Opening the Special Library: Open Source, Open Content, Open Data and More

2011-08-01

Learning Resource Metadata InitiativeVocabulary Development Best Practices

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From: David Megginson To: xml-dev@lists.xml.orgSubject: 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 david@megginson.com http://www.megginson.com/

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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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