Metadata plays an increasingly central role as a tool enabling the large-scale, distributed management of resources. However, metadata communities which have traditionally worked in relative isolation have struggled to make their specifications interoperate with others in the shared web environment. This webinar explores how metadata standards with significantly different characteristics can productively coexist and how previously isolated metadata communities can work towards harmonization. The webinar presents a solution-oriented analysis of current issues in metadata harmonization with a focus on specifications of importance to the learning technology and library environments, notably Dublin Core, IEEE Learning Object Metadata, and W3C's Resource Description Framework. Providing concrete illustrations of harmonization problems and a roadmap for designing metadata for maximum interoperability, this webinar will provide a bird's-eye perspective on the respective roles of metadata syntaxes, formats, semantics, abstract models, vocabularies, and application profiles in achieving metadata harmonization.

1. niso.org
dublincore.org
NISO/DCMI
Webinar
Metadata
Harmoniza.on:
Making
Standards
Work
Together
hFp://www.niso.org/news/events/2011/dcmi/metadata
2011-­‐03-­‐16
NISO/DCMI
Webinar:
introduc.on
1

2. Dublin
Core:
metadata
for
interoperability
• Objec.ves
of
work
on
Dublin
Core
metadata
– To
make
it
easier
to
find
informa.on
– To
offer
Dublin
Core
as
one
of
the
core
element
sets
(now:
metadata
vocabularies)
to
create
wide
interoperability
across
domains
and
applica.ons
– To
enable
mixing
and
matching
of
metadata
vocabularies
through
Applica.on
Profiles
2011-­‐03-­‐16
NISO/DCMI
Webinar:
introduc.on
2

3. Rich
landscape
of
metadata
specifica.ons
• Dublin
Core
as
a
basic
set
of
metadata
terms
for
cross-­‐domain
interoperability
• Many
domain-­‐specific
sets
of
terms,
e.g.
– MODS
(libraries)
– LOM
Learning
Object
Metadata
(educa.on)
– ISO19115
(geographic
informa.on)
– Etc.
etc.
etc.
2011-­‐03-­‐16
NISO/DCMI
Webinar:
introduc.on
3

4. Cross-­‐specifica.on
interoperability
• Need
to
look
at
issues
across
specifica.ons
• For
example:
– Different
models
(flat
vs.
hierarchical,
object-­‐centric
vs.
event-­‐centric
etc.)
– Different
technologies
(HTML,
XML,
RDF
etc.
)
– Different
objec.ves
(discovery,
management
etc.)
2011-­‐03-­‐16
NISO/DCMI
Webinar:
introduc.on
4

5. DCMI:
establish
co-­‐opera.on
• With
educa.on
community
– OFawa
Communiqué
“Harmonisa.on
of
Metadata
for
Educa.on
and
Training
Communi.es”,
August
2001
– DCMI/IEEE
LTSC
Taskforce
est.
2005
to
produce
a
joint
DCMI/IEEE
specifica.on
on
how
to
use
IEEE
LOM
elements
with
Dublin
Core
metadata
• With
others:
– DCMI/RDA
Task
Group,
DCMI/NKOS
Task
Group,
DCMI/
FOAF
collabora.on
2011-­‐03-­‐16
NISO/DCMI
Webinar:
introduc.on
5

6. This
Webinar
• Acknowledging
that
interoperability
across
specifica.ons
is
crucial
for
shared
Web
environment
• Looking
at
challenges
and
opportuni.es
based
on
experience
with
DCMI/IEEE
co-­‐opera.on
• Providing
concrete
illustra.ons
of
harmoniza.on
issues
and
a
roadmap
for
interoperable
design
2011-­‐03-­‐16
NISO/DCMI
Webinar:
introduc.on
6

7. The
speakers
• Tom
Baker
– Chief
Informa.on
Officer
at
DCMI
– Co-­‐chair
of
DCMI
Architecture
Forum
• Mikael
Nilsson
– Co-­‐chair
of
DCMI
Architecture
Forum
– Leader
of
DCMI/IEEE
LTSC
Taskforce
– Recent
disserta.on
on
this
very
subject
(KTH,
2010)
hFp://kmr.nada.kth.se/papers/Seman.cWeb/FromInteropToHarm-­‐MikaelsThesis.pdf
2011-­‐03-­‐16
NISO/DCMI
Webinar:
introduc.on
7

8. And
don’t
forget
Theme:
Metadata
Harmoniza=on:
Bridging
Languages
of
Descrip=on
hDp://purl.org/dcevents/dc-­‐2011
2011-­‐03-­‐16
NISO/DCMI
Webinar:
introduc.on
8