Making Digital Library Content Interoperable @ IRCDL 2010

IntroductionA Content Interoperability Framework

Summary

Making Digital Library Content Interoperable

L. Candela D. Castelli C. Thanos

Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie dell’Informazione “A. Faedo” – CNR, Pisa - [email protected]

6th Italian Research Conference on Digital LibrariesPadua, Italy, 28-29 January 2010

L. Candela et al. Making Digital Library Content Interoperable


Summary

Outline

1 IntroductionMotivations

2 A Content Interoperability FrameworkDigital Library Content ModelingLevels of Content InteroperabilityContent Reconciliation Approaches



SummaryMotivations

Developing Today’s Digital Libraries

e-Science scenarios (person-centric, multidisciplinary andco-operative) face novel challenges

highly-evolving requirements

large scale resources and players distribution

heterogeneity

. . . making standard development approaches often too“expensive” (and not sustainable)

“from-scratch” development of ad-hoc solutions

HW investment (even if intermittently needed)

The “magic” formula to reduce costs is

sharing & reuse⇒ interoperability



SummaryMotivations

Interoperability?

Although it is a known issue, it is still a vague andconfusing concept

“The ability of two or more systems or components toexchange information and to use the information that hasbeen exchanged” (IEEE, 1990)“Interoperability is the capability to communicate, executeprograms, or transfer data among various functional units ina manner that requires the user to have little or noknowledge of the unique characteristics of those units.”(ISO/IEC 2382 Information Technology Vocabulary)“Ability for a system to communicate with another systemand to use the functionality of the other system” (Vernadat,1996)



SummaryMotivations

Thoughts on Interoperability and Approaches

Is it difficult?yes it is, it is (almost) impossible

Is it about content/functionality?it is about content, functionality, user, policy, quality andarchitecture, it is about (almost) everything

What kind of job is?dirty but criticalbroad but partitionablecomplex but funwill never be solved but must be solved even approximately

The DL.org Coordination Action and its approachfocused working groups (one for each RM Domain)portfolio of best practices and pattern (Cookbook)



Summary

Digital Library Content ModelingLevels of Content InteroperabilityContent Reconciliation Approaches

A Framework for Modeling [Content] Interoperability

Interoperability scenario:Two [software] systems are willing to “share” aninformation object

provider is the owner of the information objectconsumer is interested in “using” that information object

Sharing requires a common understanding of someinformation object featuresSharing requires communication between provider andconsumer

Interoperability scenario features:resource model, i.e. the properties of a resourceinteroperability level, i.e. the level of “completeness”reconciliation function, i.e. the “how-to” remove theheterogeneitybenchmark, i.e. the “quality” of the reconciliation function



Summary


Information Object Identifier

The token bound to an Information Object thatdistinguished it from others within a certain scope

should be persistent and actionable

Interoperability is necessary for the purpose of referringthe target Information Object in various contexts

There are several standards, e.g. Uniform Resource Name(URN), digital object identifier (DOI), persistent URL(PURL), the Handle system and the Archival Resource Key(ARK)



Summary


Information Object Format

The structural (and sometimes operational) properties ofthe Information Objects

formal and intentional characterization of all the InformationObjects having such a “type” or “data model”

Interoperability is necessary for the purpose of enablingthe consumer of the objects to safely and/or efficientlyexecute operations over it based on the structural“assumptions” declared by its format

rigid data models, e.g. DSpace, Greenstone, Eprints, vsflexible data models, e.g. Fedora, OAI-ORE



Summary


Information Object Metadata

It is is any structured information that describes, explains,locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, ormanage an information

broad in scope, the majority of content interoperabilityissues risks to be here

Interoperability is necessary for the purpose of enablingthe consumer of the object to gather / be informed onsome characteristics of the Information Object thepartaking systems are willing to interoperateThere are several schemas, e.g. Dublin Core,MAchine-Readable Cataloging (MARC), MetadataEncoding and Transmission Standard (METS), MetadataObject Description Schema (MODS), ISO 19115, usuallyencoded in XML

application specific schema and application profile



Summary


Information Object Quality

It is a kind of meta-property as it describes various“characteristics” of Information Object properties andsub-properties

quality dimensions or parameters can refer either to theextension of data, i.e. to data values, or to their intension,i.e. to their schema/format

Interoperability is necessary for the purpose of enablingthe consumer to exploit every kind of Information Object ina conscious manner

Very close to Metadata



Summary


Information Object Protection

It includes security, i.e. protection against accidental orintentional disclosure, integrity, i.e. ensuring that thecontent remains an accurate reflection, and privacy, i.e.when, how, and to what extent the content is transmitted

Interoperability is necessary for the purpose of enablingthe consumer to be aware of the policies governing theInformation Object

Very close to Metadata (specific languages XACML)



Summary


Information Object Context

It is the set of all “setting” information that can be used tocharacterize the relation between the Information Objectand the “external world” surrounding it

Interoperability is necessary for the purpose of enablingthe consumer of the Information Object to behave as acontext-aware system

Very close to Metadata



Summary


Information Object Provenance

It is a description of the origin and/or of the descendantline of data (a.k.a. lineage)

Interoperability is necessary for the purpose of enablingthe consumer of the Information Object to be aware of thehistory leading to its current stage and thus to performexploitation actions that take this knowledge into account

Several model, e.g. OPM, usually encoded in XML



Summary


[Content] Interoperability Levels

Model (its properties) understanding might occur at differentlevels:

Technical/Basic, providing the consumer with a superficialuniformity of the provider IO characteristic which enablesaccessing it

Syntactic, ensuring that the abstract syntax of “target” IOcharacteristic is understandable by the consumer

Semantic, ensuring that the precise meaning of “target” IOfeature is understandable by the consumer

Operational, ensuring the effective use of the “target” IO bythe recipient in order to perform a specific task

Secure, ensuring secure object “exchanges” between theinvolved systems



Summary


Reconciliation Functions

Standard-based approachesthe oldest one!very effective if agreed, autonomy infringement

Families of standardsmultiple standards, negotiationalleviates the autonomy infringement

Mediator-based approachesinteroperability machinery outside participantsstrong in supporting autonomy

Specification-based / profile-basedno prior arrangement, dynamic bindingsupport autonomy, requires standard / agreement

Blending Solutions



Summary

Summary

Content Interoperability is a multi-faceted and multi-layeredproblem

no single solution to this problem

Content Interoperability frameworkcaptures in a systematic way these facetscategorises existing approaches

The work continue . . .state-of-the-art survey, cookbook



Summary

Summary

Content Interoperability is a multi-faceted and multi-layeredproblem

no single solution to this problem

Content Interoperability frameworkcaptures in a systematic way these facetscategorises existing approaches

The work continue . . .state-of-the-art survey, cookbook

More information http://www.dlorg.eu


http://www.dlorg.eu

Making Digital Library Content Interoperable @ IRCDL 2010

Technology

Transcript of Making Digital Library Content Interoperable @ IRCDL 2010