Metadata practice and direction: a community perspective Lorcan Dempsey VP Research and Chief Strategist NISO Workshop: Metadata Practices on the Cutting Edge. Washington, May 20 2004. Welcome. My name is Jay Jordan and I am President and CEO of OCLC. I am joined today by Cathy De Rosa, Vice President of Corporate Marketing for OCLC. We are pleased to be able to discuss with you today a report that we recently completed for the OCLC Membership – The 2002 OCLC Environmental Scan – Pattern Recognition.
Overview Metadata Practice Community Directions
Metadata
Metadata? Schematized … … statements about … … resources
Metadata supports operations on resources …. Know what resources are available Know how to play a resource Know provenance of a resource Know what use policy governs a resource Know how to ingest a resource Know how to interact with a resource Know how to compose/decompose resources … … and relieves the user of having to have advance knowledge of the characteristics or existence of the resource.
Metadata? … allows people and machines to work smarter …
In network space metadata will be associated with everything that moves Multiple types of information Objects Collections Services People Organizations Places Terms Formats Rights … and will support multiple operations An example: a library portal
A ‘portal’ example I need a few references Common services Content services Application services Presentation services
authentication Common services Content services Application services Presentation services
Directory: user profile Common services Content services Application services Presentation services
Query broker Common services Content services Application services Presentation services
Directory: service description Common services Content services Application services Presentation services
Content: results list Common services Content services Application services Presentation services
I’d like to get this book. Common services I’d like to get this book. Request broker Content services Application services Presentation services
Directory: ILL policy Common services Content services Application services Presentation services
Directory: service description Common services Content services Application services Presentation services
Content: circ/ILL system Common services Content: circ/ILL system Content services Application services Presentation services
I need this article too. Request broker Common services Content services Application services Presentation services
openURL resolver Common services Content services Application services Presentation services
Directory: local knowledge base Common services Directory: local knowledge base Content services Application services Presentation services
Nearly there … Directory: service description Common services Content services Application services Presentation services
Content: article Common services Content services Application services Presentation services
Metadata for multiple entities required to support operations. Directory: service description Directory: user profile Directory: ILL policy Authentication Common services Directory: local knowledge base Reference db OpenURL resolver Circ/ILL system Article db Metadata for multiple entities required to support operations. This picture could be extended in multiple ways. Request broker Query broker Content services Application services Presentation services
Community
Community? * * * * EAD, MARC AMC, .. MARC, MODS, DC, RSLP, .. Onix, … XML, RDF, OWL, … CSDGM, DDI, NBII, IVOA, … EGMS, AGLS, GILS, … GEM, DC-ED, IEEE-LOM, SCORM, … MPEG, JPEG, … * * *
Community politics Ontology recapitulates ideology Different World views Requirements Traditions Legacies Experience ‘Techeology’ Technology as ideology Communities coming together in new shared space Boundary confusion Mergers and acquisitions Political and commercial skin at risk Ontology recapitulates ideology
Practice
Simple descriptive metadata!! Application profile Cataloging rules Controlled vocabs. … FRBR INDECS CIDOC … ‘Element set’ Values/content Information model MARC21 DC VRA Core MODS Onix … Encoding RDF XML ISO2709 …
Interoperability a factor at all these levels .. For example .. Encoding Element set Content/values Encoding Element set Content/values
The interoperable core and communities of practice? DC-Ed MODS MARC 21 SCORM MARC XML LOM Dublin Core Dublin Core GEM ONIX Godby, Smith and Childress
Different classes of metadata increasingly a part of complex object models Descriptive Structural Technical Administrative Rights Preservation Tracking Provenance SCORM METS MPEG 21 …
Directions
Makers and takers in a time of rapid development Looking over the horizon A clean slate At the center of their world A moving target Religious differences Takers Focus on here and now Manage legacy environments Multiple systems and services and priorities Want stability Secular pragmatism
Interoperability is an economic and service issue Extract maximum value from investment in Data (metadata and content) Services By ensuring that they are Sharable Reusable Recombinable Remember: Element set Encoding Value spaces
Cost Fragmentation of community agreements and standards activities? Pressures: Manage in a world of resource abundance Demonstrate value Issues Programmatically promote metadata from resources where possible Assess where intellectual contribution justified Increasingly complex relationships between resources Bringing together metadata from different policy regimes Fragmentation of community agreements and standards activities?
Statements So what about the Semantic Web then? Trust Inference Annotation, review, commentary So what about the Semantic Web then?
Metadata Schematized statements about resources Historically independent communities of interest overlapping in a network space Practitioners faced with high acronymic density, many choices, and often a moving target Kaleidoscopic perspective .. May fall into pattern at any minute …
Over to you … Thank you! Lorcan Dempsey DempseyL@oclc.org
The pattern is new … The knowledge imposes a pattern and falsifies For the pattern is new in every moment Photograph of East Coker by Michael Day.