## What is a digital object?

Animated GIF by Abbey Elder - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

For this assignment, a digital object could be a digital image, audio file, and/or video file.

### What is the purpose of this assignment?

The purpose of this assignment is to learn about the ethical issues of digital art and design by producing original or remixed digital objects and analyze the related issues.

### How is the term digital object defined professionally?

According to the Society of American Archivists (SAA): "Digital objects may be either simple or complex. Simple digital objects are made up of a single file, such as a PDF or an image, while complex digital objects are made up of multiple files, such as a website or a digitized book" (SAA).

According to Laura Molloy, digital objects are used by visual artists as well:

"For visual artists, digital objects may be material supporting the research and development of art work, materials used in the production of art work, and/or documentation of a finished work. Digital objects in the arts encompass a wide variety of file types (text, images, video, audio, etc.) and formats (TIFF, DOC, GIF, PDF, JPG, MP3, etc.) created and used by artists" (Molloy).

### How does a digital object compare to related terms?

The idea of a digital object is similar in some ways to a digital asset, virtual object or digital artifact because it takes many different forms and is produced and shared in a virtual or digital environment.

### What is the difference between an original and remixed digital object?

For this assignment, an original digital object is produced entirely by you without the use of any additional materials. A remixed digital object combines original materials produced by you with openly-licensed materials, or the remix may be made up of all openly-licensed materials.

### What is an open license?

If a resource has an open license, that means that the producer of that work has granted permission for it to be shared and reused. This is distinct from a digital resource that is copyright protected because if it has a copyright it cannot be used without permission. For this course, we will only use openly-licensed or public domain digital resources. If a work is in the public domain, that means that enough time has passed for the work to be used without permission. To learn more about the difference between copyright and openly-licensed resources, as well as public domain, read Openly-Licensed Digital Content.

### What kind of open licenses are available?

The Creative Commons Licenses List explains the different types of open licenses available.

### Do I need to assign a Creative Commons Open License to my own work in this course?

No. That decision is always up to the creator or producer of a work so cannot be a requirement and is entirely up to you.

#### References

Society of American Archivists. Dictionary of Archives Terminology.

Laura Molloy. Digital Objects - what are they and why should we manage them?

Wikipedia contributors. (2023, July 16). Digital asset. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:10, July 30, 2023.

Wikipedia contributors. (2023, July 6). Virtual artifact. InWikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:00, July 30, 2023.

Wikipedia contributors. (2023, June 17). Digital artifact. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:00, July 30, 2023.

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