Search Interoperability, OAI, and Metadata: Handout for METRO Workshop

Handout for the workshop on the OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting given for METRO on December 8, 2006

Pathways: Augmenting interoperability across scholarly repositories

In the emerging eScience environment, repositories of papers, datasets, software, etc., should be the foundation of a global and natively-digital scholarly communications system. The current infrastructure falls far short of this goal. Cross-repository interoperability must be augmented to support the many workflows and value-chains involved in scholarly communication. This will not be achieved through the promotion of single repository architecture or content representation, but instead requires an interoperability framework to connect the many heterogeneous systems that will exist. We present a simple data model and service architecture that augments repository interoperability to enable scholarly value-chains to be implemented. We describe an experiment that demonstrates how the proposed infrastructure can be deployed to implement the workflow involved in the creation of an overlay journal over several different repository systems (Fedora, aDORe, DSpace and arXiv).Comment: 18 pages. Accepted for International Journal on Digital Libraries special issue on Digital Libraries and eScienc

Web Services Support for Dynamic Business Process Outsourcing

Outsourcing of business processes is crucial for organizations to be effective, efficient and flexible. To meet fast-changing market conditions, dynamic outsourcing is required, in which business relationships are established and enacted on-the-fly in an adaptive, fine-grained way unrestricted by geographic distance. This requires automated means for both the establishment of outsourcing relationships and for the enactment of services performed in these relationships over electronic channels. Due to wide industry support and the underlying model of loose coupling of services, Web services increasingly become the mechanism of choice to connect organizations across organizational boundaries. This paper analyzes to which extent Web services support the dynamic process outsourcing paradigm. We discuss contract -based dynamic business process outsourcing to define requirements and then introduce the Web services framework. Based on this, we investigate the match between the two. We observe that the Web services framework requires further support for cross - organizational business processes and mechanisms for contracting, QoS management and process-based transaction support and suggest ways to fill those gaps

OCRIS : online catalogue and repository interoperability study. Final report

The aims and objectives of OCRIS were to: • Survey the extent to which repository content is in scope for institutional library OPACs, and the extent to which it is already recorded there; • Examine the interoperability of OPAC and repository software for the exchange of metadata and other information; • List the various services to institutional managers, researchers, teachers and learners offered respectively by OPACs and repositories; • Identify the potential for improvements in the links (e.g. using link resolver technology) from repositories and/or OPACs to other institutional services, such as finance or research administration; • Make recommendations for the development of possible further links between library OPACs and institutional repositories, identifying the benefits to relevant stakeholder groups

Research and development of accounting system in grid environment

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The Grid has been recognised as the next-generation distributed computing paradigm by seamlessly integrating heterogeneous resources across administrative domains as a single virtual system. There are an increasing number of scientific and business projects that employ Grid computing technologies for large-scale resource sharing and collaborations. Early adoptions of Grid computing technologies have custom middleware implemented to bridge gaps between heterogeneous computing backbones. These custom solutions form the basis to the emerging Open Grid Service Architecture (OGSA), which aims at addressing common concerns of Grid systems by defining a set of interoperable and reusable Grid services. One of common concerns as defined in OGSA is the Grid accounting service. The main objective of the Grid accounting service is to ensure resources to be shared within a Grid environment in an accountable manner by metering and logging accurate resource usage information. This thesis discusses the origins and fundamentals of Grid computing and accounting service in the context of OGSA profile. A prototype was developed and evaluated based on OGSA accounting-related standards enabling sharing accounting data in a multi-Grid environment, the World-wide Large Hadron Collider Grid (WLCG). Based on this prototype and lessons learned, a generic middleware solution was also implemented as a toolkit that eases migration of existing accounting system to be standard compatible.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Stanford Universit

Katalog metapodataka u prostornim informacijskim sustavima

This paper gives the short review of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) metadata catalogue services that have the key role in geospatial resource discovery in Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI). The notion of Spatial Data Infrastructure comprises a collection of technologies, policies and institutional agreements that provide an easier access to geospatial data. The SDI is suitable for usage in geospatial data discovery, evaluation, and also various applications within government, commercial and non-profit sectors, academic institutions, etc. Metadata catalogue services have been specified in OGC Catalogue Service Implementation Specification. The part of the specification that specifies a web interface that supports the storage, retrieval, and management of data related to web services, is called Catalogue Service for the Web (CSW). Metadata catalogues are service brokers that represent a key component in a service-oriented architecture that manages shared resources and facilitates the discovery of resources within an open, distributed system. OGC services have gained significant popularity in recent years and the number of organizations using them has increased. However, the full potential of metadata catalogues has not yet been reached, not only because of the lack of appropriate documentation of data in the form of standardized metadata, but because the lack of semantics of the data. The analysis of the usage of metadata catalogue services in geodetic information systems has been given and the proposal for a possible solution for improvement has been made.U radu je prikazan kratki pregled usluga kataloga metapodataka Otvorenoga geoprostornog konzorcija (OGC) koji ima ključnu ulogu u otkrivanju geoprostornih izvora informacija u Prostornoj infrastrukturi podataka (SDI). Pojam Prostorne infrastrukture podataka obuhvaća skup tehnologija, strategija i institucionalnih sporazuma koji osiguravaju lakši pristup geoprostornim podacima. SDI je pogodan za upotrebu pri otkrivanju geoprostornih podataka, evaluaciji, kao i različitim primjenama unutar vladinog, komercijalnog i neprofitabilnog sektora, akademskih institucija, itd. Usluge kataloga metapodataka specificirane su u OGC Specifikaciji ostvarivanja usluga kataloga. Dio specifikacije koji se odnosi na web-sučelje koje podržava pohranu, učitavanje i upravljanje podacima koji se odnose na web-servise naziva se Kataloški servis za web (CSW). Katalozi metapodataka su agenti za usluge koji predstavljaju ključnu komponentu u arhitekturi namijenjenoj uslugama, a koja upravlja zajedničkim izvorima i olakšava otkrivanje izvora unutar otvorenoga distribuiranog sustava. OGC usluge stekle su značajnu popularnost u proteklim godinama, a broj organizacija koje ih koriste se povećao. Međutim, puni potencijal kataloga metapodataka još nije dostignut, ne samo zbog nedostatka odgovarajuće dokumentacije podataka u obliku standardiziranih metapodataka, već i zbog nedostatka semantike podataka. Napravljena je analiza korištenja usluga kataloga metapodataka u geodetskim informacijskim sustavima te je dan prijedlog za moguća rješenja u svrhu poboljšanja