DHQ Wiki | Policy Documents | Journal Development

Notes toward an electronic publication framework

On this page you will find some drafted scribblings and wiki experiments towards a theoretical framework for requirements for an online digital periodical. Note that this sketch is abstract: it tries not to make choices among possible implementations or technology infrastructures, but only to identify where there are interfaces (vertically, between “tiers”) and distinctions (between “zones”) that provide “natural” boundaries for system components.

The particular design challenge posed by Digital Humanities is to provide simultaneously a well-regulated, transparent and stable digital resource on line, with some assurance of long-term access and accruing value, yet with an openness to experiment with the latest and most fleeting current technologies, with the concomitant result of obsolescence. Because these requirements are fundamentally at odds, a solution rationalizes a scheme in which works aimed at either objective can subsist comfortably together.

Thoughts and reactions please tell Wendell.

---

	Zone 1	Zone 2	Zone 3
tier 1	Current web techs (HTML/CSS/RSS/PDF etc)		(links)
tier 2	Descriptive layer (XML)	Mixed
tier 3	Structured archive	misc source	(docs)
	Accessionables

---

Zones

Everything published by DH should be understood to belong to one or another of these three zones. Initially, we might work only in Zone 1, with Zone 3 available for experiments; but from time to time we might also publish things in Zone 2. Over time, Zone 2 can also serve as a lab or testbed, with successful experiments influencing the expansion of Zone 1.

Zone I: inside the wall

full production

• provided on our site
• controlled vocabulary
• full metadata control
• long-term preservation a requirement (of both sources and publication versions)

Zone II: on the wall

local, experimental

• provided on our site
• room for experimental works that we consider worth supporting
• framed with metadata
• documented
• some provision for long-term preservation/access (though perhaps not absolutely guaranteed)

Zone III: outside the wall

reported in the wild

• things pointed to off-site
• integrated into metadata structure, but no promise of long-term maintenance
• can include such craziness as print publication!
• we can conduct experiments ourselves "outside the wall" (in zone 3)

Technical infrastructure

XML layer (middle tier)

• (requirement 1) e-journal production
• (requirement 2+) long-term reuse/repurposing
  • access/archiving (on stuff originally produced in/for DH) but not seeking to be able to archive arbitrary data (no need to be a target for other journals in the way of NCBI or JSTOR)

Presentation layer (upper tier)

• (X)HTML+CSS (accessibility enabled)
• (future HTMLs)
• script? (when standards-conformant) maybe lightly
• RSS
• SVG, other dominant graphics formats, audio formats
• PDF, PS, e-print/distribution formats
• OEB
• Can include other experiments ("outside the wall") e.g. wikis, Flash, whatnot (which we don't promise to maintain indefinitely)
• Must be cheap to produce! (enabling free distribution)
• Not all materials may be presented in every format

Storage layer (lower tier)

• Can mirror XML layer for core materials
  • (Whether archived as files, in dbs or whatever)
• But could also include anything, even non-digital
• Various file formats allowed (including binary)
• "Unmanaged storage" can be the XML and sources all tarred up
• Then also, structured archives
  • These may also include mixed media archives
  • Archiving "profiles" also possible/encouraged (e.g. "all regular issues in PDF")
  • Need to address the needs of libraries as well as our own

---

— WendellPiez - 06 Jul 2005