1. Report on Eighth Open Forum on Metadata Registries, Berlin, 11-14 April 2005
Rachel Heery
UKOLN, University of Bath
DCMI Registry WG meeting, Madrid,
September

2. Eighth in series… First open forum in Berkeley, 1997
Disparate communities
More convergence but….
Emphasis on ISO 11179

3. Family of ISO 11179 standards
ISO JTC1/SC32 chair Bruce Bargmayer
ISO Metadata Registries
ISO MDR content consistency
ISO MDR interoperability and binding
ISO TC 37/SC 4 Standardisation of principles, methods and applications relating to terminology: chair Christian Galanski

4. Extended Metadata Registry (XMDR)
Collaborative, Interagency Effort to Extend ISO/IEC Semantics Management Capabilities
Sponsors & Participants: EPA, EEA, USGS, DOD, NCI, Mayo Clinic
Adapt & Adopt Emerging Semantic Technologies
Help Harmonize Related Metadata Standards
Produce Design for Next Generation ISO/IEC Registries
Propose Revisions for ISO/IEC Parts 2 & 3, Edition 3
Test & Demo Extended Capabilities in a Reference Implementation
Establish Best Practices for Semantic Web & Semantics Based Computing
Collaborative, Interagency effort to Extend the Semantics Management Capabilities of ISO/IEC 11179
Test and Demonstrate Extended Capabilities with a Reference Implementation
Serve as a Design for Operational Registries
Focuses on Extending Classification and Terminology Aspects Specified in Part 2
Adapting and Adopting Useful Emerging Technologies
Result of Work will be Draft Documents that Propose Revisions for ISO/IEC Parts 2 and 3 as Version 3
Additionally, the Reference Implementation (RI) Prototype will Help Resolve Issues of How to Register, Manage, and Interrelate Complex Metadata Standards
Research, Develop, Evaluate, Adapt, Extend, & Demonstrate Techniques and Technologies for Semantics Based Computing
Facilitate Early Adoption of These Technologies
Acknowledgement: Sam Chance, US Dept of Defence

5. XMDR Project Goals
Extend Capabilities of Metadata Registries to Register Complex Metadata Structures (Concept Systems, Terminologies)
Ontologies, Graphs, Taxonomies, Thesauri, …
Extend Capabilities of Metadata Registries to Record Correlations and Interrelations Between
Concept Systems and Data (e.g., Data Elements, Permissible Values & Value Domains)
Concept Systems Themselves

6. XMDR Liaison Activities
OMG Ontology Definition Metamodel (ODM)
W3C Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment Working Group
Ecoterm
EU Joint Research Center (EDEN-IW)
National Science Foundation (Ecoinformatics)
SC32/WG2 MetaModel Framework (MMF)
Dept. Homeland Security
…….. Can we collaborate?

7. Other highlights
Gerard Budin: metadata interoperability between learning and cultural diversity management
Klaus-Dirk Smitz: on (lack of ) cultuural diversity of icons in user interfaces
Presentations available from

8. Personal impressions
Little mention of ‘vocabularies’ or ‘schemas’ - emphasis on data elements –
Focus on interworking between databases
Would be interesting to explore role of ‘data concept’ in context of metadata properties
Little real impact of Semantic Web technologies (some mention of use of URIs as identifiers)
Main players in ISO are US government agencies….