This is a few notes on the analogue to digital part of the issue, that is: digitisation.
My basic take on digitisation is that it is similar copy. It also has the same ambiguity. For instance, "copy" as it is used in the P130 example is, I assume, a copy made by manual human work (chiseling?) It is clear that "the digitized painting is an approximation" (issue 205 notes). When it is stated that "any digitization has a different relationship to the original. The only common relation appears to be the intention to represent as good as possible the original" (issue 205 notes), that intention is covered by the word "copy". "Incorporates" is excluded, as the issue 205 notes states. "Represents", "is derivate" and "copy" all cover the process of digitisation quite well. Digitisation must be separated from retro-conversion. Retro-conversion (transcription or OCR of texts) creates a symbolic expression based on an interpretation of the original symbolic expression. The signs will often travel through an intellect, otherwise it goes through an algorithm of pattern recognition. Doerr et.al.[1] has shown that the latter can be perfect (given certain conditions). Digitisation is always imperfect. It is to create a digital image, a spatial item, based on a view (a painting, a statue, etc., seen from a certain perspective) through equipment such as a camera or a moving CCD system (scanner). It is causal in the sense that it is based on waves/particles, where light emitted/reflected from the original is captured by a light sensitive piece of equipment. This light does not travel through an intellect, even if an intellect in engaged in setting up the digitisation equipment, run the process, etc. Digitisation is different from a reproduction not in how similar the image is to the original, but in the process behind its making. In the case of a reproduction information travels through an intellect. So, which of the CRM properties best express the causal relationship between original and digitised version? Suggestion: P138 represents (has representation) gets and additional paragraph stating: "This property is also used for the relationship between an original and a digitisation of the original. Digitisation is here seen as a process with a mechanical, causal component and do not depend on any visual similarity identifiable by observation." It should also have one or preferably two examples: one straight forward scanning and one strange example, multispectral scanning or something. An archaeologist of the right sort can come up with something, I assume. Should we also make a note of photocopy? [1] Doerr, Martin, and Yannis Tzitzikas. "Information Carriers and Identification of Information Objects: An Ontological Approach." (2012). URL: http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1201/1201.0385.pdf -- Kind regards Øyvind Eide Unit for Digital Documentation University of Oslo
