JISC CETIS Conference, Oxford, November 2004

Repositories: State of ELF

“volunteer”:

Martin MorreyIntrallect Ltd

JISC CETIS Conference, Oxford, November 2004

Context

• Repositories span multiple frameworks, architectures & domains

• Repository interoperability research and development has been ongoing for many years • digital library sector

• Not just ELF

JISC CETIS Conference, Oxford, November 2004

IMS DRI

JISC CETIS Conference, Oxford, November 2004

JISC Information Environment

JISC CETIS Conference, Oxford, November 2004

Repository interfaces (Intrallect)

VLE

LibrarySystem

RepositoryIMS MD

IEEE LOMODRL

IMS DRI (WS)

SRU/SRW Z39.50

OAI PMH

AuthoringTool

IMS CP

WebDav

UserIDsUser

IDsUserInfo LDAP…

Por

tal

Portlets (JSR 168)

WWW

URL

API

SMTP

RSS

JISC CETIS Conference, Oxford, November 2004

ARROW

JISC CETIS Conference, Oxford, November 2004

CORDRA

JISC CETIS Conference, Oxford, November 2004

JISC CETIS Conference, Oxford, November 2004

Repositories Domain Map

Embedded Metadata

[Metadata in, e.g. content packages]

Metadata Quality

Expose

Archive

Federation

Search

Deliver

Destroy

Harvest

Cross search

RepositoriesResource

collections + Metadata

Submit

Access Management

Rights Management

Annotate / rate / review

Dis/aggregateEmbedding in

learning environments

Metadata Creation

Vocabularies, thesauri,

ontologies

JISC CETIS Conference, Oxford, November 2004

JORUM

Embedded Metadata

[Metadata in, e.g. content packages]

Metadata Quality

Expose

Archive

Federation

Search

Deliver

Destroy

Harvest

Cross search

RepositoriesResource

collections + Metadata

Submit

Access Management

Rights Management

Annotate / rate / review

Dis/aggregateEmbedding in

learning environments

Metadata Creation

Vocabularies, thesauri,

ontologies

JISC CETIS Conference, Oxford, November 2004

D+ (University of Edinburgh)

Access Management

(ATHENS)

Deliver

Search

Cross search

RepositoriesResource collections +

Metadata

Federation

Expose

Metadata Creation

JISC CETIS Conference, Oxford, November 2004

DELTA (University of Essex)

Metadata Quality

Expose

Archive

Federation

Rights ManagementSearch

Metadata Creation

Deliver

Destroy

Harvest

Embedded Metadata[Metadata in, e.g. content packages]

Submit

Embedding in learning environments Access

ManagementCross search

RepositoriesResource collections +

Metadata

JISC CETIS Conference, Oxford, November 2004

Initiatives mapped to ELF

• JORUM• IE MSR• SURF X4L• COSE• HLSI• Norway

• D+• MDC• DELTA• Intrallect

JISC CETIS Conference, Oxford, November 2004

Project Activity related to JISC ELF

Sample User Agents

Learning Domain Services

Common Services

Institutional Infrastructures (TCP/IP etc.)

JISC CETIS Conference, Oxford, November 2004

Common Services

Harvesting

Resolver

Logging

Workflow

Mapping

Messaging

Content management

Rating / Annotation

Chat

Person

Calendaring

Alert

AV conferencing

E-mail management

DRM

Identifier

Search

Presence

Authentication

Packaging

Terminology

Federated search

Role

Metadata management

Whiteboard

Context

Scheduling

Metadata service registry

Filing

Service registry

Rules

Authorisation

Archiving

User preferences

Group

Member

Format conversion

Forum

JISC CETIS Conference, Oxford, November 2004

Learning Domain Services

Reporting

Resource list

Competency

Activity author

Course validation

Sequencing

Tracking

Assessment

ePortfolio

Marking

Quality assurance

Activity management

Grading

Learning flow

Curriculum

Personal development

Course management

JISC CETIS Conference, Oxford, November 2004

Sample User Agents

Library system

Marking tool

VLE / LMS

Timetabling

ePortfolio

Portal

Authoring applications

Learning flow

Enrollment portlet

JISC CETIS Conference, Oxford, November 2004

State of ELF

• Technology is rapidly maturing• Relatively robust• Starting to see real-world

implementation• Demonstrable cross-searching• Move to federated searching• “Technology is not a problem, we are

getting there”

JISC CETIS Conference, Oxford, November 2004

Technical Issues• Identifiers (deciding)• Rights Management• Metadata• Automated creation• Distributed metadata creation• Decoupling metadata and content

• Relevancy in searches• Performance of distributed search

JISC CETIS Conference, Oxford, November 2004

ELF Warning

• “Federated repository implementations failed in the past because the technology was immature. The technology is now maturing, but the business and governance issues will kill us.” - Dan Rehak

JISC CETIS Conference, Oxford, November 2004

ELF Needs & Problems• “Seamless” integration to the real world• Embedding repositories in everyday practice• Managing the business process• Institutional policy• Understanding & enabling workflows (how to

manage “stuff”)

• Motivation to contribute• Staff development • Technical policies of institutions impede

interoperability e.g. Security

JISC CETIS Conference, Oxford, November 2004

ELF Advice (to JISC)• Lobby institutions to be more open with resources• Address governance issues• Identifiers, DRM infrastructure

• Support training and staff development• “Teach teachers how to search”

• Look at applicable technologies from other areas (libraries, grid)

• “Don’t always look for technical solutions”• Look at presentation of information• More prototyping, mock-ups and usability work

JISC CETIS Conference, Oxford, November 2004

More ELF Advice• Define a common language to discuss

repositories i.e. What do we mean by • “repository”• “content”

• Look for commonality across representations (of frameworks)

• Drivers to promote practice• cf motivation of open source

• Focus on identifying user needs