If you’re a designer or developer, you’ve probably heard about Git, and you might know that it has become immensely popular, especially among the open source community. Though it may seem cryptic at first, this version control system could change the way you work with text, whether you’re writing code, or a novel.
This article covers why version control is important, how to install the Git version control system, and how to get started with your first repository. Once you start using Git, you’ll want to throw everything into it, from full-blown apps to blog post drafts, because it’s so easy and versatile.
A new kind of web—a semantic web—would be made up of information marked up in such a way that software can also easily understand it. Before considering how we might achieve such a web, let’s look at what we might be able to do with it.
A "legacy system" in the world of computing provides a useful analogy for understanding the precarious state of contemporary academic publishing. This comparison might also keep us from stepping backward in the very act of stepping forward in promoting Open Access publishing and Institutional Repositories. I will argue that, vital as it is, the Open Access movement should really be seen in its current manifestation as academic "middleware" servicing the "legacy system" of old-school scholarship.