Building Tools and Services on the NDR Dean Krafft, Cornell University

Building Tools and Services on the Fedora-based NSDL Data Repository Structure of the talk:  NSDL 2.0 – the vision  The Fedora-based NSDL Data Repository (NDR)  Inspiring Contribution and Collaboration: ExpertVoices, OurNSDL, MyNSDL  Other NSDL 2.0 Services and Tools  Discussion: Using NDR Collaborative Tools to Build Pathways-focused Communities

The NSDL 2.0 Vision  Create an NSDL that guides not just resource discovery (with a one-way data flow: NSDL → Users), but instead  Supports creating “context” to guide resource selection and use  Presents resources in context: in a lesson plan; with ratings; correlated with education standards  Enables community tools for structuring, evaluation, annotation, contribution, and collaboration around the resources in the library  Goal: Create a dynamic, living library with a two- way data flow: NSDL ↔ users

Fedora: the NDR middleware  A Flexible, Extensible Digital Object Repository Architecture (  Open source project with $2.2 million in Mellon funding  Collaboration of Cornell and Univ. of Virginia  Key funded users include:  eSciDoc project (collaboration of the Max Planck Society and FIZ Karlsruhe)  VTLS Corp., Harris Corp., Library of Congress  Australian Research Repositories Online to the World (ARROW)  Royal Library Denmark, National Library, and DTU

What is Fedora?  An architecture, toolkit, and implementation: middleware, not a vertical application  DSpace in contrast: a vertical application with a fixed workflow targeted at users  Stores arbitrary internal and external digital objects, disseminations (transformations and combinations), relationships among objects  Entirely SOAP/REST based, disseminations are URLs  XML data store; RDBMS cache; RDF triplestore supports relationship queries

Implementing the NDR with Fedora  Multiple Object Types:  Resources (with local or remote content)  Metadata  Aggregations (collections)  Metadata Providers (branding)  Agents  Relationships with arbitrary graph queries:  Structural (part of)  Equivalence  Annotation

Draft NDR API Characteristics  Uses REST calls for all interactions; uses handles (DOIs) for all external references  Ensures external applications can’t violate the NDR model constraints  Disseminations allow combining metadata from multiple sources, or related content  Authentication: Requests signed with private key associated with an agent  Authorization: Agent can become a metadata provider or aggregator; can create resources  Documentation being developed at

NDR Architecture

An Information Network Overlay  Think of the NDR as a lens for viewing science content on the net  Content can be:  Local: stored directly in the NDR  Remote: accessed through a URL  Computed: derived from a database or web service  Archived: an older version stored at SDSC  It all has a repository-based URL

Network Overlay View User View API/UI Repository View with Relations & Annotations Resources on the Web

Status of the NDR  Two NDR instances up and running  Full production load (approx. 1.8 million resources)  Test server for NDR API external testing (small)  Test search interface to production load at nsdlib.org  Currently running MR and NDR ingest in parallel with MR as primary service  Planned switch to NDR as production service on October 1, 2006  Continue running MR in parallel (as backup) through December 2006

How should we use the NDR?  The NDR provides powerful capabilities for:  Creating context around resources  Enabling the NSDL community to directly contribute resources and context  Representing a web of relationships among science resources and information about those resources  How do we use it? Here’s one specific example …

ExpertVoices

What is Expert Voices?  A system using blogging technology to:  Support STEM conversations among scientists, teachers and students  Tie NSDL resources to real-world science news  Create context for resources to enhance discovery, selection and use  Enable NSDL community members to become NSDL contributors: of resources, questions, reviews, annotations, and metadata  Expert Voices ≠ LiveJournal  Contributors are carefully selected, contributions are about science, the process of science, and education

Expert Voices As An Educational Tool  Topic-based discussion (e.g. tsunamis) with pointers to related resources  Research outreach (Criterion 2) – explaining and documenting NSF-funded research  Experts can add resources with topical context to the NSDL  Resources can be reviewed and annotated  Question/answer and discussion forum: scientist ↔ teacher ↔ student ↔ librarian

