3 rd October 2007 EGEE’07 Conference Budapest Franco Zoppi (CNR-ISTI, Italy)

Bringing Europe’s eLectronic Infrastructures to Expanding Frontiers

BELIEFBringing Europe’s eLectronic Infrastructures to Expanding Frontiers

The Project & the Digital Library

3rd October 2007EGEE’07 Conference

Budapest

Franco Zoppi (CNR-ISTI, Italy)[email protected]

EGEE’07 Conference – 1°-5° October 2007, Budapest 2


Contents

• BELIEF in brief• BELIEF & EELA• BELIEF knowledge repository: the DL

– Accessing the DL– The Information Sources– Components, Functionalities and Services

• Future actions• Conclusions



BELIEF in brief – The Project

• BELIEF is founded by the European Commission DG INFSO Research Infrastructure Unit

• BELIEF:– Is a One-stop-shop for finding about eInfrastructures– Is a common dissemination channel for

eInfrastructures projects– Brings together eInfrastructures users & providers,

research and business– Promotes the use of eInfrastructures for new

applications and regions



BELIEF in brief – The Partners

Greece:University of Athens

Ireland: Engitech

USA: University

of Wisconsin

India: ERNET

Italy:CNR ISTI;

Metaware SpA (co-ordinator)

Brazil:Universidade De São Paulo



BELIEF in brief – Key concepts

Digital Library:store, search, access, maintain and preserve Research Infrastructure knowledge

Conferences:understand eInfrastructures in emerging economies (Latin America & India)

Brainstormings:new applications & technology reports

Joint communications:eInfrastructures guide & DVD

Portal:communication & networking platform

Research-Industry: Networking & Synergies(Research-Industry handbook on opportunities for business in context of eInfrastructures)



BELIEF in brief – The BELIEF Worldwide Community

• BELIEF & other RI FP6 Projects (See: http://cordis.europa.eu/ist/rn/ri-cnd/projects.htm)

– LoSs and/or MoUs signed with 55 of them for dissemination and documentation harvesting for DL feeding

– Over 400 Community Members registered on the website from different regions and sectors:

• 50% EU Projects & Research; 20% Business; 15% Gov• 60% Europe; 30% India; 15% Latin America

– Specific synergies with DILIGENT (DIgital Library Infrastructure on Grid ENabled Technology) and DRIVER (Digital Repository Infrastructure Vision for European Research)

• Reuse of their products (e.g. DLMS modules, Data harmonization, etc.)• Feedback to them, acting as a “User Community”



BELIEF in brief - Events

Brainstorming 3: Dublin – Business

Applications

Brainstorming 2: CERN -

Biomedical Informatics

Brainstorm 1: Linz -

Knowledge Infrastructures

International Conference 1:

New DelhiInternational

Conference 2: Rio de Janeiro

Brainstorming 4: Rome

Networking 1: Helsinki

Networking 2: Hamburg



BELIEF in brief – Events outputs

Report on Business

Applications

Report on Biomedical Informatics

Report on Scientific

Repositories

Report on Indian eInfrastructures

Priorities

Report on Latin American eInfrastructures

Priorities

Report on Cultural Heritage

Research & Industry

Handbook-II

Research & Industry

Handbook-I



BELIEF in brief – The Portal



BELIEF in brief – DL growth at a glance

PLANNED vs. ACTUAL

1st year 2nd year 1st year 2nd year (month 21 out of 26)

Sources 8 30 14 35

Collections 15 40 27 48

Documents 2.000 6.000 3.000 12.500



BELIEF & EGEE-EELA

• Signed a LoS and a MoU with BELIEF to collaborate with the BELIEF partners in the setup of a Digital Library integrating EGEE and EELA documentation together with other relevant projects, initiatives and organizations.

• The collaboration led to:– Organize joint events (Rio Conference with

EELA)– Include in the BELIEF DL EGEE and EELA

metadata and documents from INDICO, EDMS and Training Library



EELA in the BELIEF Digital Library



DL Access

To submit documents, contact [email protected],

To start browsing and searching, just go to

www.beliefproject.org and access the DL there



DL Access

Browse by document type, project, etc…

e.g. by Projects…



DL Access

…then by document type



DL Access…or Search by any metadata value…

e.g. « Any field contains 6DISS »

Field + Operator + Text



DL Access

…then access the result set



• Release 1 (M6 - April 2006)– CONDOR– DANTE with:

