D24 - Metadata Watch Report #3

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Metadata Watch Report #3

Section 5 - Domain reports

5.1 Industry sector
5.2 Publishing sector
5.3 Audio-visual sector
5.4 Cultural Heritage sector
5.5 Educational sector
5.6 Academic sector
5.7 Geographical information sector

5.1 Industry sector

Correspondent: Elise Sfeir, PricewaterhouseCoopers

5.1.1 Introduction

Regarding metadata, the industry domain is a little bit apart. Actually, industry can cover a lot of very various sub-domains which do not necessarily have the same needs. Therefore, it is more difficult to find a common ground.

Yet, and as already specified in the first industry correspondent report, regarding schemas, XML is popular amongst the industrial world.

All the activities that have been looked at actually use XML schemas and namespaces. Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a simple, very flexible text format derived from SGML. Originally designed to meet the challenges of large-scale electronic publishing, XML is also playing an increasingly important role in the exchange of a wide variety of data on the Web.

More information on XML Schemas is hosted by Oasis and can be viewed on: http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/schemas.html.

Yet, it is difficult to look at the application profiles that have been built by the various activities because such information is not provided on their web sites and documentation. For instance, on the BizTalk web site, you can download your own schemas, but you cannot view how they have been built. No information is available on how schemas look like. It appears that XML schemas are used as a basis for the development of application profiles, but no information is provided on these latter. Therefore, the present report might give only very poor details on the construction of the industry application profiles.

The initiatives developed here are all supported by important IT companies such as Netscape, Microsoft or Sun Microsystems.

5.1.2 RSS or RDF Site Summary - Netscape

All the following information has been taken from the RSS Web site: http://www.egroups.com/files/rss-dev/specification.html

RSS is a lightweight multipurpose extensible metadata description and syndication format. It is an XML application, conforming to the W3C's RDF Specification. It is extensible via XML-namespace and/or RDF based modularization.

An RSS summary, at a minimum, is a document describing a "channel" consisting of URL-retrievable items. Each item consists of a title, link, and brief description. While items have traditionally been news headlines, RSS has seen much repurposing in its short existence.

RSS 0.9 was introduced in 1999 by Netscape as a channel description framework / content-gathering mechanism for their My Netscape Network (MNN) portal. By providing a simple snapshot-in-a-document, web site producers acquired audience through the presence of their content on My Netscape.

As RSS continues to be re-purposed, aggregated, and categorized, the need for an enhanced metadata framework grows. Channel- and item-level title and description elements are being overloaded with metadata and HTML. Some producers are even resorting to inserting unofficial ad hoc elements (e.g., <category>, <date>, <author>) in an attempt to augment the sparse metadata facilities of RSS.

There are 2 solutions for this augmentation: one solution is the addition of more simple elements to the RSS core. A second one, is the compartmentalization of specific functionality into the pluggable RSS modules. This is the approach adopted in the RSS specification that can be viewed on the web site. Modularization is achieved by using XML Namespaces for partitioning vocabularies. Adding and removing RSS functionality is then just a matter of the inclusion of a particular set of modules best suited to the task at hand.

At the last Dublin Core meeting in Ottawa, a RSS expert said that they want to strengthen the connection between the Dublin Core community and developers of RDF Site Summary (RSS). In many ways, RSS has already proved useful as a metadata testbed and validates many of the assumptions implicit in the Dublin Core efforts. RSS was meant to support Dublin Core, but Netscape dropped it from the specification at the last moment to the dismay of the DCMI community.

The new RSS 1.0 proposal provides a way to utilize Dublin Core as a common framework for sharing richer metadata. The goal is to bridge these two efforts so that Dublin Core can benefit from the experience of RSS developers and their tools, and RSS can benefit from the expertise of the Dublin Core community. One can continue to use the current RSS and provide only Title, Link, Description; but if you already have the metadata and want to make it available, then we wanted to create a standard way to do so. RSS file for O'Reilly Network contains items that are Dublin Core compliant.

In addition, to Title, Link, and Description, RSS has supplied the following fields: Creator, who in this case is the author of the article; a list of Subject keywords; the Type of item, in this case, a technical article; the Language in which it is written; the Date it was published; the file Format; and a statement about who owns the Rights to this article as well as the name of its Publisher.

