This document discusses an integrated approach used by NOAA to improve metadata documentation through wikis, rubrics, views, and connections. The approach centers around a community-maintained wiki that provides guidance on metadata best practices. Rubrics evaluate metadata completeness using spirals (concepts) aligned with standards. Views and connections integrate related documentation across multiple standards in a consistent, navigable way. The integrated approach provides a standardized tool for evaluating and improving metadata documentation.
Wikis, Rubrics and Views: An Integrated Approach to Improving Documentation
1. Wikis, Rubrics, Views and Connections: An Integrated
Approach to Improving Documentation
Ted Habermann, The HDF Group
Anna Milan, NOAA/NESDIS/NGDC
Wiki
Wiki
Rubrics
Web Accessible Folder
Views
Connections
Web Accessible Folder
Portals
2. The Data Management Wiki
Wiki
Wiki
The NOAA Data Management
wiki is a community
knowledge resource
developed and maintained by
a small group in NOAA and
available to all.
It is the heart of the tools.
https://geo-ide.noaa.gov/wiki
4. Wiki Pages
Discussion
• Explanation, guidance, rationale, exam
ples
• Developed first – organic evolution in
response to community needs
Class / Element
• Structure, order, alternatives
• Came later for specific support of
metadata editing
5. Wiki Pages
Discussion
• Explanation, guidance, rationale, exam
ples
• Developed first – organic evolution in
response to community needs
Class / Element
• Structure, order, alternatives
• Came later for specific support of
metadata editing Training
• Part of structured paths through wiki
content
7. Wiki Navigation
Categories
• Automatic mediaWiki Capability
• Many-to-Many, Sub-Categories
Categories as “Home Pages”
• Automatic page lists
• Simplifies navigation and maintenance
8. Wiki Navigation
Categories
• Automatic mediaWiki Capability
• Many-to-Many, Sub-Categories
Categories as “Home Pages”
• Automatic page lists
• Simplifies navigation and maintenance
ISO Explorer
• Consistent presentation (templates)
• Follows structure of standard
13. Metadata Evaluation
• Requires conventions or model that can be
used for evaluation (a set of suggested fields
and practices)
• Oriented towards use cases (text
search, spatial/temporal search, lineage, …)
• Evaluates completeness, not quality
• Designated Community Representatives
(OAIS) = gold standard
14. Rubrics are made of Spirals made of Fields
Rubric
Spiral
Field
Field
Spiral
Field
Field
Wiki
Wiki
Field
Field
15. Spiral = Concepts To Address Documentation Need
Opportunities for improvement
21. An Integrated Approach to Improving
Documentation
Wiki
Wiki
Rubrics
Web Accessible Folder
Views
Connections
Web Accessible Folder
Portals
Editor's Notes
NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center has developed and implemented an approach to improving documentation that integrates wikis, rubrics, and metadata views into a connected system. The tools are designed to help metadata managers improve their documentation. They are independent of the portals that end-users use to discover and access the metadata.The leader of this effort, Ted Habermann, has since left NOAA to join the HDF Group. He can be contacted at thabermann@hdfgroup.org.
The heart of the system is a community knowledge resource implemented using MediaWiki.
