The Human Art of Encoding: Markup as Documentary Practice

This paper describes the Markup Analysis Project, a research initiative of the Information Policy and Practice Research Group at the University of Sydney to investigate frameworks for understanding the complex interactions evident in digital document development. Although markup languages are now widely deployed to identify and define the structural and contextual characteristics of electronic documents, to date, very little work has been undertaken to evaluate how the encoded elements of a markup language are being used by human authors and systems developers in practice. Our study addresses this by reviewing the literature of the field in search for common threads that will support a framework for a practice oriented view. We conclude that a clear understanding of digital representation as a documentary practice is absent from mainstream considerations digital document development and make recommendations for its inclusion.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: MTSR
• Authors: Paul Scifleet, Susan P. Williams, Creagh Cole
• Keywords: Digital Document Development, Information Management, Markup Analysis Project, Markup Language, MTSR 2007