  Received wisdom portrays digital records as guaranteeing perpetuity; as the
New York Times wrote a decade ago: "the web means the end of forgetting". The
reality however is that digital records suffer similar risks of access loss as
the analogue versions they replace. Often this risk is outsourced to
specialised third parties. Common use cases include Personal Information
Management (PIM): e.g. calendars, diaries, tasks, etc. Frequently these are
outsourced at two removes - firstly by the individual to their employer (e.g.
using a company system) and then by their employer to an external provider. So
enters a new risk: organisational change; by the time the information is
required the organisational chain that links user to data may be broken: the
employer transitions to a different provider, the employee leaves the company,
the IS provider pivots to new offerings. The advent of Distributed Ledger
Technology (DLT) could help mitigate these risks; and has led to a
re-evaluation of the relationship between data creation and ownership. Although
DLT is an imprecise term, it typically involves data storage across
organisationally separate entities in a cryptographically secure form; and
therefore could present a partial solution to the risk. This project presents
the first research that applies DLT to the field of PIM, furthering design
science state of the art by a novel implementation of a calendar application on
the Ethereum blockchain. It also extends current research in utilising DLT in
digital preservation, namely by enacting a continuum approach within a DL that
allows for transfer of ownership of digital objects as they transition from
individual to collective relevance. Finally it provides guidelines for future
use of DLT within digital preservation.
