This document discusses best practices for developing learning resource metadata vocabularies based on guidelines from the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. It recommends defining clear use cases, selecting an appropriate domain model, reviewing existing vocabularies to reuse terms, designing detailed metadata records, providing usage guidelines, and engaging relevant communities to ensure long-term stewardship of the vocabulary. The Learning Resource Metadata Initiative (LRMI) could benefit from following these best practices in its development.

1. 2011-08-01 Learning Resource Metadata Initiative Vocabulary Development Best Practices Mike Linksvayer Creative Commons flickr.com/photos/mlinksva/2058257039 · CC0

2. From: David Megginson <david@megginson.com> To: xml-dev@lists.xml.org Subject: 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: > > &quot;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.&quot; > > 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 the margins of books so that people could look up references in other books[*]. The Web is simply an incremental improvement on their system. All the best, David [*] Note that a book is a fully random-access scroll, a technical prerequisite for dense linking. -- David Megginson [email_address] http://www.megginson.com/

3. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Violas_de_arco_en_un_manuscrito_del_a_un_manuscrito_del_año_900_-_950.jpg Public Domain

4. Call for panelists at &quot;Describing Digital Images of Medieval Manuscripts using Dublin Core: Projects and Proposals&quot; (panel) at 47th International Congress on Medieval Studies May 10-13, 2012 Due 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.

5. 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

6. Best Practices? Difficult to identify as metadata vocabulary/taxonomy/ontology projects vary greatly in scope, duration, ambition, generality…

7. Best Practices! Have real use cases Involve real users/domain experts Involve metadata experts (full employment for ontologists!☺) Research current practice …

8. Best Practices! Work toward Vocabulary reuse

9. Interoperability

10. Extensibility Transparency/public involvement Long term stewardship

11. dublincore.org/documents/profile-guidelines/

12. Varying importance, as LRMI analogous to DCMI; ability of users to develop “application profiles” would be a success indicator

13. 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

14. Defining Functional Requirements LRMI relevance: Very High Web-scale search the clear priority Early activity: capture use cases representing varied learning applications, geographies

15. 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

16. Selecting or Developing a Domain Model LRMI relevance: Lower, Risky LRMI has to work with any [un]imaginable learning resource, allow others to use in modeling However, working with schema.org domain models highly relevant

17. 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. …

18. 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

19. Selecting or Defining Metadata Terms LRMI relevance: Maximum Document examples in the wild, including non-machine-readable, e.g., description of YouTube video as learning resource Document commonalities across existing education metadata vocabularies …

20. Aim for semantic alignment with existing vocabularies to ensure LRMI reflects consensus and protects investment in systems using existing vocabularies

21. microformats.org/wiki/process

23. www.w3.org/TR/mediaont-10/

24. 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

25. Designing the Metadata Record with a Description Set Profile LRMI relevance: NA? Specific to Dublin Core Application Profile creation

26. Usage Guidelines A Description Set Profile defines the &quot;what&quot; of the application profile; usage guidelines provide the &quot;how&quot; and &quot;why&quot;. dublincore.org/documents/profile-guidelines/#sect-7

27. Usage Guidelines LRMI relevance: High Aim for wide implementation by non-metadata-specialists, requiring clear guidance

28. 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 guidelines dublincore.org/documents/profile-guidelines/#sect-8

29. Syntax Guidelines LRMI relevance: Very High Schema.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 develop RDF expression needed for interoperability with existing vocabularies

30. Long-term stewardship Engaging communities, experts, standards organizations, other stakeholders will inform vocabulary development and finding the right long-term steward for LRMI

31. links: con vey your self to wiki.creativecommons.org/LRMI groups.google.com/group/lrmi/ “ Effective standardization is not paperwork, but is effective working groups—experts 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/ flickr.com/photos/mlinksva/2059044356 · CC0