Digital Document

A Digital Document is an document in a machine processable document format (such as ASCII, HTML, JPEG, or PDF).

• Context:
  • It can (often) be a Type Written Electronic Document.
  • It can range from being a Structured Electronic Document to being a Semi-Structured Electronic Document to being an Unstructured Electronic Document.
  • It can have a Document Format, such as HTML, Text File, JPEG, PDF.
  • It can be transported over a Data Network.
  • It can be the result of an Electronic Publishing Activity.
  • It can be used in digital libraries, scientific collaboration systems, and publishing systems.
  • It can include various media types such as text, graphics, audio, and video.
  • …
• Example(s):
  • a Text Document (e.g., in a corpus).
  • a Rich Text Document.
  • a PDF Document that can be converted to HTML.
  • a Digital Contract.
  • an Electronic Article, an Electronic Book.
  • a Hyperlinked Document.
  • a Visual Document.
  • an MS Word Document.
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • a Microform.
  • a Physical Document.
  • a Type Written Document.
  • a Physical Book.
  • …
• See: Digital, Document, File Format, Plain Text, Computer File.

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References

2015

• (Wikipedia, 2015) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/electronic_document Retrieved:2015-1-16.
  • An electronic document is any electronic media content (other than computer programs or system files) that are intended to be used in either an electronic form or as printed output.

    Originally, any computer data were considered as something internal — the final data output was always on paper. However, the development of computer networks has made it so that in most cases it is much more convenient to distribute electronic documents than printed ones. And the improvements in electronic display technologies mean that in most cases it is possible to view documents on screen instead of printing them (thus saving paper and the space required to store the printed copies).

    However, using electronic documents for final presentation instead of paper has created the problem of multiple incompatible file formats. Even plain text computer files are not free from this problem — e.g. under MS-DOS, most programs could not work correctly with UNIX-style text files (see newline), and for non-English speakers, the different code pages always have been a source of trouble.

    Even more problems are connected with complex file formats of various word processors, spreadsheets and graphics software. To alleviate the problem, many software companies distribute free file viewers for their proprietary file formats (one example is Adobe's Acrobat Reader). The other solution is the development of standardized non-proprietary file formats (such as HTML and OpenDocument), and electronic documents for specialized uses have specialized formats – the specialized electronic articles in physics use TeX or PostScript.

2009

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_document
  • An electronic document is any electronic media content (other than computer programs or system files) that are intended to be used in either an electronic form or as printed output.
  • Originally, any computer data were considered as something internal — the final data output was always on paper. However, the development of computer networks has made it so that in most cases it is much more convenient to distribute electronic documents than printed ones. And the improvements in electronic display technologies mean that in most cases it is possible to view documents on screen instead of printing them (thus saving paper and the space required to store the printed copies).
  • However, using electronic documents for final presentation instead of paper has created the problem of multiple incompatible file formats. Even plain text computer files are not free from this problem — e.g. under MS-DOS, most programs could not work correctly with UNIX-style text files (see newline), and for non-English speakers, the different code pages always have been a source of trouble.
  • Even more problems are connected with complex file formats of various word processors, spreadsheets and graphics software. To alleviate the problem, many software companies distribute free file viewers for their proprietary file formats (one example is Adobe's Acrobat Reader). The other solution is the development of standardized non-proprietary file formats (such as HTML and OpenDocument), and electronic documents for specialized uses have specialized formats–the specialized electronic articles in physics use TeX or PostScript.

2009

• Allen Renear. Homepage. http://www.lis.illinois.edu/oc/people/bio.html?id=renear
  • Research Interests: How digital documents function as knowledge representation systems: developing models of how documents organize and structure knowledge and then exploring how these models can improve document-intensive applications such as digital libraries, scientific collaboration systems, publishing systems, educational technology, and humanities textbases.

1998b

• (Heminger & Robertson, 2000) ⇒ Alan R. Heminger, and Steven Robertson. (2000). “Digital Rosetta Stone: A Conceptual Model for Maintaining Long-term Access to Digital Documents.” In: Proceedings of the Thirty-First Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.
  • QUOTE: … The second step is to identify and catalog the objects that are supported by these applications. An object in a digital document can be text, graphics, audio, video, and any number of other structures that have been included by the document's creator. ...

1998a

• (Buckland, 1998) ⇒ Michael Buckland. (1998). “What is a Digital Document.” In: Document Numérique (Paris) 2(2).
  • QUOTE: For practical purposes, people develop pragmatic definitions, such as "anything that can be given a file name and stored on electronic media" or "a collection of data plus properties of that data that a user chooses to refer to as a logical unit." And, as so often in discussions of information, one finds definitions of "document" that focus on one aspect and are often highly metaphorical, such as "`captured' knowledge," "data in context," and "an organized view of information." … Attempts to define digital documents are likely to remain elusive, if more than an ad hoc, pragmatic definition is wanted. Definitions based on form, format and medium appear to be less satisfactory that a functional approach …

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