PwC SCHEMAS Forum for metadata schema implementers The SCHEMAS project and metadata ETB Workshop, London, 9-10 January 2001 Michael Day,

ETB Workshop, London, 9-10 January Contents Project overview –Audience, needs, SCHEMAS project offerings, some results to date The SCHEMAS metadata registry –Objectives, approaches, implementation and functions Application profiles –Some definitions

ETB Workshop, London, 9-10 January Partners PricewaterhouseCoopers Technology Consultants (PwC) German National Research Centre for Information Technology (GMD) UK Office for Library and Information Networking, University of Bath (UKOLN)

ETB Workshop, London, 9-10 January Audience Who? –Metadata schema designers –Projects under the EUs IST programme (Multimedia Content and Tools) and national initiatives What for? –Information, guidance and tools for the description of Web resources of all kinds –Helping designers to use what is already there

ETB Workshop, London, 9-10 January Domains Industry Publishing and rights management Audio-visual production and distribution Cultural heritage Education Research Academic services Geospatial information Other (e.g. Government) Not just Dublin Core No best way of doing things

ETB Workshop, London, 9-10 January Needs General need for: –Standard methods for content description –Multiplicity of schemas, mixing and matching general and specific sets But: –There is some duplication of effort, competition between standards and schemas –Potential confusion for implementers

ETB Workshop, London, 9-10 January Re-use Why re-use existing schemas? –Not re-inventing wheels –Potential use of standard tools –Higher potential interoperability End result: –Reduction of cost, now and in the future –Enlarging the potential audience –Interoperability

ETB Workshop, London, 9-10 January The information gap Metadata schemas already identified: –Over 200 implementation activities –Around 90 standardisation activities –Very different levels of information Conclusions: –Good information about schemas is badly needed –Need for mutual understanding, hopefully leading to harmonisation

ETB Workshop, London, 9-10 January SCHEMAS provides... Information provision –Metadata Watch Reports –Standards Framework Reports –Guidance material Workshops Registry implementation –Schemas, application profiles, people, projects, standards, tools, guidelines

ETB Workshop, London, 9-10 January SCHEMAS results First Workshop (Bath, June 2000) - report Metadata Watch Reports: #1 (July 2000), #2 (September 2000), #3 (November 2000) Standards Framework Report: #1 (Sept. 2000) Second Workshop (Bonn, November 2000)

ETB Workshop, London, 9-10 January SCHEMAS Registry Experience with prototype registry developed by DESIRE II project The registry is the place to publish metadata schemas: –namespace schemas –application profile schemas As well as other information about schemas, e.g.: –standards, projects, people, tools, etc.

ETB Workshop, London, 9-10 January Thick registry Thick Registry Namespace schema App profile Sample data Mapping Usage guide Software tools Users

ETB Workshop, London, 9-10 January Thin registry Thin Registry Namespace schema App profile Sample data Mapping Usage guide Software toolsUsers

ETB Workshop, London, 9-10 January Registry approach The SCHEMAS registry will be: –a thick registry initially, with schemas registered at a central location –develop into a thin registry in the future, with pointers to schemas on the Web The technical basis will be: –RDF Schemas –EOR toolkit

ETB Workshop, London, 9-10 January EOR Toolkit

ETB Workshop, London, 9-10 January Registry functions Registration –schemas from European projects and initiatives –information and reviews from SCHEMAS domain correspondents Searching –Finding application profiles for re-use –Finding information and guidance

ETB Workshop, London, 9-10 January Application profiles What is an application profile? –a schema identifying the use of elements from one or more namespaces in a particular application, with additional constraints What is it used for? –To publish this information for a human audience –To help software configure

ETB Workshop, London, 9-10 January Profile process Common steps in defining profile –identify requirements for descriptive elements –find appropriate standard –link required elements to standard elements where possible –define remaining elements and/or qualifiers in private namespace –link remaining elements

ETB Workshop, London, 9-10 January Contacts Makx Dekkers Rachel Heery Tom Baker Web site:

PwC

ETB Workshop, London, 9-10 January Acknowledgements Based on a presentation given by Makx Dekkers (PricewaterhouseCoopers) at the MALVINE and LEAF conference: Gateways to Europes Cultural Heritage, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, 4-5 December