Documents in the digital culture : shaping the future

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DOCUMENTS IN THE DIGITAL CULTURE:

SHAPING THE FUTURE

A Report On A Workshop Held At:

The Haw aii International Conference on System Sciences

January 1995


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Copyright 1995 by the Hawaii International Conference On

System Sciences. Permission to m ake copies of this report in w hole

or in p art is given p rovided that th e making of such copies is not for

direct commercial advantage and provided that this copyright

notice is affixed to all such copies. To copy otherwise, or to

repu blish, requires perm ission and possible paymen t of a fee.

A H ICSS MON OGRAPH

Ha waii International Conference on System Sciences2404 Maile Wa y

Hon olulu, H I 96822


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SHAPING THE FUTURE

A Report on a w orkshop held at:

The H awaii International Conference on System Sciences

January 1995

Conveners:

John Seely Brow n - Xerox Corp oration

M. Stuart Lynn - Consultant

Ralph Spragu e - University of Haw aii

Participants:Dan iel E. Atkins - Un iversity of Michigan

Blake Ives - South ern M ethod ist University

Ann e Kenn ey - Cornell University

Peter Lyman - University of California, Berkeley

Clifford Lyn ch - University o f California

Patr ice Lyons - Law Offices of Patrice Lyons, Chartered

M. Lynne Mar kus - Claremont Grad uate School

Joe McGrath - Xerox Corp orat ion

Jay N un ama ker - University of Arizona

Geoffrey Nun berg - Xerox Corp oration

Reporter:

Dav id Bollier


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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The first draft of this report w as prep ared by David Bollier who w as

the Workshop Reporter. Although the rep ort has been through

substa ntial chan ge, editing, and rew rite reflecting commen ts of the

w orkshop participan ts, this final version bears many marks of the

original draft in both stru cture and content. The Workshop

conveners ar e deep ly grateful to David Bollier for his professional

assistance, substantial contributions, and pa rticularly h is patience in

allowing h is creation to und ergo so many changes in converging to

its fina l form .

We also are most grateful to a num ber of the w orkshop p articipants,

especially Clifford Lynch an d Patrice Lyons, who gave m uch of their

valuable time to comm enting on the var ious dra fts of this report,

and to all the participants for stimu lating a lively and prod uctive

discussion d uring the w orkshop itself.

Editors:

M . Stuart Lynn

Ralph H. S prague


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FOREWORD

To inau gurate a new interdisciplinary inquiry into the role of digitaldocum ents in our changing culture, a workshop w as held at the

28th annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences,

in Janu ary 1995. The workshop brou ght togeth er a diverse grou p of

thirteen thinkers, practitioners, technologists and h um anists to try

to dev elop a more insightfu l, holistic grasp of emerg ing forms of

information encapsu lated as docum ents.

This report is an interpretive narrative of the w orkshop s

pr oceed ings, with some p ost facto elaboration w oven in as necessary

to pr odu ce whole cloth. It is not intend ed as a literal tran scription ,

and as such does not p erhap s adequ ately reflect all the variety and

conflicts of viewp oints that p ermeated the w orkshop. N evertheless,

it is hoped that the d ocum ent captures the essential pattern of the

proceedings and the most importan t insights that were pr esented.

N either is the report intend ed as a comp lete work of scholarship.

Particularly, althou gh w e claim originality for the fabric of thisrep ort in its entirety, we do n ot claim au thorsh ip of all of its

individual thread s and patterns. We liberally d raw on the ideas of

others and, ind eed, of ourselves as workshop participan ts

w ithout citation and w ithout elaboration. The worksh op w as a

fast-paced d iscussion and interchange of ideas that did not always

pau se to give attribution wh ere app ropriate. In some sense, this

reflects a casualty of the age of digital networks, w here au thorship

may be comm un al and ideas may often flow without ap prop riate

citation or m ay receive inapp ropriate attribution. N evertheless, we

apologize to those who m ay see their own h and in parts of the

report withou t proper attribution.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENT........................................................................................................iv

FOREWORD.........................................................................................................................v

SUMMARY............................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................1

I. TH E D YN AM ICS O F D IG ITA L D O CUM ENT S...........................................................2

II. SIX M AJO R AREN AS O F EN D EAVO R......................................................................4

III. BUILD IN G A N EW FOR UM AN D DIS CO URS E........................................................5

INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................9

I. TH E D YN AM ICS O F D IG ITA L D O CUM ENT S..................................................................12

A. WH Y ARE D IG ITA L D O CUM ENT S SO DI FFEREN T?..............................................13

B. SITUATING DIG ITAL DOCUM ENTS IN A SO CIAL MATRIX.................................16

C. TAXON O MI C CO N FUSIO N AN D TH E D IG ITAL CULTUR E...................................19

D. TH E MI SSIN G CO NTEXTUAL CUES OF DIG ITAL DOCUM ENTS ............................21

E. TH E FUTUR E O F IN TELLECTUA L PRO PERT Y........................................................26

F. TH E TRAN SITIO N FRO M PRINT TO DIG ITAL CULTURE.......................................31

II. SIX M AJO R A REN AS O F EN D EAVO R............................................................................34

A. O RG AN IZA TIO N S AN D TH E WO RKP LACE..........................................................36

B. COMMERCE............................................................................................................37

C. DIS CO VERY, CREATIO N, AN D DI SSEMIN ATIO N OF N EW KN OWLEDG E.........39

D. LEARN IN G AN D ED UC AT IO N ..............................................................................42

E. H O M E AN D FAM ILY..............................................................................................44

F. CULTU RE, D ISCO URS E, AN D CO MM UN ITY LIFE.................................................46

III . BUILD IN G A N EW FOR UM AN D D ISC O URS E.............................................................50


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SHAPING THE FUTURE

SUMMARY

INTRODUCTION

To inau gurate a new interdisciplinary inquiry into the role of digital

docum ents in our changing culture, a workshop w as held at the






Docum ents lie at the interface of content, format, use, and

techn ology. Whether in p rint, sound , video, electronic, or

mu ltimed ia formats, documents are social and cultural artifacts,

w hose use and interpretation vary w ith content and context.

Cyberspace is giving rise to new forms of documen ts - digital

docum ents - as well as new w ays of man ipulating traditional

docum ents. These new forms, coup led with th e rapid change of the

new technologies that improve an d speed the effectiveness and

efficiency with w hich th ese digital docum ents are han dled, p romise

to have a profound effect on a w ide range of huma n end eavor,

breaking d own barriers, of form, time, and space.

The need for a new interd isciplinary d iscour se is critical. The top ic

is viewed m u ch differently from th e persp ective of d ifferent

d isciplines. From all persp ectives, there is a tend ency to emp hasize

the new emerging technologies for hand ling d ocument s, over the


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social and cu ltural context of the d ocumen t itself. There is greater

need for discourse am ong techn ologists, social scientists, hu man ists,

library scientists, economists, and the grow ing bod y of

user/ pr actitioners. The r eal challenge of the "information age," it

seems, may be learning how to develop broader, more sup pleintellectual framew orks, strategies and language for u nd erstanding

digital documents.

The term "digital docum ents" w as deliberately chosen to focu s

attention on the complex interactions among information,

know ledge, cultu re and techn ology. It reflects a key assump tion of

the mem bers of the worksh op that the emerging digital docum ent

systems are m ost usefully und erstood as social technologies.

This report focuses on three core issues tha t emerged in the

w orkshop deliberations.

What terminologies and taxonomies can help better

structur e the d ynam ics of digital information? [Part I]

What are the long-range implications of digital d ocum ents

in specific areas of end eavor su ch as organ izations,edu cation, comm erce, families and culture? [Part II]

What are the best ways to nu rture intellectual discourse and

interdisciplinary r esearch to un derstand digital docum ents?

[Part III]

I . THE DYNAMICS OF DIGITAL DOCUMENTS

What is it about digital documents that m ake them so d ifferent

from traditional pr inted d ocum ents? This fundam ental question

arises because so m any far-reaching consequences stem from the

sheer cap abilities of new electronic technologies. To help gain a


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better un derstan ding of the digital universe, Part I explores six key

themes:

Digital docum ents can exist in man y forms, most of wh ich

hav e no ph ysical substan ce. Moreover, the technology forpr ocessing them is so versatile that it can be u sed in a va riety

of ways, and differently in different stages of the docum ent

pr ocessing cycle. These char acteristics genera lly make d igital

documents far easier to captur e, reprodu ce, manipu late and

transm it than p rinted information, a profoun d d ifference

that is helping create new cultures of comm un ication.

