1.
The IMPACT Interoperability Framework: Workflows for OCR and beyond Clemens Neudecker, KB National Library of the Netherlands 2 nd IMPACT Conference, British Library, London 24/25 October 2011

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Background <ul><li>> 20 individual software components for specific challenges </li></ul><ul><li>Prototyping new algorithms, improving commercial solutions </li></ul><ul><li>Different frameworks (C, C++, Java, etc.), platforms (Win/Linux) </li></ul><ul><li>Extensible with 3 rd party applications </li></ul><ul><li> IMPACT Interoperability Framework (IIF) </li></ul>

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Architecture <ul><li>Java </li></ul><ul><li>Web Services </li></ul><ul><li>Apache </li></ul><ul><li>Taverna </li></ul><ul><li>Open Source available on https://github.com/impactcentre </li></ul><ul><li>Free Hackathon 14/15 November, University of Manchester </li></ul><ul><li>http://impact-mygrid-taverna-hackathon.wikispaces.com/ </li></ul>

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Integration <ul><li>Only requirement: command line executable </li></ul><ul><li>Generic command line wrapper produces web service </li></ul><ul><li>Web service exposed as workflow module with documentation </li></ul><ul><li>Quick & easy integration: developers can focus on their application and have to worry less about integration = higher quality software </li></ul>

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Workflows <ul><li>OCR workflow = data pipeline </li></ul><ul><li>Building blocks = processing modules (nodes) </li></ul><ul><li>Integration = interaction between nodes (mashups) </li></ul><ul><li> Collaboration with </li></ul>

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Evaluation features <ul><li>Text comparison of result with ground truth, using Levenshtein distance method </li></ul><ul><li>Word evaluation (with reading order) </li></ul><ul><li>Layout based comparison of result with ground truth, using the Page Analysis And Ground Truth Elements Framework </li></ul>

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Community <ul><li>Web2.0 style workflow registry </li></ul><ul><li>Ready-to-use and documented resources </li></ul><ul><li>Community of experts </li></ul><ul><li>Sharing of experiments and know how </li></ul>

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Local client: Taverna Workbench <ul><li>Background: </li></ul><ul><li>BioSciences </li></ul><ul><li>Developed and maintained by myGrid, UK </li></ul><ul><li>Open source </li></ul><ul><li>GUI for design and execution of web services & workflows </li></ul>

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Remote client: Portal <ul><li>SOAP/REST API </li></ul><ul><li>Remote execution of web services & workflows </li></ul>

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Results Repository <ul><li>Custom service for IMPACT: </li></ul><ul><li>automatic storage of </li></ul><ul><li>workflow outputs and </li></ul><ul><li>provenance via WebDAV </li></ul><ul><li>Fully interoperable, </li></ul><ul><li>since HTTP-based </li></ul><ul><li>Configurable s torage of </li></ul><ul><li>result sets </li></ul><ul><li>Create reports using POI </li></ul>

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Scalability <ul><li>Central ESB proxy manages multiple service copies </li></ul><ul><li>Process parallelization, Load distribution, Fail over, Security </li></ul><ul><li>Served >2M requests </li></ul><ul><li>Throughput improvements of 94% with every additional instance </li></ul><ul><li>Tested on Dutch Supercomputing Cloud (“Enlighten Your Research”) </li></ul>

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Outlook <ul><li>Online service for testing/evaluation </li></ul><ul><li>Specification & Guidelines </li></ul><ul><li>Extending the scope: Workflows for linguistic analysis: CLARIN Workflows for preservation: SCAPE </li></ul><ul><li>Even better scalability: Map/Reduce </li></ul><ul><li>Supported by a community of developers & practitioners </li></ul>

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<ul><li>“ Anyway, the thing about progress is that is always seems greater than it really is.” </li></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations (quoting Johann Nestroy) </li></ul></ul></ul>xkcd.com/688