Constructing Digital Documents: Emerging Themes in Documentary Practice

The encoding of digital documents using markup languages provides organisations with a means of improving digital information management by making digital content more accessible, more comprehensible and more shareable than has previously been possible. Whilst these benefits of document encoding are widely acknowledged, very little is known about the management of document encoding projects or the information design practice that is taking place. Using practice theory as a theoretical framework, we investigate markup language usage with the aim of understanding the ways that practitioners are engaging in this documentary practice. In this paper we identify the key themes coming forward from a study of markup language use and discuss the implications for framing and understanding digital document design.