dokumendina

Dokumendina is a term used to describe a compact, self-contained digital document container designed to bundle a document’s content, metadata, and provenance into a single portable file. The concept aims to improve interoperability, archiving, and provenance tracking by encapsulating data and descriptive information together, enabling easier sharing and long-term access.

Origins and scope

The word emerged in digital preservation and scholarly communication discussions in the 2020s as a general idea rather than a single fixed standard. Dokumendina refers to a family of approaches that share common principles: encapsulating content with descriptive and rights-related metadata, supporting provenance and version history, and remaining readable by both humans and machines. Because it is not tied to one specification, implementations vary across communities and use cases.

Architecture and features

A typical dokumendina includes the primary content (such as text, images, or datasets), a metadata layer describing authorship, dates, rights, topics, and relationships, and provenance data (origin, revisions, and integrity information). Packaging methods differ; some use ZIP or TAR containers with separate metadata files, while others rely on dedicated container formats. Metadata may leverage standards such as Dublin Core, schema.org, or METS, and validation tools are often available. Digital signatures or hashes are commonly used to verify integrity over time. The design emphasizes extensibility to accommodate domain-specific metadata.

Usage and impact

Dokumendinas are used for archiving, exchanging documents between systems, and ensuring traceability of content over time. They support reproducibility in research, support preservation goals, and reduce metadata fragmentation. Challenges include achieving broader standardization and managing the complexity of implementation across diverse platforms.

See also: digital preservation, METS, BagIt, container formats.