• ALICE• EUMEDCONNECT• GEANT, GEANT2• TEIN2

– DILIGENT– eConcertation– EGEE– SEE-GRID

• Release 2 (M12 - October 2006)– BioinfoGRID– DRIVER– e-IRGSP– EUChinaGRID– EUMEDGRID– Grid@Asia– ISSeG

• Release 3 (M18 - April 2007)– 6DISS– EELA– ETICS– EUIndiaGRID– EuQoS– GridCC– ICEAGE– int.eu.grid– LOBSTER– MUPBED– Research Infrastructure Unit– SEE-GRID2and– AIM@SHAPE– DELOS– iSGTW

DL Information Sources



• Automatic Harvesting– EELA– EGEE– DANTE with:

• ALICE• EUMEDCONNECT• GEANT, GEANT2• TEIN2

– DILIGENT– ETICS– ICEAGE– iSGTW– SEE-GRID, SEE-GRID2– SEEREN2

• Batch submission via XML Schema

– EuQoS– AIM@SHAPE– MUPBED

• Native integration– DELOS– DILIGENT

• On-line submission– 6DISS– BioinfoGRID– eConcertation– CONDOR– DRIVER– e-IRGSP– EUChinaGRID– EUIndiaGRID– EUMEDGRID– Grid@Asia– GridCC– int.eu.grid– ISSeG– LOBSTER– Research Infrastructure Unit

DL Harvesting & Feeding Modes



• Standard protocols and formats– OAI-PMH– XML, RSS– DC, DCQ, MARC, UNIMARC, MARC21

• Proprietary programmatic interfaces– CDSware APIs– EDMS APIs– FEDORA APIs

• Repository sharing (DELOS, DILIGENT)

DL Harvesting & Feeding Modes



• Created using the OpenDLib DLMS (Digital Library Management System)– A Scholnet project outcome (http://

www.ercim.org/scholnet/) – Engineered up to product level

(http://www.opendlib.com/)

• Customized to cope with requirements and suggestions from both:– Consumers & Providers– BELIEF Portal

DL – The OpenDLib DLMS



• Information Contents – Feeding (via harvesting or submission)– Creation (acting as an authoring system)– Discovery (via browse and search)– Management (of metadata, documents and manifestations)

• Information Space– Personalization (creation of collections)

• DL Management– Metadata definition– Document Models implementation

• User Access– Via graphical user interface for end-users– Via API (relying on OpenDLib Toolkit) for programmers

DL Functionalities



• DL Hosting Service– For projects which want to delegate maintenance of their documentation to

BELIEF.– BELIEF supplies a web-based interface for the submission of documents to

directly feed the DL.– The submission interface makes use of customizable submission models

provided by BELIEF.

• DL Extended Access Service– For projects which want to maintain full control on their documentation.– Rules and tools to periodically harvest new documents and feed the DL are

agreed with the projects.– Tools for interfacing the DL with any agreed standard supported by projects

are implemented by BELIEF and run by the same on a regular basis.

Note: In both cases projects will supply to BELIEF the metadata of their documents so that the DL can archive and retrieve them in an effective way.

DL Services



BELIEF Future Actions and Proposals

• DL related– Expansion of the number of served projects, and consistent growth in

terms of number of collections and documents.– Addition of new end-user services (e.g. Sub-Community Service,

Provision Service, creation of event agendas and collection of the associated event documentation, peer-review support, Wiki, preservation, etc.).

– Extension of the number of managed document types (e.g. video streaming, multimedia compound documents, etc.).

– Enhancement of the interfaces towards the rest of the world (e.g. Open Access to the DL Repository, Plug-and-play Search, etc.).

• Portal related– eConcertation (organize, host & manage events, material & follow-up)– Smart Event Calendar– etc.



• User side functionality– Create a “close” Sub-Community within the BELIEF Community

for a particular “Project X”.– Use the BELIEF DL as a document repository or as a real

Content Management System accessible by that Sub-Community only.

• BELIEF side functionality– BELIEF DL performs the underlying processes of structures

creation and functions & security management (by means of the DLMS functions).

– Document Models are implemented to cope with users’ needs in terms of managed metadata and document structure.

An example: New Sub-Community Service



• DL Provision Service

– For projects which want to setup and maintain their own Digital Library.

– Feasibility study for DL deployment (hw + sw).– Provide, install, configure the DL sw.– Training of projects’ technicians on DL developing

and managing issues.– Training of projects’ contents managers on DL

Information Space design and maintenance issues.– Support for the startup phase.

