Creating an International Set of Identifier Principles

CREATING AN INTERNATIONAL SET OF IDENTIFIER PRINCIPLESLAYING OUT A PLAN FOR ISO TC46/SC9 IDENTIFIERS AND THEIR RATIONALE

TODD A. CARPENTER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NISO & SECRETARY, ISO TC 46/SC 9

JANUARY 23, 2018PIDAPALOOZA, GIRONA, SPAIN

ISO TC 46/SC 9 – INFORMATION & DOCUMENTATION –IDENTIFICATION & DESCRIPTION

• ISO –The International Standardization Organization, a non-governmental worldwide standards setting body comprised of national member bodies

• Over 750 Technical Committees & Subcommittees

• Technical Committee 46 – Information & Documentation

• Subcommittee 9 – Identification & Description

• Standards such as ISBN, ISSN, DOI, ISRC, ISAN.

IDENTIFICATION IS MUCH MORE THAN DISAMBIGUATION

https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986#page-4

HTTP://ORCID.ORG/0000-0002-8320-0491

IT IS NOT THE DISAMBIGUATION OR THE RESOLVABILITY OF A

PID THAT MAKES IT VALUABLE.

IT IS NOT THE DISAMBIGUATION OR THE RESOLVABILITY OF A

PID THAT MAKES IT VALUABLE.

IT IS THE INFRASTRUCTURETHAT SUPPORTS THE PID THAT

CREATES VALUE

SOME BACKGROUND

• During the Plenary Meeting in Washington, DC, TC46/SC9 heard of interesting new work, and the developments of a new cross-industry group that was forming, the Linked Content Coalition (LCC)

• The framework, developed by RightsCom, was for the UK Copyright Hub.

• It included a set of principles for identification, another set of principles for messaging metadata about identifiers, and a set of reference models for expressing rights data.

ELEMENTS OF LCC PRINCIPLES OF IDENTIFICATION

• Identifiers should be public

• Identifiers should be persistent

• Granularity to suit needs

• Designated manifestations

• Resolvable

• No intelligence in the characters

• Explicit in scope

• Unique in their domain

• Trustworthy

• Assigned early in the creation process

• Avoid co-reference and ambiguity

• Capable of multiple resolution

• Have stable governance

THE LINKED CONTENT COALITION

• The first implementation of these principles is the RDI (Rights Data Integration) project, a part-EU-funded initiative which started in October 2013 and concluded in December 2015.

• The Copyright Hub, a not-for-profit, industry-led initiative, capable of linking scalably to the growing network of right registries, copyright-related databases and digital copyright exchanges, to facilitate cross-border and cross-sector copyright licensing.

• The ARDITO project, an ambitious EU-funded initiative to kick-start a digital rights information network is building on some of the LCC’s initial work

IT HAD BEEN THREE YEARS…, COME ON…

• We have the authority to pursue our own work.

• We should not be waiting around for LCC to work out its intellectual property issues with RightsCom.

• There wasn’t consensus on the LCC Principles of Identification

• Were the LCC Principles of Identification exactly what TC 46/SC 9 wants to say about the future of identification?

• TC46/SC 9 decided to purseu development of a guiding principles document of its own.

IN PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA, THIS SUMMER…

• ISO TC46/SC 9 decided forego waiting on LCC and launch a project of our own

• It decided to collectively draft a Framework for the Identification of Cultural Content

• An SC 9 Ad hoc group is being launched and will proceed to produce an ISO Technical Report.

• It should be produced in the next 12 months.

THE PROPOSED DOCUMENT SHOULD CONTAIN:

• A glossary of terminology relevant to TC46/SC9 identifiers (and others)

• A philosophy for why ISO identifiers exist and why they are suitable for trade

• A core set of relevant characteristics and expectations for ISO identifiers

• Defining the general business case guidelines for ISO identifiers

• An acknowledgement that there are other communities developing IDs, but why are ISO identifiers structured they way they are and for what purpose

• A justification for the ongoing maintenance of identifiers and identification systems

THE PROPOSED DOCUMENT SHOULD FOCUS ON THE CORE VALUES THAT ISO IDENTIFIERS BRING

• The value of canonical data

• The value of governance

• The value of consensus

• The value of validation

• The value of support (technical, financial & social)

• The value of community

• The value of review

• The value of sustainability

• The value of promotion

• The value of interoperability

• The value of extensibility

• The value of multi-sectoriality

• The value of certification

SOME OF MY OWN IDEAS ABOUT THINGS THIS DOCUMENT SHOULD INCLUDE:

• The values of community support and engagement in the development process and their importance

• The openness of ISO identifiers along with a minimal level of metadata to understand the referent

• The interoperability of identifier systems sufficient that others can engage meaningfully with the data, in multiple extensible serializations as needed.

• Action-ability in linking those identifiers with other information on the web, such that they can easily be used in networked information, especially with other related identifiers

MORE OF MY OWN IDEAS ABOUT THINGS THIS DOCUMENT SHOULD INCLUDE:

• Canonical nature of ISO identifiers and metadata such that it can be trusted in trade

• Mechanisms to ensure there are no duplication or reuse of identifiers, and that remedies be implemented to fix any data errors

• Granular enough identification of the referent to support relevant business cases

• That ISO identification systems be built to support defined business cases.

• There need to be ongoing governance and maintenance of the identification system

WHAT THINGS DO YOU THINK THIS DOCUMENT SHOULD INCLUDE?

• <DISCUSSION>

• </DISCUSSION>

THANK YOU!TODD A. CARPENTERExecutive DirectorNational Information Standards Organization (NISO)

Secretary, ISO Technical Committee 46, Subcommittee 9, Information & Documentation - Identification & Description

3600 CLIPPER MILL ROAD, SUITE 302BALTIMORE, MD 21211-1950 U.S.A.(301) 654-2512

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