A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)
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The Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)
Jonathan M. Borwein, Mason S. Macklem and Jaehyun Paek,Dalhousie University,
Halifax, Canada
A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)
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International Mathematical Union (IMU)
Non-governmental, non-profit ICSU organization
Focused on promoting and developing math research internationally
Organizes the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) every four years
Awards the Fields Medals Publishes the World Directory of
Mathematicians to coincide with the ICM
A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)
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World Directory of Mathematicians
Data collection is not performed directly by the IMU
Member nations provide their membership lists for inclusion in WDM
66 Member Nations Goal: Design electronic
version of WDM to replace physical version
WDM
Members Members
Members
Members
A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)
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Committee on Electronic Information and Communication
1998: IMU asked CEIC about feasibility of electronic version of WDM
Conclusion: A centralized database would be subject to intellectual property and privacy laws
Different laws for different nations
WDM
Members Members
Members
Members
Internet
A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)
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Federated World Directory of Mathematicians
Goal: Simulate electronic version of WDM without creating a centralized database
Federated search: any system that provides a common user interface for searching and retrieving information across heterogeneous datasets via the internet
A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)
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FWDM: Structure User requests information
from FWDM interface FWDM sends separate
requests to search engines for member nations
FWDM merges separate responses into single set of results
Returns merged results to user
No centralized database!
FWDMUser Interface
Members
Members
Members
Members
User
A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)
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FWDM Prototype
Includes: AMS Combined Membership List (CML), and membership lists for Australia, Canada, France, and Germany
http://www.fwdm.math.ca
A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)
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FWDM Basic Search
- Search parameters: - First Name - Last Name
- Two parameters comprise minimum requirements for inclusion of search engine into FWDM
- Most searches are on these two parameters
- Default version of FWDM
http://www.fwdm.math.ca/cgi-bin/search_sm.cgi
A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)
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FWDM Standard Search
- Search parameters: - First Name - Last Name- Employer/
University- Country
- Not all member search engines have the last two fields
http://www.fwdm.math.ca/cgi-bin/search.cgi
A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)
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FWDM Advanced Search- Includes fields for
every search parameter available on any included member search engine
- New fields include:- Research Interests- Position- Member society
http://www.fwdm.math.ca/cgi-bin/search_adv.cgi
A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)
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Structure of Search Results
- Individuals name, linked to all personal email addresses found in search
- Separate link for each society containing that individual- Links to every homepage found (currently shown as
numbered links when multiple are found)- Links to searches for each individual using Google and
Google Scholar - Google search performed using individual’s name and
“mathematics”
A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)
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Layout of Search Results
Search Results: individuals found in all databases
- Excludes individuals found only in the CML (to avoid overwhelming the results due to the size of the CML database) CML Only Results: contains results of individuals present only in the CML database
Search Results by Society: Groups the results by member-society database, with links to collected results on each society’s member database
- Identifies and links to societies that either return no results or timed out during the search
Google results: shows number of search results using all specified search parameters using both Google and Google Scholar, along with links to the results from each
Your Query: a copy of the version of the search interface, with specified parameters- Allows you to adjust your search by changing parameters and clicking “Search Again”- Also shows you what parameters you entered to get the results displayed above
A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)
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Merging Results: CML and CMS
A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)
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Member Databases: Recent Additions
EWDM: Electronic World Directory of Mathematicians
A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)
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Member Databases: Recent AdditionsOeMG (Austrian Mathematical Society)
A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)
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Member Databases: Recent AdditionsPDM (Portuguese Directory of Mathematicians)
A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)
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Adding Search Engines
First and Last Name searchable and separable
A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)
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Recent Additions Multiple threads:
Previous prototype performed the searches for all societies in sequence, with the search in the next society not started until the search in the previous society’s member list has completed
Length (in time) of search = sum of lengths of all member society’s searches
Current version employs multiple threads, so that all searches are performed in parallel
Length of search = longest length of member society’s search
A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)
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Recent Additions II Accented characters:
Previous active version was unable to deal effectively (and predictably) with accents, either when inputted into FWDM interface, or when returned from member database
New version now can robustly deal with accents in either setting Future work: add multiple searches in cases where accents are
present in user input, one search with accents intact and one with them removed
Necessary in case the member society does not have the accents present in their database
Multiple searches more feasible with the multithreaded version complete
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Next Steps Two goals for prototype:
Add more search engines for national societies Support increased number of users
Requirements for new search engines: First and Last Name are searchable fields
Interested in working with national societies
http://www.cs.dal.ca/ddrive/fwdm
(includes documentation on history and future of FWDM)