5.1.3 UDDI - Universal Description, Discovery and Integration

The following information has been extracted from a document untitled UDDI Data Structures Reference on the web site: http://www.uddi.org/pubs/UDDI_XML_Structure_Reference.doc

The UDDI has based its approach on XML but has developed its own set of structure and schemas.

The programmatic interface provided for interacting with systems that follow the Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) specifications make use of Extensible Markup Language (XML) and a related technology called Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), which is a specification for using XML in simple message-based exchanges.

The UDDI Programmer's API Specification defines approximately 30 SOAP messages that are used to perform inquiry and publishing functions against any UDDI-compliant Business Registry. This document outlines the details of each of the XML structures associated with these messages.

The purpose of UDDI-compliant registries is to provide a business discovery platform on the World Wide Web. Service discovery is related to being able to advertise and locate information about different technical interfaces exposed by different parties. Services are interesting when you can discover them, determine their purpose, and then have software that is equipped for using a particular type of Web service complete a connection and derive benefit from a service.

A UDDI-compliant registry provides an information framework for describing services exposed by an entity or business. Using this framework the description of a service that is managed by a UDDI registry is information about the service itself. In order to promote cross platform service description that is suitable to a "black-box" Web environment, this description is rendered in cross-platform XML.

The information that makes up a registration consists of four data structure types. This division by information type provides simple partitions to assist in the rapid location and understanding of the different information that makes up a registration.

These four structure types make up the complete amount of information provided within the UDDI service description framework. Each of these XML structures contains a number of data fields (that is elements and attributes) that serve a business or technical descriptive purpose.

These structures are described in the UDDI API Pogrammer's Schema. The schema defines approximately 20 requests and 10 responses, each of which contain these structures, references to these structures, or summary versions of these structures.

5.1.4 OASIS - XML.org

Web site and source: http://www.oasis-open.org/

XML.ORG is an independent resource for news, education, and information about the application of XML in industrial and commercial settings. Hosted by OASIS and funded by organizations who are committed to product-independent data exchange, XML.ORG offers valuable tools, such as the XML.ORG Catalog, to help making critical decisions about whether and how to employ XML in the business.

As XML rapidly becomes the key data interchange standard for the Web, customers and developers are recognizing the need for effective administration of the XML schemas related to e-commerce, business-to-business transactions, and tools and application interoperability. As an established vendor-independent organization that has been hard at work at enabling interoperability for the past 8 years, OASIS has recognized this need. Through XML.ORG, OASIS will collect, manage, and distribute information about XML applications, including vocabularies, schemas, namespaces and DTDs.

An XML.ORG Registry has been built. People can submit their XML Schemas or can search for some. The Registry is a community resource for accessing the fast-growing body of XML specifications being developed for vertical industries and horizontal applications. The XML.ORG Registry offers a central clearinghouse for developers and standards bodies to publicly submit, publish and exchange XML schemas, vocabularies and related documents. It is a self-supporting resource created by and for the community at large.

Industry groups and other organizations that have developed XML schemas or vocabularies can freely register their work at the XML.ORG Registry. Today, the Registry is in its first phase of development. It is offered as a call for participation, an opportunity to experience the potential of an open XML registry and an invitation to the community to help shape its evolving functionality.

5.1.5 BizTalk

BizTalk is an industry initiative started by Microsoft and supported by a wide range of organizations, from technology vendors like SAP, CommerceOne, and Ariba to technology users like BASDA. BizTalk is not a standards body. Instead, it is a community of standards users, with the goal of driving the rapid, consistent adoption of XML to enable electronic commerce and application integration.

The BizTalk Framework is being currently defined. Its is a set of guidelines for how to publish schemas in XML and how to use XML messages to easily integrate software programs together in order to build rich new solutions. The design emphasis is to leverage what you have today - your existing data models, solutions, and application infrastructure - and adapt it for electronic commerce through the use of XML.

On the BizTalk web site, there's a library of XML schemas for you to review and download for use in your own applications. It is even encourage to publish your own schemas here for others to use.

The library web site is at: http://www.biztalk.org/library/library.asp

The library section of the web site presents card catalog and librarian features that provide BizTalk.Org members with the ability to locate schemas that others have registered and cataloged. Members are given the opportunity to register their organizations and establish publishing rights. They can also freely share their work and technical information describing how their organization defines their use of the XML standard.

>>Section 5.2 Publishing sector

Maintained by: UK Office for Library and Information Networking (UKOLN)
Last updated: 07 August 2001