Broadening Participation: An Expert Voices Learning Scenario  “Hurricane Season Blog” run by a National Weather Service hurricane expert, an Earth Science teacher, and a school media specialist familiar with NSDL resources  Expert creates an entry for Hurricane Gertrude  “On track to hit Ft. Lauderdale in 72 hours”  “Currently undergoing eyewall replacement cycle”  “Expecting 15 foot storm surge”  Media specialist adds links to NSDL resources: Hurricane Hunters site, latest satellite photos, and USGS flooding and flood plain site (storm surge context)  Teacher makes connections to relevant standards and appropriate pedagogy for use by other teachers  Students experience engaging real-time, real-world applications of science lessons

Broadening Participation: An Expert Voices Outreach Scenario  NSF grantee: Bioluminescence researcher wants to make research K-12 accessible  Creates an Expert Voices conversation  Enables his students and researchers to document process and results – how science really works  Writes about publications and educational resources (e.g.  Adds these to the NSDL, creating audience-level metadata  Entries serve as annotations that create K-12 context for the college-level research

Expert Voices Implementation  Initial blog system is multi-user WordPress  WordPress plug-ins provide NDR integration and Shibboleth authentication  Publication of blog entry creates:  Content, as a new resource with simple metadata  New NDR resources  New metadata for any referenced resources in content  Graph of relationships between entry and all referenced resources  Blog available as independent RSS feed

NDR Entry for Expert Voices Blog Entry New Metadata New Audience MD Referenced New Resource 1 Referenced Existing Resource 2 Annotates Metadata for Member of Metadata Provider Metadata Provider Existing Collection Topic- based Blog Member of Inferred relationship between resources

But Expert Voices is just the beginning…

OurNSDL: NDR-Integrated Wiki  Community of approved contributors (e.g. teachers, librarians, scientists) are granted edit access on OurNSDL wiki  New resources and metadata are created as wiki pages and reflected into the NDR  Non-wiki-based NDR resources and metadata are displayed as read-only wiki pages, subject to comment and linking  User and project pages organize NDR resources  Planned implementation in MediaWiki

MyNSDL: NDR-integrated tagging, bookmarking, and recommendation  Based on Connotea open-source folksonomic tagging/bookmarking system  Tags and bookmarking structure are reflected back into the NDR  Authorized users can “automatically” recommend new NSDL resources simply by tagging them  Gives user a personal view of NSDL resources

NDR Application: OnRamp  NDR-integrated multi-user, multi-project content management system  Supports NSDL single sign-on and group management  Decentralized workflow for the creation and distribution of both simple and complex content  Disseminates content in multiple publication and online forms  Delivery estimated 3Q06

NDR Application: Content Assignment Tool  Developed by Anne Diekema, Elizabeth Liddy, et al. at the Syracuse University Center for Natural Language Processing  Uses text analysis and machine learning to suggest Educational Standards alignment for resources  Content expert assigns standard, and system learns from the assignment  Standalone tool available now; standards associated with resources in the NDR by 3Q06

Other applications in development  Automated grade-level assignment based on vocabulary analysis (San Diego Supercomputer Center)  iVia-based Expert-Guided crawl: Tool for Pathways and others to turn websites into resource collections (UC Riverside)  Automated subject assignment (UC Riverside)  Instructional Architect: Lesson plan development for K12 teachers (Utah State)  Moodle Course Management System (proposed)

… NSDL 2.0 Ecosystem Protocol: OAI-PMH HTTP REST NDR API STEM Collections Search Service Archive Service Fedora- based NDR

Using Collaborative Tools to Build Pathways-focused Communities  We plan to implement general collaborative tools on the NDR: WordPress blog, OnRamp, MediaWiki, Connotea. Can you use these?  We can implement more specialized tools on the NDR (e.g. Moodle, CASAA, Instructional Architect). What would you use?  To achieve the NSDL 2.0 vision, we need to build sets of communities in each Pathway area. How can this happen for your Pathway? What can CI do to help?

Contact Information Dean B. Krafft Cornell Information Science 301 College Ave. Ithaca, NY USA This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License. To view a copy of this license, visit or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.