Robert Sharpe, Tessella PRELIDA Workshop 2013 ENSURE Linked Data Registry

Agenda Archives, libraries and representation information Previous “technical registries”: –Potted History –Issues ENSURE linked data technical registry: –What’s different? –Why we hope it should succeed? Conclusions and feedback…

Archives, libraries & representation information Hold descriptive / cataloguing information for centuries: –Helps determine context and makes things unambiguous: –E.g., census records Frequency, type of information Professions Parish boundaries –Includes references to other sources / archives A “representation information network” of “linked data” With advent of digital material: –Need information on formats, rendering software etc. –Look to add “Technical Registry”

Technical Registries: Potted History 1/2 PRONOM: –Started in 2001 –On-line from 2005 –“File format registry” –In fact, holds more… Planets Core Registry (2008) –Holds even more entities Both: –Database–based –Web-based GUI Issues: –Partially populated –Hard to add new entities –Hard to synchronise

Technical Registries: Potted History 2/2 Move to linked data: –Linked Data PRONOM –UDFR –… Issues: –Partially populated –Hard to add new entities –Partial projects: enough to be used? –Hard for people to query: SPARQL but not via simple GUI –Complex provenance

What’s different? ENSURE Linked Data Technical Registry: –Less entities: more population: Expand later –Start with synchronise issue –Good querying and user interface: Human Search / Browse Human View / Edit –Simple view of provenance –Long term commitment: Will integrate with SDB/Preservica 20+ organisations will use it

Data Model Keep it simple: –Things actually used –Things actually populated –Add more if and when needed Format: –ID, Name, Version, Description –Release Date, Withdrawn Date –Internal Signature, External Signature –Relationships Not: –Assessments, Risk scores –Documents, Reference files, Agents –Intellectual Property –Technical Environments –XCDL, XCEL –Types, Faceting –Complex provenance

Islands of Information / Synchronise

Allow view / edit Needs to be simple and user friendly Not clear it can then expand with model w/o effort?

Provenance Blocks of information: –Format, Software, Property, Pathway Who made change to format, when and based on what info? Need provenance of block not each item –Store every change: Rollback Diff In fact makes synchronise easy: –Receive update and detect change

Conclusions Simple, Usable Synchronised (as needed) Provenance held (simply) Expandable (with limited but not zero effort) Being built now Should be complete by December Will be integrated to working repository and thus used Will need to iterate from there… Comments and ideas welcome