The wiki contains three types of pages:1) Discussion pages give detailed explanations of documentation elements, describe practices and rational for those practices, and include examples.Links:https://geo-ide.noaa.gov/wiki/index.php?title=ISO_Extentshttps://geo-ide.noaa.gov/wiki/index.php?title=Category:ISO_Building_Blockshttps://geo-ide.noaa.gov/wiki/index.php?title=MD_DataIdentification
The wiki contains three types of pages:1) Discussion pages give detailed explanations of documentation elements, describe practices and rational for those practices, and include examples.2) The ISO Explorer provides access in a structure that mimics the structure of the ISO metadata standards.Links:https://geo-ide.noaa.gov/wiki/index.php?title=ISO_Extentshttps://geo-ide.noaa.gov/wiki/index.php?title=Category:ISO_Building_Blockshttps://geo-ide.noaa.gov/wiki/index.php?title=MD_DataIdentification
The wiki contains three types of pages:1) Discussion pages give detailed explanations of documentation elements, describe practices and rational for those practices, and include examples.2) The ISO Explorer provides access in a structure that mimics the structure of the ISO metadata standards.3) The wiki format is like an encyclopedia in that it does not easily support structured paths through the content. Nevertheless, an attempt was made to create structured training content.Links:https://geo-ide.noaa.gov/wiki/index.php?title=ISO_Extentshttps://geo-ide.noaa.gov/wiki/index.php?title=Category:ISO_Building_Blockshttps://geo-ide.noaa.gov/wiki/index.php?title=MD_DataIdentification
The wiki features several navigation models:Categories are used to group and provide access to related contenthttps://geo-ide.noaa.gov/wiki/index.php?title=Category:ISO_19115https://geo-ide.noaa.gov/wiki/index.php?title=MI_Metadata
The wiki features several navigation models:Categories are used to group and provide access to related contentUsing category pages as “Home Pages” for groups provides automatic collection of and access to related content https://geo-ide.noaa.gov/wiki/index.php?title=Category:ISO_19115https://geo-ide.noaa.gov/wiki/index.php?title=MI_Metadata
The wiki features several navigation models:Categories are used to group and provide access to related contentUsing category pages as “Home Pages” for groups provides automatic collection of and access to related content The ISO Explorer pages provide access that mimics the structure of the ISO metadata standards. This simplifies access during the metadata editing process.https://geo-ide.noaa.gov/wiki/index.php?title=Category:ISO_19115https://geo-ide.noaa.gov/wiki/index.php?title=MI_Metadatahttps://geo-ide.noaa.gov/wiki/index.php?title=Category:ISO_19115https://geo-ide.noaa.gov/wiki/index.php?title=MI_Metadata
This plot shows the time history of content creation during the first seven years of the wiki. Activity continued throughout this period.
This plot shows the time history of content updates during the first seven years of the wiki. Activity continued throughout this period indicating that content was not becoming stale.
Collections of related records generally from a single program are served using web accessible folders. These folders provide many links for each record.http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/metadata/published/NOAA/IOOS/iso/
The Guide View is an HTML view of the record with the structure of the XML that provides links to related wiki pages.http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nmmrview/metadata.jsp?xml=NOAA/IOOS/iso/xml/AOOS_SOS_1.xml&view=xml2text/xml-to-text-ISO&altview=none
The system supports flexible metadata evaluation.
Documentation needs are common across many scientific disciplines and data types. Spirals address these needs outside of the context of a particular discipline or data type. Each spiral includes a number of items and these items can usually be expressed using multiple standards. We choose to emphasize commonality between these standards by calling them dialects.
This slide shows the elements in the Connection Spiral. Green boxes indicate fields that are present (successes), red boxes indicate missing fields (opportunities for improvement). The connectionelements are used to connect web resources to the metadata record. The ISO Standard allows metadata managers to add information that helps users understand and use online resources. The spiral requires functions, names, and descriptions for each online resource in order to be considered complete.
This slide shows the elements in the Connection Spiral. These elements are used to connect web resources to the metadata record. The ISO Standard allows metadata managers to add information that helps users understand and use online resources. The spiral requires functions, names, and descriptions for each online resource in order to be considered complete.The output of the rubric includes links to the wiki that support the metadata manager and, equally important, allow the community to share experiences, lessons learned, and examples.
The wiki pages provide helpful explanatory content using categories
And can show connections between similar concepts in multiple metadata standards. For example, how are people documented in a variety of standards.
The complete system includes wiki pages, rubrics, HTML views of the metadata, connections between different standards, and web accessible folders that help metadata managers create high-quality metadata to be used by users to understand the data they discover through portals.