Opening the Special Library: Open Source, Open Content, Open Data and More
2011-08-01
Learning Resource Metadata InitiativeVocabulary Development Best Practices
Mike LinksvayerCreative Commons
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From: David Megginson To: [email protected]: Medieval Metadata (was RE: Namespace Basic Principles)Date: Tue, 02 Jan 2001 10:43:14 -0500 (EST)
Bill dehOra writes:
> To quote someone who knew a bit about metadata: > > "I saw that one enquiry only gave occasion to another, that book > referred to book, that to search was not always to find, and to > find was not always to be informed." > > Sam Johnson said that in 1753. We're still nowhere really.
Go back further and blame the early medieval monks -- they're the ones(in western Europe, anyway) who started scribbling notes in themargins of books so that people could look up references in otherbooks[*]. The Web is simply an incremental improvement on theirsystem.
All the best,David
[*] Note that a book is a fully random-access scroll, a technicalprerequisite for dense linking.
-- David Megginson [email protected] http://www.megginson.com/
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Violas_de_arco_en_un_manuscrito_del_a_un_manuscrito_del_ao_900_-_950.jpgPublic Domain
Call for panelists at "Describing Digital Images of Medieval Manuscripts using Dublin Core: Projects and Proposals" (panel)at 47th International Congress on Medieval Studies
May 10-13, 2012Due September 15, 2011
Participants for this session sponsored by the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library (HMML) and Special Collections and Rare Books, Western Michigan University will discuss the use of Dublin Core as a descriptive tool for medieval manuscripts. Individuals and repositories currently using Dublin Core as a part of their descriptions for searching and identifying materials online are invited to participate and WMU's efforts to develop a formal application profile to create simple DC descriptions for discovery of manuscripts and for teaching will be discussed.
Excellent metadata work finds all kinds of uses
Folks have been doing excellent metadata work for a long time
One example: Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
Much to appreciate and learn from
Best Practices?
Difficult to identify as metadata vocabulary/taxonomy/ontology projects vary greatly in scope, duration, ambition, generality
Best Practices!
Have real use casesInvolve real users/domain expertsInvolve metadata experts (full employment for ontologists!)Research current practice
Best Practices!
Work towardVocabulary reuse
Interoperability
Extensibility
Transparency/public involvementLong term stewardship
dublincore.org/documents/profile-guidelines/
Varying importance, as LRMI analogous to DCMI; ability of users to develop application profiles would be a success indicator
Defining Functional Requirements
The purpose of any metadata is to support an activity. Defining clear goals for the application used in that activity is an essential first step.dublincore.org/documents/profile-guidelines/#sect-3
Defining Functional Requirements
LRMI relevance: Very High
Web-scale search the clear priority
Early activity: capture use cases representing varied learning applications, geographies
Selecting or Developing a Domain Model
[T]he next step is to select or develop a domain model. A domain model is a description of what things your metadata will describe, and the relationships between those things. The domain model is the basic blueprint for the construction of the application profile.dublincore.org/documents/profile-guidelines/#sect-4
Selecting or Developing a Domain Model
LRMI relevance: Lower, RiskyLRMI has to work with any [un]imaginable learning resource, allow others to use in modelingHowever, working with schema.org domain models highly relevant
Selecting or Defining Metadata Terms
[W]e need to choose properties for describing the things in that model. For example, a Book can have a title and author. The author will be a Person with a name and an email address.
The next step, then, is to scan available RDF vocabularies to see whether the properties needed have already been declared and are available for use. Using existing properties, when appropriate, requires less effort and increases the interoperability of your metadata.dublincore.org/documents/profile-guidelines/#sect-5
Selecting or Defining Metadata Terms
LRMI relevance: MaximumDocument examples in the wild, including non-machine-readable, e.g., description of YouTube video as learning resourceDocument commonalities across existing education metadata vocabularies
Aim for semantic alignment with existing vocabularies to ensure LRMI reflects consensus and protects investment in systems using existing vocabularies
microformats.org/wiki/process
www.w3.org/TR/mediaont-10/
Designing the Metadata Record with a Description Set Profile
The next step is to describe the metadata record in detail. In the DCMI approach, a metadata record is based on the Description Set Model dublincore.org/documents/profile-guidelines/#sect-6
Designing the Metadata Record with a Description Set Profile
LRMI relevance: NA?Specific to Dublin Core Application Profile creation
Usage Guidelines
A Description Set Profile defines the "what" of the application profile; usage guidelines provide the "how" and "why".dublincore.org/documents/profile-guidelines/#sect-7
Usage Guidelines
LRMI relevance: HighAim for wide implementation by non-metadata-specialists, requiring clear guidance
Syntax Guidelines
The technologies described in this document are syntax neutral To help developers turn their application profiles into functioning software applications, DCMI has developed various encoding guidelinesdublincore.org/documents/profile-guidelines/#sect-8
Syntax Guidelines
LRMI relevance: Very HighSchema.org expression required for primary objective, improved web-scale education search; will need to work closely with schema.org as extension best practices and processes developRDF expression needed for interoperability with existing vocabularies
Long-term stewardship
Engaging communities, experts, standards organizations, other stakeholders will inform vocabulary development and finding the right long-term steward for LRMI
links: convey yourself to
wiki.creativecommons.org/LRMI
groups.google.com/group/lrmi/
Effective standardization is not paperwork, but is effective working groupsexperts and community, debating and documenting specifications, and moving forward, mole-whacking the loopholes and bugs as they keep occurring. It is a never ending effort, but a necessary one.dirkriehle.com/2011/07/29/on-the-open-cloud-principles-every-real-world-specification-is-an-underspecification/
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