1. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop Towards a National Persistent Identifier Infrastructure Handle Workshop, Brussels, 2008-06-17 Sponsored as part of the Australian Commonwealth Governments Backing Australias Ability- An Innovation Action Plan for the Future (BAA) and National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). Nigel Ward Link Affiliates nward@internode.on.net Nigel Ward Link Affiliates nward@internode.on.net

2. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop Goals 1.What have we been doing in Australia? 2.What identifier advice & services does the community want? 3.What might national identifier infrastructure look like?

3. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop Agenda 1.PILIN project 2.Community requirements 3.Scoping a national service 4.The road ahead

4. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop Persistent Identifier Linking Infrastructure (PILIN) PILIN Project Oct 2006 - Dec 2007 Higher education, e-Research, Vocational training, Schools, Cultural Sectors 1.Develop shared identifier infrastructure 2.Support adoption of identifiers and services 3.Plan for sustainable service PILIN Project Oct 2006 - Dec 2007 Higher education, e-Research, Vocational training, Schools, Cultural Sectors 1.Develop shared identifier infrastructure 2.Support adoption of identifiers and services 3.Plan for sustainable service ANDS PILIN Establishment Jan 2008 - June 2007 1.Harden PILIN outputs 2.Seed an identifier infrastructure within the e-Research community ANDS PILIN Establishment Jan 2008 - June 2007 1.Harden PILIN outputs 2.Seed an identifier infrastructure within the e-Research community Strengthening Australia's ability to use global identifier infrastructure

5. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop PILIN outputs 1.A model for persistent identifiers and services 2.Best practice and policy guides 3.Community requirements 4.Identifier management services 5.Pilot shared persistent identifier management infrastructure 6.Software toolkits to aid use of the infrastructure 7.Options & proposals for sustainability

6. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop Agenda 1.PILIN project 2.Community requirements 3.Scoping a national service 4.The road ahead

7. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop Community engagement 1st question: Why use identifiers? Basic idea: –separate identification –from other aspects of a thing e.g. Helps manage resources over time –discovery –delivery … –move –replicate/copy –version –re-format –derivative works –license title author location version ISBN

8. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop Community engagement 2nd question: What should I identify? A five step information & service modeling program 1.What things exist? Concrete & abstract 2.What are the relationships between things? Aggregations, transformations, versions, copies, … Granularity: identify whole or parts? 3.Which things matter? Identify those things 4.Define services that act on identifiers Retrieve(ID) = ? 5.Decide when to identify things

9. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop Information modeling example Steps 1 & 2. what things exist? Example model: Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR)

10. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop Information modeling example Step 3. what matters enough to identify? At each level –identifiers –distinguishing metadata

11. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop Information modeling example Step 4. define services Resolve(ID): distinguishing metadata about the resource Retrieve(ID): a copy of the resource FRBR-Retrieve(ID): a copy of the HTML format of the most recent version Appropriate-Copy(ID, Context): a copy appropriate for the context

12. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop Another service example Referent integrity Provide assurance that the identified thing has not changed e-Research & e-Portfolio use cases Freeze_association(ID): change the referents state to frozen (can no longer change) Verify_association(ID): indicate if the referent has changed Verified_retrieve(ID): a copy of the resource if it has not changed Implemented via checksum stored in Handle record NB: access to the checksum is restricted

13. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop Community engagement Summary of high level advice 1.Model your information! 2.Include identifiers in the modeling 3.De-couple identifier management from information management 4.Build information management services that leverage identifiers

14. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop Agenda 1.PILIN project 2.Community requirements 3.Scoping a national service 4.The road ahead

15. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop National ID Service High Level Business Activities

16. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop Australian ID Service mapped to Handle System

17. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop National ID service Naming authority use cases Register: naming authorities that come under a national licence information for managing and policing national policy authority information for archival purposes

18. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop National ID service resolution use cases

19. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop National ID service Manage use cases

20. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop Agenda 1.PILIN project 2.User needs 3.Scoping a national service 4.The road ahead

21. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop The road ahead? Status June 2008: –Strengthened ability to use identifiers –Proposed sustainability options Opportunities June 2008 –Australian National Data Service (ANDS) E-research An identifier service underpins many of the proposed services –Digital Education Revolution Schools (K-12) Identifier service being scoped to support: federated repositories, appropriate copy, licensing, derivative works … –National Library of Australia interested in hosting a national cross-sector identifier service

22. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop Goals 1.What have we been doing in Australia? 2.What identifier advice & services does the community want? 3.What might national identifier infrastructure look like?

23. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop Want to know more? Questions? Comments? Some identifiers for the PILIN project: hdl:102.100.272/0N8J991QH http://resolver.net.au/hdl/102.100.272/0N8J991QH http://www.pilin.net.au This presentation © University of Southern Queensland licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/au/ unless otherwise noted Sponsored as part of the Australian Commonwealth Governments Backing Australias Ability- An Innovation Action Plan for the Future (BAA) and National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).

24. Linking research & learning technologies through standards June 20082008 Handle Workshop About Link Affiliates Australian government capability –http://www.linkaffiliates.net.au Standards-based education & research IT infrastructure Group of consultants Managed the PILIN Project