[Section A]

Digital documents mu st be und erstood as integral prod ucts

of comp lex netw orks of social, economic and other

relationships, and n ot as isolated machines and word s. In

other w ord s, context is imp ortant. [Section B]

The dyn amic natu re of digital information, and its subtle

relationships w ith a largely un seen social context, has

resulted in a n eed to re-examine trad itional taxonomies.

There is a need to make m ore sense of the emerging genr esof digital comm un ication. [Section C]

Much confusion can be traced to "contextual cues" that are

missing or overlooked in the d igital milieu. Digital

docum ent often contain fewer imp licit mark ers about the

origins and social meanings of a given d ocum ent.

[Section D]

The special character of d igital d ocumen ts raises difficult

questions about the futu re of intellectual p roperty in th e

digital culture. [Section E]


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The t ransit ion from a predominant ly prin t / analog cul ture

to a p redom inantly digital culture is comp lex, and w ill

require greater und erstanding and r efinement.

[Section F]

I I. SIX MAJOR ARENAS OF ENDEAVOR

How d o digital docum ents, as carriers of information, affect the

workings of organizations or commerce, for example, or higher

education or family life? In w ha t specific ways d oes it shift existing

relationships of p ower; enable the emergence of new forms of

pr ofessional collaboration; reconfigu re the everyd ay hab its in th ehom e; or transform cultu ral and p olitical discour se by creating new

venu es for p ublic speech an d interaction? Part II seeks to bring a

sharp er focus to h ow d igital docum ents w ill affect six arenas of

endeavor:

A. Organizations and the Workplace

B. Commerce

C. Discovery, Creation, and Dissemination of New Knowledge

D. Learning and Educat ion

E. Hom e and Family

F. Culture, Discourse and Commu nity Life

These six sections do n ot attemp t a comp rehensive overview of the

challenges facing each realm. They d o sug gest some research top ics

that lie at the threshold of chan ge; are not curr ently receiving

adequ ate attention or fund ing; could benefit from an

interd isciplinary p erspective; and hav e global imp lications. Arelated top ic, wh ich cuts across all of these arena s in comp licated

ways, is how th e techn ologies and p ractices of the pr int and d igital

cultur es are likely to co-mingle and synth esize in the coming years.

That issue is discussed in a conclud ing section, "The Transition

from Print to Digital Culture."


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III. BUILDING A NEW FORUM AND DISCOURSE

Part III proposes the creation of a new forum and network that can

bring togeth er a diverse constellation of thinker s and p ractitioners,

technologists and social scientists, and other eclectic adventu rers of

the d igital culture. The chief pu rposes of this forum and netw ork

wou ld be to:

Stimu late critical interd isciplinary research;

Develop and critique integrated scenarios for the future;

Shape future discourse and action;

Nu rture an emerging intellectual comm un ity;

Orient found ations and funding agencies to important

research p riorities; Engage leaders of government, indu stry and edu cation; and

Disseminate key results and ideas.

Unlike conferences that conven e a sp ecific profession or d iscipline,

this conference, entitled "Documents in the Digital Culture:

Shap ing the Futu re," w ill deliberately seek to bring togeth er peop le

w ith diver gent, pr ovocative critiques of selected th emes. There

would be no fixed categories or "tracks" of inquiry from year to year,

but rather a fluid set of categories, chosen each year. N ot only would

this gathering create unusual opportunities for cross-fertilization

among d isciplines and professions, it wou ld help build a new

netw ork of people with shared interests and h elp develop a new

discourse about docum ents in the d igital culture.


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SHAPING THE FUTURE

A Report On A Workshop Held At:

The Haw aii International Conference on System Sciences

January 1995


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SHAPING THE FUTURE

INTRODUCTION

To inau gurate a new interdisciplinary inquiry into the role of digital

docum ents in our changing culture, a workshop w as held at the






Docum ents lie at the interface of content, format, use, and

techn ology. Whether in p rint, sound , video, electronic, or

mu ltimed ia formats, documents are social and cultural artifacts,w hose use and interpretation vary w ith content and context.

Cyberspace is giving rise to new forms of documen ts - digital

docum ents - as well as new w ays of man ipulating traditional

docum ents. These new forms, coup led with th e rapid change of the

new technologies that improve an d speed the effectiveness and

efficiency with w hich th ese digital docum ents are han dled, p romise

to have a profound effect on a w ide range of huma n end eavor,

breaking d own barriers, of form, time, and space.

As a grow ing array of new electronic techn ologies insinuate

them selves into business, edu cation, governmen t, and person al

life, a growing challenge is how to m ake sense of the em erging

forms of information. We intuitively und erstand that electronic


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ma il, d atabases, the Intern et, CD-ROMs, cellular commu nication

d evices, personal digital assistants, and other d igital systems

function qu ite differently than tr aditional print d ocum ents, and

that th ey enable people, comm un ities and institutions to interact in

intriguing new ways. But a m ore systematic, detailed gra sp of theemerging information technologies their d ynam ics, influence and

long-term cultural imp lications eludes u s.

The need for a new interd isciplinary d iscour se is critical. The top ic

is viewed m u ch differently from th e persp ective of d ifferent

d isciplines. From all persp ectives, there is a tend ency to emp hasize

the new emerging technologies for hand ling d ocument s, over the

social and cu ltural context of the d ocumen t itself. There is greater

need for discourse am ong techn ologists, social scientists, hu man ists,

library scientists, economists, and the grow ing bod y of

user/ pr actitioners. The r eal challenge of the "information age," it

seems, may be learning how to develop broader, more sup ple

intellectual framew orks, strategies and language for u nd erstanding

digital documents.

The term "digital docum ents" w as deliberately chosen to focu s

attention on the complex interactions among information,know ledge, cultu re and techn ology. It reflects a key assump tion of

the mem bers of the worksh op that the emerging digital docum ent

systems are m ost usefully und erstood as social technologies.

To probe this notion, the workshop brough t together thirteen

invited leaders in comp uter an d information sciences,

organizational th eory, library sciences, strategic business plan ning,

electronic d ocument man agement, lingu istics, intellectual prop erty,

pu blic policy and the social sciences. This rep ort is an interpr etive

synthesis of the w orkshop deliberations. It is d ivided into three

pa rts that focus on th e follow ing questions:

What terminologies and taxonomies can help better

structur e the d ynam ics of digital information? [Part I]


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What are the long-range implications of digital d ocum ents

in specific areas of end eavor su ch as organ izations,

edu cation, comm erce, families and culture? [Part II]

What are the best ways to nu rture intellectual discourse and

interdisciplinary r esearch to un derstand digital docum ents?

[Part III]


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I. THE DYNAMICS OF DIGITAL DOCUMENTS

What is it about digital documents that m ake them so d ifferent

from traditional pr inted d ocum ents? This fundam ental question

arises because so m any far-reaching consequences stem from the

sheer cap abilities of new electronic technologies. To help gain a

better un derstan ding of the digital universe, Part I explores six key

themes:

Digital docum ents can exist in man y forms, most of wh ich

hav e no ph ysical substan ce. Moreover, the technology for

pr ocessing them is so versatile that it can be u sed in a va riety

of ways, and differently in different stages of the docum ent

pr ocessing cycle. These char acteristics genera lly make d igital

documents far easier to captur e, reprodu ce, manipu late and

transm it than p rinted information, a profoun d d ifference

that is helping create new cultures of comm un ication.

[Section A]

Digital documents mu st be und erstood as integral prod ucts

of comp lex netw orks of social, economic and other

relationships, and n ot as isolated machines and word s. In

other w ord s, context is imp ortant. [Section B]

The dyn amic natu re of digital information, and its subtle

relationships w ith a largely un seen social context, has

resulted in a n eed to re-examine trad itional taxonomies.

There is a need to make m ore sense of the emerging genr es

of digital comm un ication. [Section C]

Mu ch confusion can be traced to the pa ucity of "contextual

cues" that ar e missing or overlooked in the d igital milieu.

Digital docum ents often contain few er imp licit m arkers

about their origins and social meaning than p rint

documents. [Section D]


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The special character of d igital d ocumen ts raises difficult

questions about the futu re of intellectual p roperty in th e

digital cultu re.

[Section E]

The t ransit ion from a predominant ly prin t / analog cul ture

to a p redom inantly digital culture is comp lex, and w ill

require greater und erstanding and r efinement.