An example: New DL Provision Service



Conclusions

• Get involved with BELIEF– Register with the Portal – Access the BELIFF DL & Portal to find out

about eInfrastructures– Contact the DL for our content management

services – Disseminate your project documents & events

on our Digital Library & Portal– Send us your success stories for dissemination



[email protected]

http://beliefproject.org/

Related ProjectsDILIGENT

http://diligentproject.org/DRIVER

http://www.driver-repository.eu/



Miscellaneous



BELIEF in brief – Relevant themes

• BELIEF & (Repository) Networking (a list of themes

we are involved in):– From an organisational point of view

• International communication forum• Policies of cooperation

– From a technical point of view• Data harmonization• Policies for technical interoperability



BELIEF in brief – Events outputs

• Published reports– Scientific Repositories & Future Knowledge

Infrastructures– Biomedical Informatics

• Reports to be published– Business Applications– Cultural Heritage

• Research-Industry Handbook– Research-Industry handbook on opportunities

for business in context of eInfrastructures



• Bridging Consumers– Analyze and homogenize different attitudes in looking at Information

Sources (managers, technicians, librarians, …)Interviews & focused deepenings Portal & DL User Profiling

• Bridging Providers– Analyze and homogenize different semantics given to the

Information Sources (metadata, document types, …)Interviews & focused deepenings Repositories Integration

& DL Information Space

Personalization

DL - Creating the conceptual environment and the momentum (1/3)



• Finalizing MoUs– Suggesting what, why, which way has to be done to

reach an effective information disseminationFocused deepenings MoU(55 MoUs and/or LoSs up to now)

– Suggesting why and how proper use of metadata is a mean to obtain the aboveFocused deepenings MoU Technical Annex(formalizing number, type and semantics of metadata to be used)




• Benefit from:– Widening audience for Projects’ results– Preservation of Projects’ public materials– Giving consumers a conceptually organized Information

Space, based on both the System-defined and the User-definable Virtual Collections




• Quality of metadata

– Adoption of a common metadata description format or at least a “metadata etiquette” to foster common understanding of the “semantics” of the documents and proper classification.

• Quality of public/shed documents

– Adoption of adequate policies to avoid “inappropriate” publication of documents: both low quality documents (incomplete or hyper-draft) and awkward ones (management/economic reserved data).

DL - Suggestions from Lesson Learned



Conclusions

• What BELIEF offers:– A tactical advantage

• For information providers (diffusion and preservation)

• For information consumers (conceptually organized, homogeneous and easy access to different sources, VDL on-demand)

– A strategic advantage• Seamless integration in the “European

mainstream” via DRIVER(Digital Repository Infrastructure Vision for European Research)



• Information SourcesThe term Information Source is used to mean metadata and (multimedia) documents related to/produced by an Entity (Projects, Organizations and Initiatives).

• Information ContentsThe whole set of metadata & documents of a DL; not yet structured/organized.

• Information SpaceThe collections of (metadata+documents) a user can access; i.e. the logical & rights-controlled organization of the Information Contents.

• CollectionA set of (metadata+documents) characterized by a common semantics.

Concepts (1/4)



• DL (Digital Library)

A (potentially virtual) organization that comprehensively collects, manages, and preserves for the long term rich digital content and offers to its user communities specialized functionality on that content, of measurable quality, and according to prescribed policies.

• DLS (Digital Library System)

A software system that is based on a (potentially distributed) architecture and provides all functionality that is required by a particular Digital Library. When operating in a Digital Library environment, users interact with the corresponding Digital Library System.

Concepts (2/4)



• DLMS (Digital Library Management System)

A generic software system that incorporates all functionality that is considered foundational for Digital Libraries and provides the appropriate software infrastructure to both produce a basic Digital Library System and integrate additional software offering more refined, specialized, or advanced functionality.

An intrinsic part of a DLMS is a “Digital Library Administrative Tool” that is used to choose the appropriate subset of its functionality, e.g., through relevant parameters of its components, and then (potentially (semi-)automatically) install, deploy, and (re)configure a Digital Library System.

Concepts (3/4)



• OpenDLib is a…

– Digital Library System Generator“A highly parameterized software system that encapsulates templates for a broad range of functionality, which includes all basic/foundational as well as any advanced functionality that has been deemed appropriate. Through an initialization session, the appropriate parameters are set and tuned; at the end of that session, software is automatically generated that constitutes essentially a Digital Library System ready to be installed and deployed.”

– Extensible Digital Library System“A complete Digital Library System that is fully operational with respect to basic/ foundational functionality required. It is based on an open software architecture, so that further software components can be incorporated on top of the ones already there with ease”.

Concepts (4/4)