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Joining it all uprelevant standards and developments from the Heritage sector and beyond

Dr. Paul Miller

Interoperability FocusUK Office for Library & Information Networking (UKOLN)

P.Miller@ukoln.ac.uk http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/

UKOLN is funded by Resource: the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Further and Higher Education Funding Councils, as well as by project funding from JISC and the EU. UKOLN also receives support from the Universities of Bath and Hull where staff are based.

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Joined up Talking

e–Government

A Netful of Jewels

Culture Online“the Semantic Web”

New Library: the People’s Network

MEG

e–*

e–University

CIMI.

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Joined up Building

The People’s Network

Distributed National Electronic Resource

ukonline.gov / firstgov.gov / *.gov

HEIRNET

SCRAN

National Electronic Library for Health

A2A/ Archive Hub

24 Hour Museum.

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Joined up Doing= Interoperability

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What is interoperability?

“to be interoperable, one should actively be engaged in the ongoing

process of ensuring that the systems, procedures and culture of an organisation are managed in such a way as to maximise opportunities for exchange and re-use of information, whether internally or externally.”

See www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue24/interoperability/See www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue24/interoperability/

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Why interoperate?

• because, at the end of the day, the user really doesn’t care which high quality data repository gives them the stuff they want…

…so long as they can get it!

• because the barriers we erect between ourselves serve merely to impede.

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Why interoperate?

• Resources need not respect organisational views we impose upon them• A virtual museum of all Da Vinci’s work?• Citizen–focussed access to information and

services across local, national and international government?

• The content of the British Museum available to people in a language other than English?

• The paintings of the Louvre, explained to a seven year–old?

• Books, archival folios, and physical objects relating to a topic available together?.

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How to interoperate…

• Depends upon the situation, of course, but…

standards

standards

standards!de facto

de jure

national

international

community

initiative

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The nice thing about standards…

…is that there are so many to choose from!

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Standard solutions

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Some examples…

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JISC

• Joint Information Systems Committee– “…to stimulate and enable the cost–effective

exploitation of information systems and to provide a high quality national network infrastructure…”

– ‘development’ not ‘research’– Funded by ‘top–slice’ from the Further and

Higher Education Funding Councils for England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland

– Funds eLib, the JISC Data Centres, UKOLN, the Focus posts, DNER Programme, etc..

See www.jisc.ac.uk/See www.jisc.ac.uk/

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eLib

• Electronic Libraries Programme• Over £15,000,000 of funding for a large number

of small/medium–size projects in three Phases– Plus supporting work such as the MODELS workshops

• Phases 1 & 2 (now complete) explored– Electronic Publishing

– e.g. intarch.ac.uk/

– Access to Network Resources (the Subject Gateways)– e.g. www.sosig.ac.uk/

– Training services (e.g. Netskills), Pre–print services, etc..

See www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib/See www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib/

See www.ariadne.ac.uk/See www.ariadne.ac.uk/

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The D… N… what?

Distributed National Electronic Resource• Policy aspiration of the Joint Information

Systems Committee• Intended to provide greater access to JISC’s

Current Content Collection– RDN– AHDS– MIMAS, EDINA, BIDS/Ingenta, Data Archive– EDUSERVE– COPAC– eLib projects

etc.

See www.jisc.ac.uk/dner/ See www.jisc.ac.uk/dner/

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Building the DNER

Construction of various Portals to facilitate user–centric access• ‘JISC Portal’ ?• Data Centre Portals (EDINA, MIMAS…)• Subject Portals (the RDN, ADS, etc.)• Data Type Portals (images, movies, sound…)• Institutional Portals (a Hybrid Library?)• Personal Portals (Paul’s web!)

Also providing other access to discrete resources.

See www.jisc.ac.uk/dner/ See www.jisc.ac.uk/dner/

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Building the DNER

See www.jisc.ac.uk/dner/ See www.jisc.ac.uk/dner/

• Z39.50 as the ‘glue’• Thus, JISC funding of Bath Profile development, working

closely with NLC and others around the world

• Also looking at Open Archives model• Technical Standards document in preparation by

UKOLN and JISC• will apply immediately to the projects started by a

£10,000,000 funding allocation last summer; intended to make the DNER useful for learning and teaching

• Technical requirements for contributors already written• What does an A&I service need if it wants JISC to

subscribe, etc…

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nof–digi

• New Opportunities Fund receives money from the UK’s National Lottery• nof–digi programme committing £50,000,000

over 2–3 years to digitisation of learning materials for use in lifelong learning.

