This git repository contains the source code of my PhD thesis Describing Data Patterns, submitted January 2013 at Humboldt University Berlin. The latest version of the repository including errata can be found at https://github.com/jakobib/phdthesis2013.

The pattern language of data structuring (chapter 5) is contained in another git repository that is included as git submodule from https://github.com/jakobib/datapatterns2013.

Feedback is highly appreciated, for instance public via https://github.com/jakobib/phdthesis2013/issues.

I suggest the following bibliographic metadata, also available at BibSonomy:

@phdthesis{Voss2013,
    author  = {Voß, Jakob},
    title   = {Describing Data Patterns. A general deconstruction of metadata standards},
    year    = {2013},
    school  = {Humboldt University},
    address = {Berlin},
    isbn    = {1-4909-3186-4},
    urn     = {urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-100212118}
}

Multiple versions and variants of the thesis exists with different paper format and minor changes. Each version should be buildable by checking out a tagged revision from the git repository:

• A versions published as book at print-on-demand publisher CreateSpace with ISBN 1-4909-3186-4. Paper format is 6.69 inch x 9.61 inch. Copies can be ordered for $12.80, 10.24€, £10.24, ￥1.985 or less via

  • CreateSpace
  • Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de Amazon.co.jp and other countries
  • Barnes&Noble and library distributors such as Ingram, NACSCORP, and Baker & Taylor.
  • Additional certified CreateSpace resellers, e.g. Lightning

  This version is tagged as pod-20130805.

• The PDF version archived at Humboldt University document server and at German National Library. Paper format is A4 in black and white with same pagination as the print-on-demand version. This version is tagged as deposit-20130807.

• The same A4 PDF but with color, available via ResearchGate.

• The version originally submitted for review in January 2013. The document is printed in A4 paper format and tagged as submision-20130107.

To get the content of this repository, clone it including its submodules:

git clone --recursive https://github.org/jakobib/phdthesis2013.git

The thesis is mainly written in LaTeX (with parts of chapter 5 written in Pandoc Markdown). To build the document as PDF one requires at least LaTeX, Pandoc, Perl, BibLaTeX with biber, Perl, GraphViz, and dot2tex.

Given the required packages, one should be able to create a PDF with:

make patterns
# ... manually adjust image size by adding "scale=0.4"
make new

The content of this repository is licensed under CC-BY-SA: feel free to copy, distribute, modify, merge, request changes etc, as long as the result is also licensed under CC-BY-SA and attribution is explicitly given to Jakob Voß.