The VEO Explained

The word VEO standards for VERS Encapsulated Object. The VEO format was designed in Australia as part of the Victorian Electronic Records Strategy ( 1996-Present ). Comprehensive details on the strategy can be found at www.prov.vic.gov.au/vers which lists the program in detail.

Records created in a VEO format are stored in XML with embedded documents (digital objects) converted to characters by a BASE-64 conversion. The record can hold any number of digital objects allowing metadata (information about the document) to be captured for each object. Each digital object can contain any number of different encodings (for example, the original format and a long-term format). All of the digital objects are bound up together with information about the record (record metadata) and then sealed with a digital signature.

The value of the metadata held at the encoding, digital object and record level is to allow the record to be understood in the future with a simple text based reader. The metadata also allows the future reader to understand what the record is about and also how to decode the information within it.