UKOLN is supported by:
Future-proofing the Technology – Addressing the Challenge
Dr Liz Lyon, UKOLN, University of Bath, UK
Collaboration for Sustainability Conference
Bath, October 2004.
www.bath.ac.uk
a centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Overview
1. Exploring the Global Knowledge Space
2. Interoperability, infrastructure & standards
3. Digital preservation & digital curation
4. Supporting the community
5. Closing remarks
1. Exploring the Global Knowledge Space
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Lindisfarne Gospels
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2. Interoperability, infrastructure & standards
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The Life Cycle Approach
Creation
Management
Collection development
Access
Repackaging
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Towards a common infrastructure?
• e-Learning Framework– Technical Framework to support E-Learning
http://www.cetis.ac.uk/members/frameworks/index.html
• JISC Information Environment– Technical architecture based on open standards (Web Services,
OAI-PMH, Z39.50, RSS…..) http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/distributed-systems/jisc-ie/arch/
• Virtual Research Environment– Framework options e.g. CHEF, Chandler, SAKAI, ??
• Common Information Environment– A cross-sectoral vision– Demonstrators– Ariadne article http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue39/miller/
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The E-Learning Framework (ELF)
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JISC Information Environment architecture
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Common Information Environment
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Standards, standards, standards • Z39.50• SRW• OAI• RSS• DC• METS• MPEG7• MPEG DIDL• UDDI• WSDL• SOAP• ….
• JPEG• GIF• UK LOM Core• WSRP• URI• DOI• OWL• HTTP• VRML• SMIL• XHTML• RDF• …..
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Why advocate a standards culture?
• Open standards• Maximise access
– Platforms and delivery channels– Widest range of users
• Avoid proprietary lock-in– Vendor independent
• Integrate with other initiatives– eLearning e.g. Curriculum Online
• Economic benefits– Delivering value-for-money– Return-on-investment
• Ensure long-term availability of digital assets– Digital preservation and curation
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A few words about metadata• Resources
– Digital– Physical– Item-level– Collection-level
• Services– Human-mediated– m2m– Common– Domain-specific
• Functions– Discovery– Management– Preservation & curation
• Metadata schema– e.g. Dublin Core, UK
LOM Core, METS
• Application profiles• Schema registries
– Publication– Mapping
3. Digital preservation & digital curation
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Why advocate a digital preservation / curation policy?• Long-term access to digital assets• Preservation approaches
– Emulation, migration– LOCKSS– Universal Virtual Computer
• OAIS reference model• Preservation metadata• Provenance• Persistent identifiers
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Digital Curation Centre http://www.dcc.ac.uk/
• Providing a range of services
• Help-desk
• Curation manual
• Professional training materials
• Research & development agendas
• Outreach & Community Support
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4. Supporting the community
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Technical Standards & Guidelines
• Document origins and influence– JISC Information Environment architecture– e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF)
• Life-cycle approach– Creation, management, collection development, access,
repackaging
• Vocabulary– “must”, “should”, “may”
• Revisions– New standards– New guidelines on implementation– Latest version February 2003
• http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/nof/support/
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Reporting & Compliance
• Working in partnership with BECTa• Compliance monitoring service• Quarterly reporting process
– Validation against published standards e.g. accessibility, (X)HTML conformance
– Difficult to assess all aspects– Valid reasons e.g. immature standards, lack of tools,
cost of implementation – Document with migration strategy
• Project sign-off– Pragmatic advice & recommendations
• Estimated >85% compliance
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5. Closing remarks
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Observations
• Evolving technical landscape• Big issues
– Semantic interoperability– Persistent identifiers
• Awareness of new developments– e.g. NISO VIEWS Initiative
• Embedding standards (and skills)• Integrating within the workflow
Interoperability and innovation: a delicate balance
Thank you.