Response to PREMIS Events Through an Event-Sourced Lens

The PREMIS Editorial Committee (EC) read Ross Spencer’s recent article “PREMIS Events Through an Event-sourced Lens” with interest. The article was a useful primer to the idea of event sourcing and in particular was an interesting introduction to a conversation about whether and how such a model could be applied to Digital Preservation systems. However, the article makes a number of specific assertions and suggestions about PREMIS, with which we on the PREMIS EC disagree. We believe these are founded on an incorrect or incomplete understanding of what PREMIS actually is, and as significantly, what it is not. The aim of this article is to address those specific points.