2021/papers/wikidata-a-magic-portal-for-siegfried-and-roy/).
- [Reimagining the Format Model: Introducing the Work of the NSLA Digital Preservation Technical Registry](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13614576.2014.972718).
- [Digital Capability, Open-Source Use, and Interoperability Standards Within the National Health Service in England: Survey of Health Care Trusts](https://humanfactors.jmir.org/2025/1/e66398).

Ross has written extensively on the Open Preservation Foundation (OPF) blog and his own homepage:

- [OPF](https://openpreservation.org/author/ross-spencer/).
- [Homepage](https://exponentialdecay.co.uk/blog).