[Section F]

A. WHY ARE DIGITAL DOCUMENTS SO DIFFERENT?

The most salient fact about d igital docu men ts is that, conceptu ally

(and often in pr actice), they a re mu ch easier to access, store,

man ipulate, reprod uce, consolidate, and transm it than p rint

d ocumen ts. In an article in the jour nal Representations, lingu ist

Geoffrey Nunberg succinctly summarizes two of the most

significant differences between electronic and pr int technologies:

The first [difference] is the versatility of the technology :

un like mechanical antecedents like the p rinting p ress, the

typ ewr iter, or the telegrap h, the comp uter isn't restricted to

a single role in p rod uction or d iffusion. In fact, the

techn ology tends to erase distinctions between the separate

pr ocesses of creation, reprod uction and d istribution that

characterize the classic ind ustr ial mod el of pr int

comm od ities, not just because th e electron ic technology

emp loyed is the same at each stage, but because control

over th e processes can be exercised at any point....

The second important difference between th e two

technologies follow s from the im ma teriality of electron ic

representations and the resulting redu ctions in the cost of

repr odu ction....One imp ortant consequ ence of these [two]


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d ifferences is that w ith electronic reprod uction, the user

has a m uch greater role in the p rocess of reprod uction.

The versatility of d igital d ocumen t pr ocessing techn ology and the

immateriality of digital docum ents are two of the new med ium smost engaging attributes. No longer must u sers be passive

consumers of pre-formatted information, dependent upon a print

pu blisher's choices. With d igital techn ologies, user s can exert mu ch

greater personal control in selecting the information they w ant an d

spu rring creation an d presentation. There are often separate,

d istinct technologies for each p hase of the pr ocess capture, storage,

d istribution, access and u se. And yet, when d igitized, a docum ent

can be manipu lated, exchanged, u sed and re-pu rposed in different

ways in a dispar ate array of electronic media, from CD-ROM to

magnetic tape to flopp y d isk and more. Furth ermore, digital

technologies provide a common denominator to integrate

pr eviously disjoint technologies such as print, au dio, film, video

into mu ltimed ia documents, provid ing the basis for wh at has

become kn own as the convergence of previously distinct

industries.

The emerging consum er sovereignty in informat ion-generation isimp elling a proliferation of choices and a new u ser-d riven "pu ll"

of information creation and information d issemination at the

expense of the trad itional seller-d riven "push " of informa tion

pu blishing. Fur therm ore, in the chan ging econom ies of this new

digital domain, authors may directly link w ith consumers, by-

passing or re-engineering the trad itional value chain of print

pu blishing. As yet, however, there is not a clear taxonomy for

un derstand ing this new "economy" of information generation,

distribution and consump tion.

Not th at this has mattered mu ch. Armed with a v ersatile,

decentralized architecture, millions of authors and users h ave lost

no tim e in creating their ow n d istinctive vehicles of

comm un ication, crafted to m eet quite specialized p ur poses, often


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re-shap ing individu al or comm un ity tastes. The convergence of

technologies now enables bulletin board s for the nar row est affinity

group s, distance-learning program s for ru ral residents, printing-on-

dem and to remote locations and a pr ofusion of electronic

pamphleteering. The new lexicon encompasses concepts such ashyp ertext, World Wide Web, net-cruising an d a w hole vocabulary

of terms an d technologies fueling an explosion in th e varieties of

d igital expression and commu nication, includ ing non -linear genres

grafted over the linear sequencing of traditional presentations.

Such technological advances seem to have ou tpaced ou r an alytic

categories and d iscour se, how ever. The transcript of a group ware

d iscussion, gigabytes of instrum ent d ata, and electronic mail are

now accepted docum ents of activities w hich were previously

considered "traces" essentially und ocumen table blurs of pr ocesses.

These d ocumen ts are byprod ucts of an activity, not the d irect,

d eliberate focus of activity. As conceptu al anom alies in th e

trad itional pan theon, these "docum ents" have an un certain, even

contestable, status under existing social and legal categories, which

pr edom inantly reflect the norm s of a print culture. Shou ld

governm ent e-mail be subject to the Freedom of Information A ct

as several pend ing lawsuits argue? Should corporate group wared iscussions be su bject to discovery pr oceedings in lawsu its as

futur e plaintiffs will surely argu e? Where does ow nership v est in

d ocum ents generated throu gh r emote electronic collaboration? The

ambiguous social and legal standing of these "process documents"

are beginning to pose serious qua nd aries for our society. And where

in the electronic dom ain do First Amend men t freedom s and rights

to pu blish and express opinions traverse individ ua ls desires to be

pr otected against excesses of pu blication, such as in argu men ts over

the electronic dissemination of perceived porn ograph ic materials?

It is not just that there are man y more typ es of digital docum ents

being invented ; it is that th ese types are n ot yet necessarily

"situated" in a societal context and imbued w ith consensual

mean ing. Their identities as recognized genres of commu nication,


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art icles of com mer ce, social objects, tokens of cultu ral sign ificance

need to be m ore clearly defined throu gh evolving consensus. Yet

the rap id evolution and fluid ity of digital documents seem to

conspire against this need, there n ot being time for evolving

consensus on one genre before it is replaced by an other. Theconvergence of d igital systems encoura ge the shu ttling of digital

docum ents from one container to another, as well as rapid

mu tations in u se and presentation. Genres overlap and mu ltiply,

and few h ave been around long enough, or are stable enough, to

acquire fixed social identities with widely accepted mean ings. There

is too mu ch flux.

Mu ltimed ia technologies facilitate and accelerate this trend . Even in

the analog d omain, presentation styles in man y med ia such as film

and mu sic have h alf-lives of only a few years or even m onths; in

the d igital dom ain half-lives are even mor e ephem eral. Changes,

furtherm ore, run deep : non-textual forms of literacy, such as v isual

and aural creativity, are being transformed in this new milieu of

converging technologies and are themselves in turn tr ansforming

mod es of comm un ication.

B. SITUATING DIGITAL DOCUMENTS IN A SOCIAL MATRIX

An imp ortant concept is that d igital docum ents consist of much

more than their encoded symbols and su pp ort technologies; their

imp act is not confined to d iscrete, utilitarian tasks, such as

facilitating contact with colleagues or impr oving organ izational

efficiency. Rather, digital docu men ts mu st be un der stood as

pr odu cts of a vast, dense netw ork of social, econom ic and other

relationships. We are on ly just beginning to see how far the newd igital capabilities radiate into our cu lture, remaking m any of its

basic elements: social relationsh ips, organ izational behav ior,

commercial activity, government and political life, intellectual

prop erty norms, cultur al values.


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Perha ps th e clearest way to env ision su ch chan ges is in microcosm,

through a specific "community of practice." Consider how remote-

controlled d igital instru men ts installed in Greenland tr ansformed a

commu nity of spa ce scientists, their research p ractices and

know ledge. Historically, small teams of scientists mou nted period icexpeditions to Greenland, hoping that w eather cond itions w ould

allow them to cond uct their experiments. With th e development of

remote-controlled digital instrumen ts and electronic networks,

how ever, an even larger grou p of scientists are now able to join this

research comm un ity, working together from a variety of dispersed

locations. Digital systems en able them to control the instrum ents,

consult with each other, mod ify the course of experiments an d

annotate their docum ents as a group . If some abnorm al data blip

ap pear s in the midd le of the night, a scientist can schedu le a "replay

session" at a later time, inviting scientists w ho w ere not present

wh en the data was originally acquired to come together

(electronically) to review the d ata.

In a real sense, the mu ltimed ia data stream s flowing from

instrum ents in Greenland and their "collaboratory" record s

represent new kind of digital docum ents around wh ich a new kind

of scientific comm un ity and d iscour se has organized . Thed ocumen ts repr esent the tip of a very large iceberg; the tip is visible

above the w ater only because there is a large m ass of comp lex social

relationships "und erneath " it man y of these being n ew

relationships facilitated by the technology that g enerate, use an d

give meaning to, the d igital documen ts. In a sense, the docum ents

serve as a p rinciple of organ ization for a wh ole nexus of social

pr actices and roles, institutions, prop erty relations and person al

attitudes and emotions.

