Merge: date=November 2007

Digital data is per se independent of its interpretation (hence representation). An arbitrary sequence of digital code like "0100 0001" might be interpreted as the decimal number 65, the hexadecimal number 41 or the glyph "A". See also: ASCII, Code.

Florida's digital media industry association, Digital Media Alliance Florida, defines digital media as "the creative convergence of digital arts, science, technology and business for human expression, communication, social interaction and education".

History

The history of digital starts with the development of the number 0 (see 0 (number)) by the Babylonians about 2000BC. Early use of something like zero by the Indian scholar Pingala (circa 5th-2nd century BC), implied at first glance by his use of binary numbers, is only the modern binary representation using 0 and 1 applied to Pingala's binary system, which used short and long syllables (the latter equal in length to two short syllables), making it similar to Morse code.12 Nevertheless, he and other Indian scholars at the time used the Sanskrit word śūnya (the origin of the word zero after a series of transliterations and a literal translation) to refer to zero or void.3. Around 1620, Francis Bacon researches the first binary alphabet for representing numbers and alphabetic characters. The intended use was to establish secret communication for e.g. cities under siege and armies abroad. Leibniz was the first mathematician to develop calculations in the binary system. According to some sources, John Napier had developed binary calculations even earlier. Yet, it remains to Leibniz to first think about automating calculations using the newly developed binary arithmetics. Around 1830, Carl Friedrich Gauss first electrifies binary information in his telegraphy experiments. He replaces "1" with "+" and "0" with "-" and thus translates binary information into electric currents.

There is a rich history of non-binary digital media and computers.

Electronic Business Media

main: Electronic Business Media According to Schmid, media can basically be defined as follows: They are enablers of interaction, i.e. they allow for exchange, particularly the communicative exchange between agents. Such interaction enablers can be structured into three main components:

First, a physical component (C-Component) allows for the actual interaction of physical agents. This component can also be referred to as carrier medium or channel system. Second, a logical component (L-Component) comprises a common “language”, i.e. symbols used for the communication between agents and their semantics. Without such a common understanding, the exchange of data is possible (with the help of the C-Component), but not the exchange of knowledge. Third, an organizational component (O-Component) defines a structural organization of agents, their roles, rules which impact the agents' behavior as well as the process-oriented organization of agents' interactions.