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Dr Paul MillerDr Paul MillerInteroperability FocusInteroperability Focus
[email protected]@ukoln.ac.ukwww.ukoln.ac.uk/www.ukoln.ac.uk/
Empowering LearningEmpowering Learning— a UK perspective— a UK perspective
What is European Culture ?
European Culture is…
PhysicalTangibleEnrichingInclusiveNationalFor usFiniteValuable
DigitalEphemeral
UncomfortableDivisive
InternationalFor our childrenEver-expanding
Expensive
European Culture is…
Valuing Culture…?Cultural memory, which is documented in the collections of museums, libraries and archives throughout the world, is a vital part of the human endeavour. It represents the knowledge accumulated through the generations, and enables humanity to build on the achievements of those who have gone before us. Cultural memory:
• Benefits individuals, by promoting a sense of identity through shared cultural values and by supporting the quest for lifelong learning;
• Benefits communities, by promoting economic prosperity and fostering the understanding that leads to a civil and just society; and
• Benefits humanity as a whole, by promoting the values we share as global citizens and by increasing our capacity to connect with one another to meet universal challenges.
Museums, libraries and archives—often called memory institutions—are trusted organizations that collectively document the entire range of human experience and expression. Memory institutions are engaged in the important work of:
• Capturing, authenticating, and making sense of cultural memory; • Preserving the human record for future generations; and • Sharing knowledge to support education and learning.
See www.ukoln.ac.uk/interop-focus/ccs/positions/ See www.ukoln.ac.uk/interop-focus/ccs/positions/
“
”
The UK perspective
See www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/See www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/
EnglandScotlandWalesNorthern Ireland
Different fundingDifferent rulesDifferent curriculaIncreasing linguistic diversity
A ‘United’ Kingdom
Educationin the UK
A ‘United’ Kingdom - England
•A National Curriculum for 5-16•Government’s Department for Education & Skills (DfES) setting overall agenda•Learning & Skills Council (LSC) driving and funding post-16 (non-HE) education•Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) driving and funding university education.
A ‘United’ Kingdom - Scotland
•No real national curriculum for schools•Government’s Department for Education setting overall agenda•Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC) driving and funding further education •Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) driving and funding university education.
General trends
A Joint Information Systems Committee• funded by all of the funding councils, and
supporting IT infrastructure, content, and use for Further and Higher Education
Increasing university attendance, and targets to improve further
A general emphasis upon Lifelong Learning, Widening Participation, Social Inclusion, and delivery of e-Services.
Memory Institutions in the UK
Memory Institutions
Museums & Galleries, Libraries, Archives…• Hold the memory of the Nation in trust• Actively interpret• (Usually) under sell themselves• Possibly perpetuate organisational
structures irrelevant to the user• Offer a ‘human’ side of Government ?
Some facts
In the UK, more people visit museums than go to theme parks and pop concerts
Visiting libraries is more popular than going to the cinema
There are over 4,000 public library branches in the UK• The vast majority will be connected to
the ‘Peoples Network’ by 2003• 70% already are.
Moving Online
Culture Online
Placed online, large parts of our Culture can become:
• available to the Nation/Continent/World, 24/7• accessible• ‘democratised’, and available equally to
the inhabitants of Maastricht, and of a small village on the Outer Hebrides
• a powerful advert for Europe• comparable to similar resources from
elsewhere• viable as enablers and facilitators of
Learning, both formal and lifelong.
Some assumptions
• Having access to digital surrogates of cultural heritage material is ‘useful’ and desirable
• The public sector has a role to play in this, beyond simply granting digitisation rights to Microsoft
• Availability of regional/national/international corpora of material is more useful to the user than hundreds or thousands of individual sites
• Metadata is key to making the vision reality.
What is Metadata?
What is ‘Metadata’?
– meaningless jargon
– ora fashionable, and terribly misused, term for what we’ve always done
– or“a means of turning data into information”
– and“data about data”
– andthe name of a person (‘Tony Blair’)
– andthe title of a book (‘The Name of the Rose’).
What is ‘Metadata’?