This social and cultura l dyn am ic is replicated in all sorts of other

academ ic specialties, professions, bu sinesses, and commu nities. The

mu ltitud e of digital documents now being generated are "digital

artifacts" around which communities of practice choose to organize

them selves in d istinctive w ays. The documen ts and th e


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comm un ities interpenetrate and become m utu ally d ependent; the

docum ents w ould not exist but for the comm un ities of practice, and

vice-versa. The sub-cultu re of boys who read sup erhero comic books

is literally mad e p ossible called into being by that distinctive

pop ular d ocum ent. It provid es one means by which they constitutethemselves as a subculture a nd sustain their identity. Traditionally,

these comm un ities have formed and evolved slowly; in the digital

milieu th ey form an d re-form rap idly. They overlap and transform,

and , parad oxically, break d own barriers of culture, form, time, and

space while facilitating emphasis of differences.

Perhaps nowh ere does this become more ap parent than in the

intern ational context. Docum ents exist in social, cultur al, and

national settings. Digital documents transmitted instantly across

netw orks and electronic commu nications are breaking dow n

barriers amon g and w ithin these settings, raising global questions

and issues that r equire international discourse for answers and

resolution. For examp le, varying n ational or cultural attitud es

tow ard s porn ograp hy, freedom of access to information, or

intellectual prop erty rights raise questions as to w heth er it is even

possible for any on e coun try to enforce its own ru les and laws in

isolation. Or to what extent su ch laws m ay conflict with t hepr actices and d irections of tran snational cultures, such as the

scientific community.

Are there id entifiable patterns of reconfiguration a t w ork w hen

digital docum ents are introd uced to a given comm un ity? Can those

pa tterns be g eneralized? Can influent ial social or econom ic factors

be isolated ? The an swers are not self-eviden t.

A good examp le might be the potential changes the u se of

interactive learning technologies might introd uce to ed ucational

settings. Encour aging intera ctive access to information a nd

know ledge invites, or perh aps d emand s, that teachers revert to a

mor e Socratic role as men tors gu iding a ctive, self-d irected stud ents,

the m etaphor changing from teaching (or professing) to learning.


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Interactive access, wh ether th rou gh use of CD-ROMs or across

global networ ks, unlocks large storehou ses of information to be

used how ever the u ser sees fit, but almost certainly in a n on-linear

fashion. There is no "correct" order for "read ing" the informa tion

contained w ithin it. Interactive learning is an inevitableconsequen ce. New cultural d isciplines and norm s may need to

emerge to ensure that stud ents do not simp ly ramble amon g and

assemble w hat N eil Postm an calls context-free information , but

find new w ays to represent synthesis and r hetoric.

C. TAXONOMIC CONFUSION AND THE DIGITAL CULTURE

Taxonom ies and framew orks even metap hors are valuablemechanisms for u nd erstand ing complex subjects. Unfortunately,

digital technologies are evolving m ore rap idly than our ability to

expand relevant taxonomies.

The intellectual tools by wh ich w e assess digital techn ologies our

langu age, analytic categories, disciplines and cultural m yths often

lag the evolution of these technologies. Terminologies such as

"electronic pu blishing" and "video p rogram ming " have th e archaic

ring of "horseless carriage." They do n ot recognize the u niqu e

pr operties of digital docum ents. They d o not reflect the a ctual social

meanings that m any u sers have come to assign to these systems

(which m ay p artly explain w hy d igital comm un ities generate so

man y creative neologisms). Our reliance on such term s as

"information sup erhighw ay" suggest taxonomic uncertainty with

no imm ediate resolution in sight. New taxonomies cann ot simp ly

be annou nced; they mu st evolve from analytical thinking and

commu nity consensu s, and t hat takes time.

On e of the m ost salient d eficiencies of our d iscour se in this arena,

for examp le, is its inability to u nd erstand the d ynam ic, evolutionary

character of man y digital docum ents. As noted above, digital

d ocumen ts can increasingly captu re p rocesses and actions "traces"


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w hich w ere previously too volatile to document. Many digital

docum ents tend to be constantly evolving, as seen in the ebb-and-

flow of bulletin board conversations and the ongoing ann otations

mad e possible by group ware program s. Knowledge tends to be

generated as p art of an organic process, mu tating and evolving allthe time. Fixed instantiations of know ledge, the custom ary p ractice

in the p rint culture, are not n ecessarily u seful or highly regarded in

d igital cultures.

How can ou r discourse begin to acknow ledge some of these special

pr operties of digital d ocumen ts? Peter Lyman, University Librarian

at th e University of California, Berkeley, sug gests that we

emp hasize verbs, not nou ns, wh en d escribing th e use of digital

technologies. To focus solely on the d igital docum ent as, for

example, the CD-ROM, the softw are progr am, the

vid eoconferencing system , etc. noun s all isolates technologies

from the social relations and organ izational pra ctices w hich give

rise to, and sustain , them . Attention is not really paid to th e larger

matr ix of people wh o collaborate, learn together an d par ticipate as a

comm u nity of pr actice. It is this m atrix that really "creates" the

digital docum ent and gives it meaning.

Relationships an d pr actices are bu ilt on actions that ar e best

rep resented by verbs. Focusing on the "verb" the process of d oing

something , instead of the noun alone may h elp shift attention to

the d ynamic matrix of relationships that un dergird all digital

docum ents. This may imp ly that the very idea of a taxonomy for

digital docum ents is inap prop riate, to the extent that a taxonomy

implies a static, endu ring order of ph enomena. Emph asizing

relationships am ong evolutionary p rocesses, as enabled thr ough

"verbs", may help u nd erscore the gr eat imp ortance of context in

shaping d igital documents.


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D. THE MISSING CONTEXTUAL CUES OF DIGITAL DOCUMENTS

The taxonom ic un certainty d iscussed in Section C may be p artly du e

to the ambigu ous social context of d igital docu men ts, w hich are not

necessarily seen in their native h abitat, as tools and totems of

fun ctioning comm u nities of pr actice. Digital d ocum ents conta in

fewer contextual cues, a consequ ence perhap s of intrinsic prop erties

of the u nd erlying digital med ia. We infer attribu tes of pr inted

d ocum ents from p hysical char acteristics. These inferences have

accum ulated over a long p eriod of time. Digital docum ents, on the

other hand , generally do n ot yet bear markers or cues about their

origins and social meaning. It is generally difficult to assess, from

looking at a d igital d ocum ent in isolation, the credibility of the

sour ce or its stand ing w ithin a p olitical or social hierarchy.Conventions h ave not been fully established or u niversally

accepted or are rap idly rend ered obsolete by changing genres. Will

the typ ograp hical cues, such as sm iley faces, introd uced into

electronic mail to convey mood and meaning su rvive an eventu al

shift to synchronou s or asynchronou s videoconferencing?

This contr asts with th e print cultu re, wh ere, for examp le, certain

typ es of pa per h ave an imp licit and established social mean ing.

Words typ ewritten on formal letterhead stationery may carry a

different meaning than the same w ords hand written in a personal

letter or scraw led on a Post-It. The frequent "flam ing" that is

perm issible or at least forgivable if preceded w ith the right sym bol

on e-ma il could destr oy a p erson's career if conveyed in a

typ ewr itten office mem orand um . Or the significance ascribed to a

news story m ay d iffer according to w hether it appears in the N ew

York Times, a local newsp aper, or a su perm arket tabloid.

Documen ts are social enactments of meaning , not justcontext-neutral word s.

As an example of how p rint docum ents carry subtle and implicit

meanings, John Seely Brow n considers wh at m akes a d ictionary

au thoritative. Its ph ysical app earance contains m any cues to suggest


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its reliability. As a carefully boun d, han dsom ely prod uced book th at

has h un dr eds of pa ges, it is recognized as a comm ercial object that

clearly required a large r esearch staff and capital-intensive

corporation to w rite, print and distribute. It is printed in hu ge

quan tities and sold on the n ational market by a w ell-known bookpublisher. All of these facts, implicit in the p hysicality of a

d ictionary, help persuad e that its contents are rigorou s and

tru stworth y. Such contextual cues imp ute m eaning to the contents

of physical docum ents. The typ e of paper (glossy, heavy, newspr int),

pa ge layout (attractive, dense pr int with n o ph otos), fonts (small,

bold, refined ) and point of d istribution (book store, street corner,

ma ilbox) each serv e to confer a certain social mean ing to a

document an d situate it in our culture.

