A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM) 1 Jonathan M. Borwein, Mason S. Macklem and Jaehyun Paek, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada

A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM) 2 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

A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM) 3 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

A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM) 4 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 Internet

A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM) 5 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

A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM) 6 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! FWDM User Interface Members User

A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM) 7 FWDM Prototype Two versions: simple advanced search Simple: First and Last Name, University, Country Includes: AMS Combined Membership List, and membership lists for Australia, Canada, France, and Germany

A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM) 8 Sample approach: CMS

A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM) 9 Merging Results: CML and CMS

A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM) 10 NCMS, DMV, SMF

A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM) 11 Adding Search Engines First and Last Name searchable and separable

A Prototype for the Federated World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM) 12 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 (includes documentation on history and future of FWDM)