Metadata may be applied to almost anything;• People• Places• Objects• Concepts• Web pages• Databases.
What is ‘Metadata’?
Resource Discovery Metadata fulfils three main functions;• Description of resource content
– “What is it?”
• Description of resource form– “How is it constructed?”
• Description of resource use– “Can I afford it?”.
‘Metadata’ is
Cataloguing made cool• But still a bit geeky?
An important driver for the information economy ?
A panacea in the battle against information overload ?
Potentially useful as an affordable and cost–effective means of unlocking a wealth of resources ?.
Some assumptions
• Having access to digital surrogates of cultural heritage material is ‘useful’ and desirable
• The public sector has a role to play in this, beyond simply granting digitisation rights to Microsoft
• Availability of regional/national/international corpora of material is more useful to the user than hundreds or thousands of individual sites
• Metadata is key to making the vision reality.
Some more assumptions
• Distribution is better than centralisation• Portals are good• Thick portals are better• A single portal is bad• Shared middleware services play a
key role• The problem is bigger than the UK
or Europe.
Internationalisation
Level 7An activity in need of a name!An activity in need of a name!Organised with support from CIMI and ResourceOrganised with support from CIMI and ResourceRecognised growing synergies between content Recognised growing synergies between content
creation activities globallycreation activities globallyGathered funders and programme managers in Gathered funders and programme managers in
LondonLondonReported in issue 5 of Reported in issue 5 of Cultivate InteractiveCultivate Interactive..
See www.ukoln.ac.uk/interop-focus/ccs/See www.ukoln.ac.uk/interop-focus/ccs/
The Cultural Content Forum !
Met in Washington in MarchMet in Washington in March
around 40 representatives from Europe, Canada, USA, around 40 representatives from Europe, Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand and TaiwanAustralia, New Zealand and Taiwan
Clear interest in a Clear interest in a user focususer focus
new work item to gather and explore existing user new work item to gather and explore existing user evaluation work, in order to develop a better picture of evaluation work, in order to develop a better picture of what users wantwhat users want
Reported in issue 7 of Reported in issue 7 of Cultivate InteractiveCultivate Interactive..
See www.cultivate-int.org/issue7/washington/See www.cultivate-int.org/issue7/washington/
Standardisation
Common Standards
Commonality of approach enables interoperability, and facilitates access.
Good standardisation is a foundation for good service, not a straitjacket to innovation
Increasing moves towards common standards and guidelines
NOF-digi
JISC
Canadian Cultural Content Initiative
e-GIF
RLG Cultural Materials Initiative
NINCH G2GP
etc.
Common Standards
Work underway to standardise/harmonise• Resource capture/creation• Resource description• Resource discovery• Resource use• Resource reuse• Resource preservation• etc
Best/Good Practice and Community Building as important… if not more…
Metadata for Education
Metadata for Education Group (MEG)•open forum for debating the description and provision of educational resources at all educational levels across the United Kingdom
•Founded upon a set of fundamental principles enshrined in the MEG Concord
•intends to establish itself as an authority in the application of descriptive metadata to predominantly UK educational resources
•seeks to become the first point of call for policy questions.
See www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/education/See www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/education/
The MEG Concord
The MEG Concord
See www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/education/documents/concord.html
See www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/education/documents/concord.html
Discovering Content
Web Web Web Web Web
Content(local andremote)
End-user
• Many different services
• Each has own user interface
• Each has a learning curve
The current picture
Slide by Andy Powell of UKOLN
Towards an Architecture
Need for contextualisation
What are people doing• And what are the best technologies to
help them?
How can we move towards the appearance of seamless service?
No one-fit solution.