Digital docum ents are d ifferent. They are shor n of such imp licit

context, or perh aps m ore accur ately, that context may not yet hav e

been socially established . Hence the statu re an d credibility of a given

d igital docu men t are often cultur ally or socially ambiguou s. All the

contextual cues that were on ce imp licit in th e ph ysical embodim ent

of a docum ent now have to be explicitly sup plied or inferred. The

proven ance of e-mail, for examp le, and other d igital docum ents is

un certain, and their ultimate d estination, readership , or evenau thenticity ma y not be controllable or pred ictable with any

certainty. When d ocuments are no longer instantiated in a

par ticular ph ysical form th at h as a recognized social significance, it

can become mor e d ifficult to ascribe larger m eanings to a given

collection of w ord s.

Withou t contextua l cues, th e social significance of a given segm ent

of digital information is often p roblemat ic. This is wh y

"per sonalized electronic newsp ap ers" containing on ly articles of

per sonal interest selected know botically are something of an

oxymoron. A n ewsp aper is not just a collection of timely n ews

articles. It is a consp icuou sly pu blic statemen t of comm un ity values,

a d aily enactment of com mon social concerns, as reflected in w hich

stories are printed on the front page, how long various stories are,


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and so forth. They reflect an ed itorial per spective that is intimately

boun d w ith a readership commu nity: the editor of the New York

Times, for examp le, cannot rad ically change that n ewspap er's

editorial perspective, any more th an th e National Enquirer can

pu blish th ough tful op-ed p ieces on social issues.

This examp le illustrates h ow "know ledge" is not a self-eviden t

m ass of fung ible content. John Seely Brow n p oints ou t that

"know ledge" is a set of "warran ted beliefs" that are certified by

d iverse "w arran ting stru ctures" w hose basis is ultimately social and

informal. A newsp aper ed itor and her staff who are linked to

comm un ity leaders, businesses and readers in countless w ays

serve as a warran ting structure for the commu nity, declaring w hat

kind s of kno w ledge constitu te "new s." Scholarly jou rn als select the

"best" articles; spor ts ma gazines confer their m antle of auth ority on

rising star s; rap music DJs in the inn er city certify for au d iences

w hat records are hot; and so forth. The jud gments of warran ting

structures are sometimes commu nicated implicitly (the p hysical

ma rkings of a dictionary) and sometimes explicitly (overt

end orsements). Sometimes th e w arran ting of beliefs is inherent in

the m ediu m of comm un ications itself ("as seen on TV").

Seen in this fashion, the tran sfer of inform ation from one m ed ium

to anoth er is not a n eutral act. Both th e aesthetics and "w arranting

structures" of the respective mediu ms ar e implicated. Meanings

change. Comic book artist Ar t Spiegelman deliberately chose to

w rite his fable about th e Holocaust, Mau s, in a comic book form at

(albeit in a regu lar book binding). When a CD-ROM of Maus w as

also pu blished, along with sup plementary m aterials on the same

CD, one workshop participant found it entirely unreadable and

inaccessible. But w hen th e same p erson later received a book

version of Maus, he was gripp ed by th e narrative, devou ring it in

an hou r or tw o. For him, the non-linearity and rand om access

features of the CD-ROM w ere ill-suited for the linear n arra tive of

the Mau s story. The aesthetic meanings and artistic experience that

Spiegelman sought to instill in h is work h ad been altered in a


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fundam ental way. On the other hand , for that reader the nonlinear

CD-ROM became an interesting sup plemen t once he had absorbed

the linear or iginal.

When linear pr int content is repu rp osed into digital containersthere is a need for new "mar kers" that can p rovid e explicit cues for

social mean ing and value. Auth orship is one cue th at helps to

validate value: a given database m ay be ascribed gr eater or lesser

value by subscribers according to wh o or wh at comp any is

sup porting or p roviding access to the d atabase. Electronic

new sletter editors may p rovide independ ent guidan ce to value

and be reward ed for their efforts. Ind eed, databases may be assigned

ind epend ent Standa rd & Poor electronic ratings. Society may

demand that suitability ratings be ascribed to accessible materials,

rath er like mov ie classifications for pa rental gu idan ce, etc. Such

ratings, in turn, w ould cause authors and editors to use greater

d iscretion with regard to content if they w ished th eir materials to be

accessed. All of these app roaches have counterp arts in the pr int and

analog dom ain: they w ould just w ork d ifferently across networks.

But th ese sorts of ma rker systems alone may n ot adequ ately

substitut e for the canon ization pr ocesses associated withtraditional print m edia As Geoffrey N un berg explains:

Electronic pu blication b y itself can't canonize an article in

the w ay that p ublication in a prestigious p rint journ al or

review can, par tly because of the red uction of editorial

aut hority, and p artly because the form of publication

prov ides no guaran tee that other members of the

comm un ity will have seen the article..[I]t's striking that th e

most prestigious p laces for scientific pu blication are gen eral

jou rna ls that ru n articles on a ran ge of top ics transcend ing

even the b road est d elineation of scientific field s.

Magazines like Science and N ature, N un berg points ou t, acquire

their au thority p recisely because they hav e a large, heterogeneou s


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read ership . This imp licit fram ing for the wo rd s of a given article,

the social significance of being p ublished in Science, carr ies at least

as mu ch authority as the w ords of the article themselves.

There is a need for new p rocesses to pr ovide the sam e degree ofau thority in th e electronic environm ent. The very ma lleability of

d igital d ocum ents pr ovides clues to new p ossibilities. An electronic

dr aft could evolve very rap idly based on comm ents received over

time from m embers of the comm un ity, converging to a final form

only afterinitial publication.

The missing social fram ing of digital docum ents is even m ore

acutely felt in discourse "in w hich the read er's interests are shap ed

less by explicit top icality th an by tone or p oint of view," writes

N un berg. "The type is epitomized by the Atlantic Monthly or th e

New Yorker, say, whose chief pu rp ose is to bring u s articles we had

no idea w e w anted to read , about subjects we w ould n ever search

out or set our read er profiles to flag for us and more to the p oint,

to bring no advertisements for comm odities we had no idea we

w anted to bu y." The significance of articles in su ch mag azines are

subtly intertw ined, then, with ad jacent advertising, its gestalt and ,

indeed, with the publication's larger public identity. "Thetran sformation of such genr es to electronic d istribution is not just a

question of finding other ways to present ad vertising or new

economic models for pu blication," says Nu nberg. "When the

ph ysical contigu ities of texts are altered or rem oved , the d iscur sive

forms them selves may become p ointless or un interpr etable." An

electron ic version of N ew Yorker a rticles is literally no su bstitute

for the real thing.

The markers contained in p rint documents m ay inadvertently

serve another imp ortant cognitive pu rp ose as aids to inform ation

retrieval. In tr ying to locate an article they on ce read, peop le tend to

recall wh at w as on the m agazine cover, the positioning on th e

article on the page, contigu ous ph otos, etc. Physical cues (context)

may be just as im portan t as content in information r etrieval. That is


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w hy full-text search engines are often ineffective; they cannot easily

d eal w ith context or the irrationality of hu ma n mem ory. Which

raises a provocative qu estion: Could a d atabase be designed to

retrieve an ar ticle on cold fu sion from p ub lications of the genre or

aesthetic sensibilities of PEOPLE Magazine?

E. THE FUTURE OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

If the p receding sections are tru e - that th e mean ings of d igital

docum ents dep end critically u pon their presentation, imp licit

mar kers, social context, and the m edium itself - then th e

imp lications for our t rad itional legal system are great . This is not

just the familiar issue of whether intellectual property rights andinterests can be enforced in a digital milieu, althou gh th at issue

remains qu ite german e. The larger qu estion is wheth er trad itional

intellectua l pr operty law includ ing copyr ight, patent, tradem ark,

semicond uctor chip, trad e secret, comm un ications, custom s and

other law s can ad equately take accoun t of the special

characteristics of information and other m aterial expressed in some

digital format, and the new markers and cues that may come to be

associated w ith digital representations.

Fund amen tally, d igital d ocumen ts are sequ ences of bits. Besides

being m ade accessible across new er p athw ays, such as electronic

netw orks or CD-ROMs, they can also be distributed throu gh

trad itional chan nels such as television p rogram s, records, songs,

mov ies, books and ind ustrial designs, all of which may b e created

from d igital masters. They are thu s affected by the m any d ifferent

bod ies of intellectu al prop erty and commu nications law th at affect

these trad itional channels and that are evolving to meet the newchallenges tha t arise. They ar e also affected by d ifferences amon g

nationa l laws in these areas we m ust face the likely specter of the

reconceptua lization of intellectu al prop erty in the d igital world

pr oceedin g at very different p aces from one nation to anoth er, a


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particular problem in the context of global networks th at tend not to

respect ph ysical boun daries.

