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Final published version
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Archivos de cambio : Los grandes repositorios de software como infraestructuras digitales volátiles. / Maxigas, Peter.
In: Cuadernos de Teoría Social, Vol. 4, No. 7, 4, 01.09.2018, p. 93-114.Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Archivos de cambio
T2 - Los grandes repositorios de software como infraestructuras digitales volátiles
AU - Maxigas, Peter
PY - 2018/9/1
Y1 - 2018/9/1
N2 - Repositories archive punctual changes in software code rather than original natural language documents. The repository is a diagrammatic form that defines a grammar for changes to be assembled into intricate temporal patterns. While Git repositories express the *history* of a particular software project as a growing tree structure with branches that fork and merge, Debian repositories present *releases* of software collections that accumulate as the layers of geological strata on the top of one another. Due to the volatility of software and the open-ended nature of such temporalities, maintainers continuously repair repositories to contain up-to-date, authentic versions of software. Therefore, the central concerns of archivists and the role of human labour are more important than ever for the viability of digital infrastructures that ground technologically mediated everyday life. Technical inscription through digital automation does not abolish but rather foreground the human labour required to maintain the archival presuppositions that ensure the continuity of modern civilisation and culture.
AB - Repositories archive punctual changes in software code rather than original natural language documents. The repository is a diagrammatic form that defines a grammar for changes to be assembled into intricate temporal patterns. While Git repositories express the *history* of a particular software project as a growing tree structure with branches that fork and merge, Debian repositories present *releases* of software collections that accumulate as the layers of geological strata on the top of one another. Due to the volatility of software and the open-ended nature of such temporalities, maintainers continuously repair repositories to contain up-to-date, authentic versions of software. Therefore, the central concerns of archivists and the role of human labour are more important than ever for the viability of digital infrastructures that ground technologically mediated everyday life. Technical inscription through digital automation does not abolish but rather foreground the human labour required to maintain the archival presuppositions that ensure the continuity of modern civilisation and culture.
KW - archive
KW - infrastructure
KW - software
KW - media
KW - temporality
M3 - Journal article
VL - 4
SP - 93
EP - 114
JO - Cuadernos de Teoría Social
JF - Cuadernos de Teoría Social
SN - 0719-6423
IS - 7
M1 - 4
ER -