See www.dner.ac.uk/arch/ See www.dner.ac.uk/arch/
Towards an architectureSearch
• Z39.50 and the Bath ProfileHarvest
• OAIAlert
• RSSShared Middleware Services
• Authenticate, Authorise, Collection Description, User Preference, Institutional Preference…
See www.dner.ac.uk/arch/ See www.dner.ac.uk/arch/
JISC’s Information Environment
Broker/Aggregator
Portal Portal
Content providers
End-user
Portal
Broker/Aggregator
Authentication
Authorisation
Collect’n Desc
Service Desc
Resolver
Inst’n Profile
Shared services
Provisionlayer
Fusionlayer
Presentationlayer
Slide by Andy Powell of UKOLN
publishingtools
sharedservices
portals
content
brokersand
aggregators
Architectural summaryprovision
fusioninfrastructure
presentation
registriesterminologyindexingresolutionauthenticationauthorisationcitation linking
m2m
Slide by Andy Powell of UKOLN
Building the IE
Construction of various Portals in the Presentation Layer• ‘JISC Portal’ ?• Data Centre Portals (EDINA, MIMAS…)• Subject Portals (the RDN, ADS, etc.)• Data Type Portals (images, movies, sound…)• Institutional Portals• Personal Portals (Paul’s web!)
Also providing other access to discrete resources.
See www.jisc.ac.uk/dner/ See www.jisc.ac.uk/dner/
National or Local?
JISC building various national services, including portals
Institutions also building portals, Managed/Virtual Learning Environments, myLibrary services, etc.
Where do we see the role for all?
See www.rdn.ac.uk/ See www.rdn.ac.uk/
‘Networks’ for Cultural Content
See www.rcahms.gov.uk/ See www.rcahms.gov.uk/
See ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/ See ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/
See www.scran.ac.uk/ See www.scran.ac.uk/
See ads.ahds.ac.uk/heirport/ See ads.ahds.ac.uk/heirport/
Generalising a model…
A premiseWe want to provide useful services to
our users.• These should be
– Usable– Functional– Fit-for-purpose
– yet cool and attractive
– Sustainable– Interoperable
• And could be– Informational– Transactional
Technical standards are the dull but necessary reality for making this happen.
In search of solutions…
A common approach• Mandated as a condition of grant?
– nof–digi technical standards and guidelines– Although evidence of voluntary adoption…
– DNER Learning & Teaching Programme technical guidelines– Canadian Digital Cultural Content Initiative technical guidelines– e–GIF
An open approach– Avoidance of proprietary solutions– Based on emerging or established standards– XML based. Mappable to Dublin Core….
A consensus–based approach• Need community adoption and
understanding• Data creators and providers need a
sense of ownership
An evolutionary approach• Channels• New standards• New user requirements• Remember preservation.
In search of solutions…
An architecture
Integrated information environment is complex• An overarching architecture helps to
place individual features in context– searching– harvesting– alerting– Shared middleware– Common identifiers, etc.
See www.dner.ac.uk/architecture/See www.dner.ac.uk/architecture/
Part of a model
Placing detailed descriptions of all cultural artefacts online infeasible?• Expensive• A big job!• Leads to information overload
Collection Level Description a way forward• Pointers into collections• Easier to harmonise across domains• Achievable.
See www.ukoln.ac.uk/cd-focus/See www.ukoln.ac.uk/cd-focus/
The Big Issue(s)
Language• Whether ‘technical’ or vernacular
Terminological control• Shared subject terms
Certification/ Authenticity• How do I know it’s an authoritative description of
the Mona Lisa ?
Infrastructure• How to enable cross–search?
Meeting the requirements of new users• Largely let down by our current offerings.
See www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue29/miller/See www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue29/miller/
Conclusions
Conclusions•The Heritage matters
• a digitised Heritage may be exploited in new ways, by new and old markets
•Effective exploitation requires• Cooperation, collaboration, and consensus building• shared vision• new ways of working• institutional and organisational change
– is ‘library’ a meaningful concept to the learner?
– is ‘museum’?
• an interoperable technical base
•We need to be responsive to the needs of our users• cultural tourist, student, lifelong learner,
professional… .
Dr Paul MillerDr Paul MillerInteroperability FocusInteroperability Focus
[email protected]@ukoln.ac.ukwww.ukoln.ac.uk/www.ukoln.ac.uk/
Empowering LearningEmpowering Learning— a UK perspective— a UK perspective