Intellectual prop erty exists in a social matrix and is influenced by

social pr essures. Consider, for examp le, the case of the VCR, wh ereit was clear th at case law followed a general social perception of

app ropriate use of intellectual property. An imp ortant question is

w hether, un der existing law , the full potential of digital documents

can be exploited to society's net benefit, or w hether these laws w ill

stifle that poten tial. Some comm entat ors such as John Perr y Barlow

in an article on copyright p ublished in Wired magazine suggests

an extreme app roach towar d reconceptu alizing existing law, in

par ticular, copyright law . How ever, it ma y be more effective to

reevaluate existing legal structures and to encourage an

evolutionary app roach to meet the n ew challenges of the d igital

environment. An evolutionary approach would be less disruptive

to business relationships and may p romote an ord erly progress

toward a system of regulation th at meets the needs of the

consumers.

Consider, for examp le, U.S. copyright law, a bod y of law that h as

evolved since its inception. Generally, this law p rovid es protectionfor original w orks of authorship that are fixed in some m aterial

object. At least in the United States, a wor k containing w hat m ay be

viewed as "know ledge" is generally pr otected only to the extent that

it is fixed in a container of expression. Early U.S. copyrigh t law d id

not p rovide for performances of works, but this changed w ith the

extension of the law to include m usical and aud iovisual w orks.

With the introd uction of the pu blic perform ance right, the

copyright law took on a more d ynam ic character, which becam e

particularly imp ortant in th e 20th century w ith the ap plication of

the right of pu blic perform ance (and to a limited extent th e display

right) to new med ia of comm un ications such as broadcast stations,

cable systems and satellite carriers. New rights comm un icators

rights w ere also introd uced into comm un ications law su ch as


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the retransm ission consent provisions add ed to the

comm unications law by the Cable Act of 1992.

Since the container of expression an d the conten t itself became

hard er to separ ate, an interesting interplay between the copyrightand commu nications law has emerged. This is particularly evident

in connection with th e cable and satellite compu lsory licensing

schemes introd uced into the law in recent years, w here certain

concepts defined un der the regulations of the Federal

Comm un ications Comm ission ap ply for p urp oses of collecting

royalties und er copyright.

Where do d igital documents fit into the current law? As noted,

w ith traditional docum ents container and content are intertw ined,

and the same technology is typically used for all ph ases of capture,

storage, transmission, and use print in p aper, for examp le, in the

case of books. Digital d ocum ents are inheren tly imma terial, d e-

contextualized, highly malleable and d ynam ic, and d ifferent

technologies can be used in d ifferent w ays and at d ifferent times for

each of the abov e ph ases. The notion s of fixation become hard er to

d efine. Know ledge ma y easily be mov ed on a global basis in the

form of digital representations, perhap s changing and evolving inthe p rocess to where it is hard to establish at w hich point, if any, a

new work comes into being for pu rp oses of copyright. Ind eed, the

very n otions of "edition" or "snap shot" that are at th e heart of

fixation (and of citation) become m ore eph emeral notions in the

d igital m ilieu.

The focus of d igital techn ologies is more on p rocesses and

relationships (w hich may generate transiently valuable d igital

d ocumen ts). What may m atter more are the flows of information

and other m aterial in the form of sequences of bits amon g

interested p arties, and th e ongoing relationships among th ese

parties with resp ect to these sequences of bits. Is it even p ossible to

app ly, current copyright law to p rotect rights in the world of digital

docum ents without so constraining their use as to deny a large part


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of their enor mou s potent ial; or w ill it be necessary to develop n ew

legal and technological fram ewor ks to accomm od ate the different

concepts th at arise? The problem is am plified in a g lobal networ ked

environment w here digital docum ents can be accessed an d th e

results of such access disseminated w orldw ide at the tou ch of abutton , and w here copyright "violations" can become cheap,

ubiqu itous, and h ard er to monitor and control.

Furthermore, the potential overlap between copyright and p atent

laws raises new an d interesting qu estions: for examp le, paten ted

pr ocesses may be imp licated in performing op erations on sequences

of bits that m ay be subject to copyright p rotection. This situation

will be exacerbated w hen the results of distributed executions of

comp uter program s incorporated into digital docum ents are mad e

available over commu nications pathw ays. Ind eed, it may not be

possible to d istinguish between d igital documents an d comp uter

programs.

Patrice Lyons, a former Senior Attorney in the U.S. Copyright Office

and now the head of the Law Offices of Patrice Lyons, Chartered,

believes that, for comm ercial enterp rise to take fu ll ad van tage of the

global inform ation infrastru cture, it is helpful to separ ate out, onthe one ha nd , the need for clearance of copyrights or oth er rights

and interests that may be claimed in connection with th e contents

of digital d ocumen ts (or, more generally, digital objects) from, on

the other h and , comp liance with p rocedu res for accessing d igital

documents viewed as packages that incorporate and identify

content s. A " d igital object is simp ly a set of sequen ces of bits, plus a

un ique identifier for the object called a 'han dle.' Formally, a hand le

is just a un ique string that ident ifies the object.. . . For a given w ork,

there m ay be several hand les or unique identifiers assigned

d epend ing on the d ifferent versions, e.g., a work m ay be given a

han dle of Postscript, a second h and le for the Word Perfect version,

and a third hand le for Group IV facsimile." These hand les become

means for locating digital docum ents, and provid ing an au dit trail

of their provenan ce and use.


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Digital objects and the legal framew ork u nd er commu nications

law that regulates access to such objects shou ld be considered in

their own r ight and apart from the licensing of any rights and

interest in the contents of such objects un d er copyright or oth erbodies of law. Adv ocating a new framework for the p rovision of

commu nications services having comp utational capabilities, Lyons

suggests that the regu lation of "access to perform stated operations

on a set of sequen ces of bits" ap pears to fit comfortably in the context

of what is now called simply commu nications law .

An incorporeal work of authorship may be fixed in var ious digital

forma ts. The core "d igital object" (usu ally implem ented as

compu ter p rogram s) may be accessible using d ifferent access mod es

and procedu res. Access to sequences of bits may be regulated even

in situations w here there is no knowledg e of contents. What m akes

this scheme attr active in an age of conver ging m edia is its ability to

expand on existing synergies between comm un ications law and

copyright law. More imp ortantly, perhap s, is that it p rovides in the

digital domain a comm on legal framework for add ressing the

convergen ce of variou s existing categories of informa tion su ch as

text, au dio, music, video, and d esigns. This legal framew ork for thedigital environment w ould supp lement, rather than r eplace

existing law in th e print and analog dom ains.

It is becoming h ard er to justify disparate legal and r egulatory

schemes for pu blishers, libraries, broadcasters, cable systems,

telephon e compa nies and others, as each increasingly traffics in a

common coin, digital comm un ications. Lyons anticipates that the

notion of "access to perform stated opera tions on a sequ ence of bits"

throu gh "han d les" in "digital objects" will honor the term s of

trad itional copyright an d comm un ications laws, w hile facilitating

the expan sion of comm erce in d igital commu nications.

Lyons developed her ap proach in conjun ction w ith the Corporation

for N ational Research Initiatives (CNRI), and CNRI's Compu ter


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Science Technical Reports project involving a number of

un iversities and the U.S. Copyright O ffice. Her w ork is d iscussed in

a forthcoming ar ticle in the Ann ual Su rvey of American Law .

The discontinu ities between the d igital culture and intellectualprop erty law are likely to grow in th e futu re. Although the Gordian

knot is not likely to be cut soon, it seems clear tha t some chan ges in

intellectual prop erty law w ill be needed to take account of the

special pr operties of digital docum ents. The larger qu estion is

w hether m ere changes w ill suffice or w hether th e entire body of law

ma y need to be reconceptu alized . It is certainly an issue m eriting

further investigation and discussion.

F. THE TRANSITION FROM PRINT TO DIGITAL CULTURE

Exciting as the n ew d igital technologies are, man y p eople have a

false expectation that th ey will simp ly sup ersede existing pr int

d ocuments, m uch as p rognosticators of the 1970s pred icted a

"pa per less office." The tru th a bou t new technologies replacing old

ones is, as we have seen on p revious occasions, more complex.

