By Patrick J.C. Aerts and Shoaib Sufi.

The Workshop on Sustainable Software Sustainability 2019 (WOSSS19) will take place from the 24th to the 26th April 2019 in The Hague, Netherlands. WOSSS19 is a follow-up workshop from WOSSS17 and will focus on all aspects around keeping software running: from how to revive important legacy to preventing new legacy issues through education and guidelines.

Much attention is currently being paid to digital preservation throughout all dimensions of research and in the cultural sector (libraries, archives, vision and sound, film and art); however, the importance of the software that generated the data or still does is largely underestimated. The place of software within reproducible and sustainable research urgently needs to be brought to the attention of policymakers, funders and support organisations. In parallel, there is a need to prepare and share knowledge about good practice and design guidance to prevent the creation of new legacy while our work is underway. Software needs to be produced such that it is maintainable at a minimal investment. WOSSS19 will address these issues and aim to define the state of the art of software sustainability.

Software also forms a category of historical interest. Software artefacts need to be preserved or even maintained in a runnable state to support the teaching of programming history and computer development. It is a form of artefact that needs to be kept in “libraries”, as exemplified by the Software Heritage Archive. Digital-born art, based on software needs, to be kept alive or be revived.

Data relevant for scientific publications needs to be accessible for inspection and re-use for at least ten years after publications. Working software is essential to be able to make use of the data in publications and re-run the analyses.

Sustainable Software Engineering, Software Heritage and Reproducible Research are some of the themes motivating the Workshop on Sustainable Software Sustainability. If you are an organisational or domain based decision maker or knowledgeable in the area we encourage you to attend WOSSS19 and help state the current state of the art and identify open problems for further investigation. This will help harmonise and document the progress made at the many meetings, discussions and technical development that have taken place since the WOSSS17 report and help us to define where we’re heading next.

Register for WOSSS19 to be part of this important conversation.  

Twitter hashtag: #WoSSS19