Interoperability

							       Interoperability

Alison - Introduction & Definition
Liane - Methods for Improvement
Gary - Challenges
    Interoperability
A Preliminary Definition
            • To imagine that we can
              make these metadata
              schemes communicate
              with one another, and
              thus share information,
              is to imagine that these
              systems and their
              metadata can be
              interoperable.
  Purpose of Interoperability
• The purpose of interoperability is to
  make as much content available to as
  many people and systems (such as
  computers, different software programs,
  design interfaces, etc.) who can use it.
           Interoperability:
• Increases the user base of a resource
• Allows different software programs to
  communicate
• Reinforces the ability of a professional
  community to maintain their own vocabulary
  (because it does not discourage the use of a
  specialized vocabulary)
• Increases the functionality of metadata
  structures
         Different Levels of
          Interoperability
• Scheme Level
• Record Level
• Repository Level
From Chan, Lois Mai & Marcia Lei Zeng,
  (2006), “Metadata Interoperability and
  Standardization--A Study of Methodology,
  Part 1, D-Lib Magazine 12 (6)
  http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june06/chan/06chan.h
  tml
            Scheme Level
• Derivation and Modification (MARC into
  MODS, for example)
• Application Profiles (Scheme can be used by
  community that did not create it)
• Crosswalks (Mapping between schemes)
http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/mswitch/1
  _crosswalks.htm
            Record Level
• If it is not convenient to map at the
  scheme level, efforts can be made to
  convert information at the record level.
  The risk here is loss of data.
     Record Level - Example
• MARC into MODS
http://www.loc.gov/sta
  ndards/mods
          Repository Level
• Create a virtual or physical repository to
  ensure a reliable source of information
  Repository Level - Example
• Open Archives
  Initiative (OAI)
  http://www.openarch
  ives.org/
Repository Level Example
            • Digital Library for
              Earth System
              Education (DLESE)
              http://www.dlese/org
              /library/index.jsp
         Ways To Increase
          Interoperability
1. Make lite versions:   5. Create templates
   15-20 elements.          and examples for
2. Translate.               users.
3. Create crosswalks.    6. Facilitate feedback
4. Seek ISO or other        from users.
   domain-specific       7. Make schema
   standardizations.        machine-readable.
                         8. Anything goes.
    While creating metadata,
    evaluate interoperability:
• Unique, one metadata record linked to one
  resource
• Optimally shared, so targeted user groups
  understand meaning (usual definition)
• Stable, persistent through time, so future
  users understand reason (reason for
  published standards).
• Impossible to make perfect map of anything
  (Borges), so uncertainty is inevitable. How
  accept this, minimize it, and work with it?
   Interoperability Challenges
• How to mediate
  among different
  domain
  vocabularies?
• Who decides which
  one predominates?
• Data heterogeneity
  is one solution, but
  makes usability
  more difficult.
 Need Community Agreement
• Transport Protocol   • Community defined
  (how metadata is       internationally?
  transferred)         • By geographical
                         boundaries?
• Content Standard
                       • By common ethnicity,
  (what data to          regardless of spatial
  transfer)              location?
• Vocabulary (shared   • By shared discourse?
  meaning of           • By shared present or
  contents)              future goals?
      Digital Library of India
• Digitization of all human knowledge?
  Part of the Million Book Digital Library
  Project.
• But technological challenges include:
  Quality Management; Human Errors;
  Machine Errors; Data Management
  including Architecture, Preservation,
  Synchronization, Replication of storage.
      Digital Library of India
         Rich Metadata
• Regular Metadata - information about book
  like title, author, publication, etc.
• Administrative Metadata - where the book
  was scanned, original source, etc.,
  information of interest to the operational
  organization rather than to the end user.
• Structural Metadata - information about each
  page like size and context; improves
  navigation through the book.
 Internationalization Potential
• DCMI Localization and
  Internationalization Working Group,
  Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
• The Java Metadata Interface (JMI)
  specification “will address the need for a
  pure java metadata framework API that
  supports the creation, storage, retrieval,
  and interchange of metadata.”
 Localization in the context of
   taxonomies--C. Donner
• Internationalization and Localization.
• Internationalization provides only 2
  degrees: language & country.
• Translator can’t provide local taxonomy.
• “The concepts available for simple
  application localization are insufficient
  for the localization of complex
  international content.”
       XML to the Rescue?
• XML.gov Welcome message: “XML embodies
  the potential to alleviate many of the
  interoperability problems associated with the
  sharing of documents and data.”
• DLESE - All metadata interoperability
  requires Semantics (meaning), Structure
  (human), Structure (machine, xml), Syntax
  (grammar)
• XML Schema for Metadata Interoperability
  (XPATH) CONTORSION
ABC Model-metadata utopia?
• First presented as a “strawman
  document”
• Combines RDF & XML schemas
• Not intended as metadata vocabulary
  per se, but as a basic model and
  ontology that provides the notional basis
  for developing domain, role, or
  community specific ontologies.
Threefold goals of ABC model
• To provide a conceptual basis for
  understanding and analyzing existing
  metadata ontologies and instances.
• To give guidance to communities beginning
  to examine and develop descriptive
  ontologies.
• To develop a conceptual basis for automated
  mapping amongst metadata ontologies.
• ABC Metadata Model Constructor pure java
  RDF based tool