• Digital Editions and Version Numbering

    Author(s):
    Paul A. Broyles (see profile)
    Date:
    2020
    Group(s):
    Digital Humanists, TC Digital Humanities, Textual Scholarship
    Subject(s):
    Scholarly electronic publishing, Editing, Data curation, Electronic publishing, Digital media--Editing, Text Encoding Initiative
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    versioning, version numbers, Piers Plowman Electronic Archive, Digital scholarly editing, Digital publishing, Digital editing, TEI
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/bde5-rp28
    Abstract:
    Digital editions are easily modified after they are first published — a state of affairs that poses challenges both for long-term scholarly reference and for various forms of electronic distribution and analysis. This article argues that producers of digital editions should assign meaningful version numbers to their editions and update those version numbers with each change, allowing both humans and computers to know when resources have been modified and how significant the changes are. As an examination of versioning practices in the software industry reveals, version numbers are not neutral descriptors but social products intended for use in specific contexts, and the producers of digital editions must consider how version numbers will be used in developing numbering schemes. It may be beneficial to version different parts of an edition separately, and in particular to version the data objects or content of an edition independently from the environment in which it is displayed. The article concludes with a case study of the development of a versioning policy for the Piers Plowman Electronic Archive, and includes an appendix surveying how a selection of digital editions handle the problem of recording and communicating changes.
    Metadata:
    Published as:
    Journal article    
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    3 years ago
    License:
    Attribution-NoDerivatives

    Downloads

    Item Name: pdf broyles-2020.pdf
      Download View in browser
    Activity: Downloads: 120