The most likely scenar io is of a side-by-side coexistence and

interp enetration of print an d d igital med ia. But th is har d ly clarifies

the situation. The specific ways that pr int and d igital docu men ts

w ill co-exist and comp lement each other is an issue th at d eserves

mu ch greater scru tiny. There can be man y new syn ergies between

digital systems and print d ocum ents, not a simple either/ or choice

between the two mod es. Digital systems h ave mad e possible new

mod es of print p rodu ction such as distributed printing. Docum entscanning allows a print d ocumen t to be d igitized , reconfigu red into

different formats, and transmitted elsewhere to be instantiated once

again into a paper d ocum ent. Thu s the genres of print documen t

may grow , and co-exist indefinitely alongside d igital docum ents

(screen-viewed ) in comp lex new w ays. This raises interesting


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questions about how the co-mingling of print and digital

technologies w ill transform the overall m arketplace. The

introdu ction of VCRs and aud io cassette recorders d id n ot d iminish

the sales of existing m edia (films an d vinyl records); they helped

expand overall consum er dem and for such intellectual pr operty bycreating ancillary, complementary markets. Will such d ynam ics

come into play as digital and pr int technologies jointly expan d?

The transition stage that our comm erce and culture now occup ies

dem and s that w e ask certain strategic questions about the future

architecture of print/ d igital systems. It is clear that mu ch

historically printed know ledge should be converted into digital

formats. But w hich ones? Prema tur e or ill-ad vised comm itments to

certain techn ologies or digital conver sions could squa nd er

resources, jeopard ize existing r ecord s, disrup t institutions and lock

in non-optim al solutions or stand ard s. The timing of an

organ ization's tran sition to d igital systems can be critical. This

places a greater pr emium on stud ying the "transition dyn amics" of

moving d ocuments from print to digital formats.

This is not ju st a mat ter of techn ical conver sion, but equ ally a

matter of und erstand ing how the transfer of content into newcontainers may or m ay not p reserve original meanings and uses of

the print docum ents, and m ay, indeed, create unintended new u ses

for formerly p rinted docum ents. For examp le, some p eriodicals that

are available to library u sers in both print an d on -line form ats are

both used , but for different pu rposes. At a stud y cond ucted at the

University of South ern California, patron s read the Ch ronicle of

Higher Edu cation in its pr int version to get a broad cross-section of

know ledge of the field, and consulted the on-line version as need ed

to answ er reference questions. The overseers of print/ digital

tran sitions need to be keenly aware of such d ynam ics of both p rint

and digital cultures so that new systems serve their intended

pu rposes and so that digitization d oes not cause un witting

casualties.


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II. SIX MAJOR ARENAS OF ENDEAVOR

Part I sketched a broad, p rovisional framew ork for und erstanding

the d ynam ics of digital informa tion; Part II seeks to bring certain

areas of that canvas into sharp er focus. How exactly does the d igital

d ocum ent affect the workin gs of organ izations or comm erce, for

examp le, or higher edu cation or fam ily life? In w hat sp ecific ways

d oes it shift existing relationships of p ower, enable the emer gence of

new forms of professional collaboration, reconfigure th e everyd ay

behavior in th e hom e, or transform cultur al and political life by

creating new venues for p ublic speech and interaction?

These qu estions cannot be answ ered w ithin the confines of a single

discipline. Many cultural, social, legal and political issues are

imp licated . Fru itful exploration requ ires the insights of sociology,

cultural an throp ology, library science, organizational theory, law,

linguistics, comm un ications, p olitical science, and pu blic policy,

amon g other p erspectives. A m ore sup ple, interdisciplinary

app roach is needed one that can draw new linkages among

different order of ph enomena, one that can see beyond the

conventional boundaries of existing disciplines and professions.

This cap acity is essential if only because a central dynamic of d igital

technologies is the breaking an d reconfigur ing of bound aries. Just a s

printed text brought a u nification of languages and prop elled the

rise of a pop ular vern acular, so d igital docu men ts are breaking

d own barriers that formerly separated different academic

d isciplines, professional end eavors and governm ent activities from


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the w ider, un initiated p ublic. The digital langu age of 1s and 0s is a

new Esperan to of the lowest comm on den ominator, draw ing once-

segregated milieus into a new, more pop ular mainstream . The

styles and sensibilities of pop ular cultur e, as pu rveyed th rou gh

electron ic technologies, seem to be influen cing ever yth ing fromedu cation to comm erce to commu nity life. Intellectual inquiry

mu st be flexible enou gh to forge some new d irections.

What kind s of chan ge w ill occur? What kind s of new issues arise?

This section raises th ese question s in six major areas.

A. Organizations and the Workplace

B. Commerce

C. Discovery, Creation, and Dissemina tion New Know ledge

D. Learning and Edu cation

E. H om e an d Fam ily

F. Culture, Discourse and Commu nity Life

The sections that follow d o not attemp t a compreh ensive overview

of the challenges facing each r ealm. Rather they ar e mean t to sketch

a few scenarios of chan ge, most of wh ich r aise questions for stud y;

some of which may not currently receiving ad equate attention orfund ing; most of wh ich could benefit from an interdisciplinary

perspective; and most of which have global implications. The

central theme thr ough out is that the digital docum ent is at the

center of these changing scenarios, and t hat investigating th e role of

the d igital documen t in the change p rocess from a cultural,

informat ional, and technological per spective w ill requ ire broad

inter-disciplinary collaboration.

A related topic, which cuts across all these theaters of chan ge in

complicated w ays, is how the technologies and pr actices of the two

cultures print and digital are likely to "map onto" each oth er

and achieve a new co-existence and closer integration. Part II

conclu d es with a brief look at "The Transition from Print to Digital

Culture."


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A. ORGANIZATIONS AND THE WORKPLACE

Digital systems hold a d emonstrable potential and can provide

imp ortant benefits for imp roving organizational performan ce.

Organ izations ignore d igital technologies accessible throu gh th e

generic digital docum ent at their per il. This is not only tru e of

commercial businesses large or sm all but also of governm ent

organizations, universities, hospitals and oth er institutions.

One imp ortant issue that requires furth er exploration is w hat new

kinds of organizational structures with imp roved p erformance

are mad e possible by digital techn ologies. Many large-scalebu sinesses, for examp le, are alread y positioning th emselves as

"virtual orga nizations," outsou rcing p ortions of their wor k in

pu rsu it of new cost-efficiencies and qu ality imp rovem ents. Clearly

this creates new problems for the d esign an d functioning of an

organization's digital comm un ications infrastructur e and related

secur ity issues. The r ise of virtual orga nizations also affects th e

structure of futur e jobs, the skills and behaviors needed for th em,

and the natu re of business decision making. Another emerging

kind of digitally d riven "organization " is the self-emp loyed

indep endent contractor. Ind ividu al p rofessionals increasingly w ork

for multiple organizations at the sam e time, and th eir primary p lace

of work is the home or "on the road ," rath er than in a trad itional

w orkp lace. This dev elopm ent raises a host of social, organ izational

and economic issues requiring furth er exploration.

The digital futu re will see an explosion in the quan tity, qu ality, and

nature of d igital documents prod uced, stored, and transmitted byorgan izations. The comp lexity of stru cture and content of those

d ocumen ts will correspond ingly increase, creating entirely new

kinds of challenges for bu siness, government, h igher edu cation,

libraries and other or ganizations. These new kinds of docum ents

w ill lie at the nexus of institutional commu nication and


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collaboration, un derscoring th e need to u nd erstand th e design

pr inciples for netw ork and information technologies that can

facilitate gr oup comm un ication, collaboration, access and

d issemination of information. What special problems d o users

encounter in comp uter-med iated collaboration? H ow w illorganizations maintain internal management control via electronic

systems? What new standar ds shou ld evolve for the storage,

categorization, maintenan ce and p ur ging of informa tion? Since the

d ata architecture possibilities are becoming mor e plentiful and

d iscretionary, it makes sense to d evelop m ore systematic criteria for

assessing wh at d ocuments are valu able, incriminating, w orth

saving, etc. How shou ld "organizational memor y" function in the

digital docum ent world?

Work has began in add ressing some of these questions, but as n ew

techn ologies and forms of digital documents evolve the sam e

qu estions will need to be explored over again in new contexts.

Organizational memory, and the organizational technology

infrastru cture, for examp le, are frequen t top ics of jour nal art icles

and conferences, reflecting collaborative efforts of com pu ters

scientists, social scientists, and other s.