• UKOLN providing coordinated (and partially mandatory) technical guidelines across the programme, and a support service.

See www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk/nof/technicalstandards.htmlSee www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk/nof/technicalstandards.html

See www.ukoln.ac.uk/nof/support/See www.ukoln.ac.uk/nof/support/

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Government

• 100% of government services available online by 2005• e–Envoy ensures compliance• Focus upon services• Focus upon the citizen• Focus upon the Joined Up approach• Recognition of multi–channel architecture.

See www.iagchampions.gov.uk/See www.iagchampions.gov.uk/

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Focus on services

• Deliver services to the citizen• Services rather than resources• Not just about finding documents on a web

site• Change of address pilot now (quietly!) live;

–https://www.addressingthechange.com–www.ihavemoved.com/–www.simplymove.co.uk/.

See www.iagchampions.gov.uk/portals/address.pdfSee www.iagchampions.gov.uk/portals/address.pdf

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Focus on the Citizen

• Move away from the ‘silo mentality’• Citizens need/want access to

information/services/resources– These exist in different parts of local and

national government, organised according to internal needs or procedures, and packaged according to particular house styles and conventions

– None of which helps the citizen who just wants a new wheely bin.

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Recognise a multi–channel future

• The web is not the only game in town…• Mobile phones/ WAP• PDAs• Digital TV• Telephone call centres• One stop shop drop–in centres• High street information kiosks• The Post Office/ Banks• Traditional access mechanisms

• So… create content once for near–automated repackaging and repurposing• XML Schema/ XSL, etc… .

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UK Online

• Umbrella brand for• e–Government portal developments

– formerly me.gov

• Government efforts to promote e–Commerce– DTI’s Information Society Initiative (ISI)

• Government–funded IT training for the Citizen– learndirect, NGfL, etc.

See www.ukonline.gov.uk/See www.ukonline.gov.uk/

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The e–GIF

• e–Government Interoperability Framework• Technical standards and policies at the heart

of e–Government• Proposes www.govtalk.gov.uk/ site for

ongoing dissemination of public sector standards

• Online, but currently sparsely populated.

See www.govtalk.gov.uk/See www.govtalk.gov.uk/

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The e–GIF

• e–Government Interoperability Framework• Conformance is mandatory across the Public

Sector• Adoption of Internet and Web standards across

government• XML/XSL, plus government–specific schemas

• Change of Address service, for example, utilises XML Schemas to pass details between participants

• govtalk.gov to disseminate and discuss schemas, best practice, etc.

See www.govtalk.gov.uk/See www.govtalk.gov.uk/

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Metadata Framework

• Core plank of e–Government strategy• e–Envoy working group

• Whitehall and Devolved Administrations• I&DeA• Resource• UKOLN

• Scope includes metadata guidelines and the Pan–Government Thesaurus project.

See www.govtalk.gov.uk/See www.govtalk.gov.uk/

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Metadata Framework

• Mandates the Dublin Core• Some elements are made mandatory• Probably adds two elements from AGLS

•www.naa.gov.au/recordkeeping/gov_online/agls/summary.html

• Endorses many of the recently approved DC Qualifiers•mirrored.ukoln.ac.uk/dc/documents/rec/ dcmes–qualifiers

• Draft released early 2001.

See mirrored.ukoln.ac.uk/dc/See mirrored.ukoln.ac.uk/dc/

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Common themes…

• …whether actual or desirable…• A vision

– Access, Access, Access

• Effective scoping– Nothing can be all things to all people

• User rather than institutional focus– Are historical organisational structures really

relevant?

• A managed programme– Requires funding, staff, and the power to

mandate/ co–ordinate for the common good

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Common themes…

• Considered deployment of standards– Bath Profile, Dublin Core, terminological

controls, procedural controls, etc.– Don’t just adopt; help to shape

– Interoperability Focus is active across a range of initiatives.

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