Modeling Decisions for Digital Content

Abstract

The organization of digital information poses unique challenges not only due to rapidly evolving data formats and software, but also because digital content may be dynamic, distributed, or executable. Managers of digital information need flexible, extensible architectures that facilitate maintainability as well as accessibility and long-term utility of content. However, the flexibility of these architectures presents difficult organizational, or modeling, decisions. To explore these modeling decisions and their consequences, we introduce four dimensions of digital content modeling: aggregation, interfaces, transformations and indirection. We discuss these dimensions individually and also examine their interaction; in essence, this paper examines general design patterns for digital content modeling. As new and powerful architecture evolve, it is vital that information mangers understand and consider these design decisions.