The Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)

A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)

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The Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)

Jonathan M. Borwein, Mason S. Macklem and Jaehyun Paek,Dalhousie University,

Halifax, Canada


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International Mathematical Union (IMU)

Non-governmental, non-profit ICSU organization

Focused on promoting and developing math research internationally

Organizes the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) every four years

Awards the Fields Medals Publishes the World Directory of

Mathematicians to coincide with the ICM


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World Directory of Mathematicians

Data collection is not performed directly by the IMU

Member nations provide their membership lists for inclusion in WDM

66 Member Nations Goal: Design electronic

version of WDM to replace physical version

WDM

Members Members

Members

Members


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Committee on Electronic Information and Communication

1998: IMU asked CEIC about feasibility of electronic version of WDM

Conclusion: A centralized database would be subject to intellectual property and privacy laws

Different laws for different nations

WDM

Members Members

Members

Members

Internet


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Federated World Directory of Mathematicians

Goal: Simulate electronic version of WDM without creating a centralized database

Federated search: any system that provides a common user interface for searching and retrieving information across heterogeneous datasets via the internet


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FWDM: Structure User requests information

from FWDM interface FWDM sends separate

requests to search engines for member nations

FWDM merges separate responses into single set of results

Returns merged results to user

No centralized database!

FWDMUser Interface

Members

Members

Members

Members

User


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FWDM Prototype

Includes: AMS Combined Membership List (CML), and membership lists for Australia, Canada, France, and Germany

http://www.fwdm.math.ca


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FWDM Basic Search

- Search parameters: - First Name - Last Name

- Two parameters comprise minimum requirements for inclusion of search engine into FWDM

- Most searches are on these two parameters

- Default version of FWDM

http://www.fwdm.math.ca/cgi-bin/search_sm.cgi


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FWDM Standard Search

- Search parameters: - First Name - Last Name- Employer/

University- Country

- Not all member search engines have the last two fields

http://www.fwdm.math.ca/cgi-bin/search.cgi


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FWDM Advanced Search- Includes fields for

every search parameter available on any included member search engine

- New fields include:- Research Interests- Position- Member society

http://www.fwdm.math.ca/cgi-bin/search_adv.cgi


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Structure of Search Results

- Individuals name, linked to all personal email addresses found in search

- Separate link for each society containing that individual- Links to every homepage found (currently shown as

numbered links when multiple are found)- Links to searches for each individual using Google and

Google Scholar - Google search performed using individual’s name and

“mathematics”


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Layout of Search Results

Search Results: individuals found in all databases

- Excludes individuals found only in the CML (to avoid overwhelming the results due to the size of the CML database) CML Only Results: contains results of individuals present only in the CML database

Search Results by Society: Groups the results by member-society database, with links to collected results on each society’s member database

- Identifies and links to societies that either return no results or timed out during the search

Google results: shows number of search results using all specified search parameters using both Google and Google Scholar, along with links to the results from each

Your Query: a copy of the version of the search interface, with specified parameters- Allows you to adjust your search by changing parameters and clicking “Search Again”- Also shows you what parameters you entered to get the results displayed above


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Sample Approach: CMS


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Merging Results: CML and CMS


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NCMS, DMV, SMF


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Member Databases: Recent Additions

EWDM: Electronic World Directory of Mathematicians


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Member Databases: Recent AdditionsOeMG (Austrian Mathematical Society)


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Member Databases: Recent AdditionsPDM (Portuguese Directory of Mathematicians)


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Adding Search Engines

First and Last Name searchable and separable


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Recent Additions Multiple threads:

Previous prototype performed the searches for all societies in sequence, with the search in the next society not started until the search in the previous society’s member list has completed

Length (in time) of search = sum of lengths of all member society’s searches

Current version employs multiple threads, so that all searches are performed in parallel

Length of search = longest length of member society’s search


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Recent Additions II Accented characters:

Previous active version was unable to deal effectively (and predictably) with accents, either when inputted into FWDM interface, or when returned from member database

New version now can robustly deal with accents in either setting Future work: add multiple searches in cases where accents are

present in user input, one search with accents intact and one with them removed

Necessary in case the member society does not have the accents present in their database

Multiple searches more feasible with the multithreaded version complete


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Next Steps Two goals for prototype:

Add more search engines for national societies Support increased number of users

Requirements for new search engines: First and Last Name are searchable fields

Interested in working with national societies

http://www.cs.dal.ca/ddrive/fwdm

(includes documentation on history and future of FWDM)

Documents

The Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM)