[Sigiii-l] French collective document on the concept of document in the electronic age

[Michel J. Menou]

Dr. Jean Michel Salaun of ENSSIB, Lyon, France has suggested this study might
beof interest to ASIS&T colleagues

Document: Form, Sign and Medium, As Reformulated for Electronic Documents.
Roger T. Pédauque. Article. 12 septembre 2003. Working paper.
http://archivesic.ccsd.cnrs.fr/documents/archives0/00/00/05/94/sic_00000594_01/sic_00000594.pdf

This paper presents group discussions taking place within multidisciplinary
topical network 33 of the CNRS Information and Communication Science and
Technology (STIC) Department
(http://rtp-doc.enssib.fr/English_version/entry.htm). It attempts to 
clarify the concept of document in its transtion to electronic form, based
on research which tends to privilege form (as a material or immaterial
object), sign (as meaningful object) or medium (as communication vector).
Each of these terms reflects the radical transformations that are taking
place. Their superposition stresses the importance of multidisciplinarity
for a lucid and complete analysis of the concept and how it is changing.
This paper is the third version of a working paper. It was a collective
work. Around fifty French researchers contributed to the text. A
mailing-list has been dedicated to the debate which is still going on. You
can propose your own argument by sending an e-mail to pedauque at enssib.fr.
Only scientific contributions will be taken into account.

Original French version available :
http://archivesic.ccsd.cnrs.fr/documents/archives0/00/00/05/11/index_fr.html