Maxigas, Peter (2018) Archivos de cambio : Los grandes repositorios de software como infraestructuras digitales volátiles. Cuadernos de Teoría Social, 4 (7): 4. pp. 93-114. ISSN 0719-6423
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Abstract
Repositories archive punctual changes in software code rather than original natural language documents. The repository is a diagrammatic form that defines a grammar for changes to be assembled into intricate temporal patterns. While Git repositories express the *history* of a particular software project as a growing tree structure with branches that fork and merge, Debian repositories present *releases* of software collections that accumulate as the layers of geological strata on the top of one another. Due to the volatility of software and the open-ended nature of such temporalities, maintainers continuously repair repositories to contain up-to-date, authentic versions of software. Therefore, the central concerns of archivists and the role of human labour are more important than ever for the viability of digital infrastructures that ground technologically mediated everyday life. Technical inscription through digital automation does not abolish but rather foreground the human labour required to maintain the archival presuppositions that ensure the continuity of modern civilisation and culture.