B. COMMERCE

Comm erce is increasingly becoming inform ation-intensive an d

dep enden t up on information flow. It is also becoming more global

in scale, facilitated in n o small pa rt by d igital comm un ication. The

volum e and sp eed of information flow s across national boun dar ies

are changing international econom ics in many w ays, including th e

reconfiguration of ind ustry boun daries and trad ing patterns and thestimulation of m icroeconomic performance and cross-cultu ral

fermen t. Again, digital docum ents lie at the nexus of mu ch that is

happ ening and will happen. It is no exaggeration to say that

un derstand ing the future of mu ch global comm erce will require a

more soph isticated u nd erstanding of digital docum ents.


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Perhaps the m ost dram atic changes will be in th e reconfiguration of

indu stries and markets. In the most obvious case, for examp le, the

printing and pu blishing indu stries are expected to un dergo m ajor

up heavals over the next five years as they grapp le with the far-reaching imp lications of electron ic pr inting, pu blishing and

commu nication. New indu stries and niche bu sinesses are expected

to arise, propelled largely by emerging techn ologies that p erform

existing tasks more effectively and cheaply.

In man y cases digital technologies will chan ge the basic method s by

w hich commerce is cond ucted . For examp le, electronic data

interchang e is fueling the grow th of pu rchasing over th e Internet

and home shop ping. Early activity may be minimal, but as tools,

technology, bandw idth, and reach change and expand , network-

based commerce may h erald a su bstantial shift in consumer

behavior as well as in the ways pu rveyors of goods can

ma nipu late or cater to that behav ior. Sellers and buy ers are being

brou ght closer together, and are und erstand ing each other better. In

essence, a whole new mar ketplace is emerging w hose special

d ynam ics are still being explored . In th is new comm ercial wor ld, it

is likely that there w ill be m ore "information pu ll" (discretionaryconsumer-driven requests for information) than "information

push" (traditional seller-driven marketing and programming).

Distribution chann els for good s are likely to be m ore focused , to the

poin t of actu ally serving ma rket segm ents of one. Levi Strau ss, to

take one nota ble case, recently ann oun ced it wou ld be selling

custom-made jeans on request, with rapid turnaround and delivery.

Digital techn ologies are also expected to change rad ically the

research method ologies that businesses use to make strategic

d ecisions. A compan y's ability to forecast the speed and imp act of

changes will hav e dr amatic effects on its ability to lead , or react to,

global comp etition. This will require a m ore holistic und erstanding

of markets an d especially their context, since a w ealth of new

factors, many small and easily overlooked, are now able to trigger


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significant chan ges in m arkets. Accord ingly, business research m ay

increasingly seek a cru de p ictur e of the w hole and its general

d ynam ics, rather than seek speciously rigorous forecasts draw n

from p arochial, limited sou rces. One top ic for speculation is

w hether the d igitally-depend ent commerce will create new m arketsin d igital docum ents along the lines of finan cial and commod ity

mar kets. Will information be structured and commod ified in such

ways as to allow su ch trading?

C. DISCOVERY, CREATION, AND DISSEMINATION OF NEW

KNOWLEDGE

Digital techn ologies are rap idly chang ing the "intellectualinfrastructure" now responsible for creating, disseminating and

pr eserving know ledge. This is especially evident in research

scholarship, which is increasingly orienting itself around the

d ynamic capabilities of d igital systems, argu es Blake Ives, from

South ern Method ist University. Ives p redicts:

Publications, long a m ajor compon ent of the know ledge

d issemination p rocess, w ill become increasingly less impor tant as

peop le learn from d oing than read ing and as information becomes

more and more d ynamic. A d ocum entation w riter in a corporate

research lab explained : "You can sp end 20 pages describing you r

three-dimen sional modeling app lication to someone or you can

click on th e app lication and let the mod el demonstrate an d teach."

By contrast, a pap er (or electronic) pu blication tak es time to create,

likely contains err ors, and is quickly ou t of da te. In essence,

producing byproduct publications can hinder rather than facilitate

the scholarly process. New electronic infrastructu re will provid enew m eans to dem onstrate that new know ledge has been created.

If Ives is correct, then the fut ur e of archival jou rna ls will assured ly

change. And so mu st the larger "intellectual infrastru cture" that

now und ergirds p rinted documents, a system wh ich assumes


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identifiable auth ors, fixed p hysical embod iments of knowledge and

stand ard reference citations. The faculty rewar d system for tenure

and prom otions will also have to change to take accoun t of new

scholarly venu es using digital systems. Knowledge creation and

d issemination throu gh such venu es will have to be accorded n ewstature an d form al recognition. But th e developm ent of a new

intellectual infrastructure for creating and archiving know ledge and

recognizing scholarly achievement in the d igital milieu entails a

ma ssive re-conceptu alization of the scholarly enterp rise not a

challenge to be und ertaken lightly.

Much scholarly research an d comm un ication has already m igrated

to on-line networks, wh ich p lace a greater premium on

collaborative mod es of scholarship in real-time than on p ublishing

in print journals, wh ich can be p lagued by un corrected errors and

rap id obsolescence. The docum ents prod uced by m any scholars

today ten d to be "living docum ents" that are open to comm ent and

ann otation, rather th an d efinitive, end ur ing statements. There are

those includ ing Geoffrey N un berg in h is 1993 Representations

article cited above who ar gue th at the book is not about to be

sup planted by d igital documents. N either h as the n ew electronically

oriented system of scholarship as yet acquired sufficient pr esenceand pr estige to become the p rimar y locus of scholarly endeav or.

Others arg ue th at this may at best be true of formal scholarly

comm un ication, but that informal commu nication has already

been revolutionized by the n ew technologies. Informal d igital

docum ents may already be assum ing a central role in a n um ber of

fields and even acquiring a new kind of formal status. Yet man y

important questions m ust th erefore be ad dressed. How , across all

disciplines, can new electronic networ ked information acquire the

authority that historically has belonged to academic journals alone?

How can research collaboratories and their pr ocesses be

app ropriately nu rtured and honored w ithin academia?

It is often p ointed ou t that one focal point for reform mu st be the

rewar d structure for academ ic careers. Will prom otion and tenure


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comm ittees across all disciplines consider electronic d ocumen ts as a

basis for their d ecisions? What are the obstacles that stand in the

w ay of un iformly rep lacing the p rint journ al by the electronic

journ al? Rewar ds accrue to know ledge d issemination pu blishing

and secondarily to knowledge creation, wh ich m ay or m ay notresult in printed articles, monograp hs and books. What w ill be the

new mod alities for know ledge creation and d issemination, and

how rapid ly will they be accepted ?

The futur e role of un iversity research libraries is anoth er vital

issue. As ma ny forms of scholarship g o on-line, libraries face a

red efinition of their mission as w ell as nu merou s technical

challenges. What are the m ost app ropriate research tools in the

pr oliferating u niverse of on-line, CD-ROM an d oth er digital

resources? What is the prop er role for a u niversity library w hen th e

"collaborator ies" of variou s d isciplines serv e as "d igital libraries" of

their own , fun ctioning as new loci of knowledge creation an d

exchange?

The co-existence of print an d d igital d ocumen ts also presents knotty

new issues for libraries. Clearly, existing collections of manuscripts,

print, and other m aterials will continue to be central to futu reresearch, especially, for examp le, in the hu ma nities. Bu t how w ill

this dep endence change, how indeed will modalities of research

change, as new kind s of digital sources become av ailable? Which

retrospective sources ought to be converted into d igitally accessible

formats, and what criteria should guide such decisions? Since the

original context of information can be vitally importan t, how can

librarians assure that the su rroun ding corpu s of material is

preserved in some fashion, so that future u sers will be able to

evaluate content in its prop er context?

H ow do w e archive a fun ction at th e very heart of librarianship

digital documents? H ow do we maintain continuing accessibility in

the face of changing m edia, formats, and softw are? As more

platforms/ delivery mechanisms arise to man age information and


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pr ovide access to it, anoth er set of questions a rise in the "cross-

media" management of digital documents. Multimedia formats

ma y pr esent d ifficult techn ical issues in tr ansferring its contents to

other d igital formats or to p rint d ocum ents. Assuring th e integrity

of context as in formation goes cross-med ia is difficu lt too. Whenlarge collections of digital d ocumen ts are being viewed and used in

very different environm

Documents in the digital culture : shaping the future

Documents

Transcript of Documents in the digital culture : shaping the future