When Digital Objects Change -- Exactly What Changes?

Renear, Allen H.; Dubin, David; Wickett, Karen M.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/42627 Copy

Description

Title

When Digital Objects Change -- Exactly What Changes?

Author(s)

• Renear, Allen H.
• Dubin, David
• Wickett, Karen M.

Issue Date

2008

Keyword(s)

• ontology
• Data Curation
• Digital Preservation

Abstract

Formal accounts of digital objects often characterize them as bit strings, graphs, sets, tuples, relations, or other similar constructs from discrete mathematics. Such characterizations imply that these objects cannot undergo changes such as losing or gaining parts, or having their parts rearranged. Yet our discourse about digital objects seems, if taken literally, to imply that those objects routinely undergo such changes. One strategy for dealing with this inconsistency is to affirm an account which leaves digital objects immutable and re-locates change in the persons interacting with these objects.

Publisher

ASIST, Wiley

Series/Report Name or Number

Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/42627

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