Explain Bitstream's Importance in DSpace

Question

Can someone explain to me in brief and concise way:

1. What is a bitstream?
2. What is a bitstream format?
3. What is bitstream and bitstream format's importance?
4. What is Bitstream Format Conversion?
5. Why do we have to implement Bitstream Format Conversion?

Thanks.

Answer 1

See https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/DSDOC4x/Functional+Overview#FunctionalOverview-Supportedfiletypes

DSpace can accommodate any type of uploaded file. While DSpace is most known for hosting text based materials including scholarly communication and electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), there are many stakeholders in the community who use DSpace for multimedia, data and learning objects. While some restrictions apply, DSpace can even serve as a store for HTML Archives.

Files that have been uploaded to DSpace are often referred to as "Bitstreams". The reason for this is mainly historic and tracks back to the technical implementation. After ingestion, files in DSpace are stored on the file system as a stream of bits without the file extension.