Data DNA: The Next Generation of Statistical Metadata

Describes the components of a complete statistical metadata system and suggests ways to create and structure metadata for better access and understanding of data sets by diverse users

Long-Term Preservation of Digital Records, Part I: A Theoretical Basis

The Information Revolution is making preservation of digital records an urgent issue. Archivists have grappled with the question of how to achieve this for about 15 years. We focus on limitations to preservation, identifying precisely what can be preserved and what cannot. Our answer comes from the philosophical theory of knowledge, especially its discussion about the limits of what can be communicated. Philosophers have taught that answers to critical questions have been obscured by "failure to understand the logic of our language". We can clarify difficulties by paying extremely close attention to the meaning of words such as 'knowledge', 'information', 'the original', and 'dynamic'. What is valuable in transmitted and stored messages, and what should be preserved, is an abstraction, the pattern inherent in each transmitted and stored digital record. This answer has, in fact, been lurking just below the surface of archival literature. To make progress, archivists must collaborate with software engineers. Understanding perspectives across disciplinary boundaries will be needed.

Spatial Aided Decision-making System for E-Government

Non

El uso de los metadatos para el desarrollo de un modelo de interoperabilidad para las Infraestructuras de Datos = The use of metadata for the development of a model of interoperability for Spatial Data Infrastructures

RESUMEN Se propone un modelo de interoperabilidad basado en los metadatos para las Infraestructuras de Datos Espaciales (IDE), un método para crear automáticamente metadatos y una metodología que permite analizar la interoperabilidad aportada por los mismos. Los metadatos son una pieza fundamental para las IDE; catalogan la información geográfica (IG), describen sus características, la calidad, las condiciones, etc. y permiten las funciones: localizar, evaluar, acceder y explotar la IG. La interoperabilidad es un objetivo esencial para que se comparta, coopere, comunique e intercambie IG en las IDE. La formulación de modelos de interoperabilidad permite analizar el comportamiento de los sistemas desde distintos enfoques o niveles. La carencia de modelos de interoperabilidad aplicados a las IDE, de estudios que analicen la interoperabilidad proporcionada por los metadatos y de métodos de creación automática de metadatos, constituyen los objetivos de investigación de esta tesis. El modelo de interoperabilidad propuesto para las IDE estudia los niveles definidos en los modelos aplicados a los sistemas de sistemas, por considerarlas un caso particular de ellos, y un nivel adicional para tratar los aspectos legales y de las organizaciones. En este contexto de los modelos de interoperabilidad basados en los metadatos, parece necesario disponer de un método original que facilite la creación automática de metadatos y de una metodología que permita analizar la interoperabilidad proporcionada por los mismos. El método propuesto para crear automáticamente metadatos estructura el proceso de compilación y tratamiento de la información, compone y almacena el metadato estandarizadamente y puede integrarse en los flujos de trabajo de la IG. El análisis de la interoperabilidad que proporcionan los metadatos ISO-19115 ha permitido interpretarlos desde un punto de vista alternativo al tradicional basado en funciones. La validación del modelo, mediante una encuesta a expertos, ha disipado la incertidumbre en torno a la subjetividad de la identificación de la interoperabilidad proporcionada por los metadatos. El análisis de la interoperabilidad potencial de un metadato ha permitido identificar los niveles favorecidos (semántico, dinámico y organizacional) y las carencias. Finalmente, el estudio de los metadatos que se crean automáticamente con el método propuesto, ha permitido conocer el potencial de interoperabilidad de los mismos y analizar si la creación automática satisface los requisitos de las organizaciones. ABSTRACT An interoperability model is proposed based on the Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) metadata, as well as a method for automatic metadata creation and a methodology allowing analysis of the interoperability provided by them. Metadata constitute an essential piece for SDI‘s; they catalogue geographic information (GI), describe its characteristics, quality, conditions, etc, and their roles are: discovery, evaluation, access and exploitation of GI. Interoperability is an essential aim for GI to be shared, cooperated, communicated and exchanged in SDI‘s. The formulation of interoperability models allows analyzing system behaviour from different approaches or levels. The lack of interoperability models applied to SDI‘s, and the lack of studies analyzing the interoperability provided by metadata and of methods of automatic metadata creation constitute the research aims of this thesis. The proposed interoperability model for SDI‘s considers the levels defined in the models applied to the systems of systems since they are considered a specific case of those, and an additional level to deal with legal and organizational aspects. In the context of the metadata-based interoperability models, it seems necessary to possess an original method advancing the automatic metadata creation as well as a methodology allowing analysis of the interoperability provided by them. The proposed method to automatically create metadata organize the process of information compilation and handling, it composes and stores metadata in a standard fashion and may be integrated into GI workflows. The analysis of the interoperability provided by the ISO-19115 metadata has allowed their interpretation from an alternative viewpoint different than the traditional function-based approach. The validation of the model with the help of an expert survey has dispelled the uncertainty around the subjectivity of the interoperability identification provided by the metadata. The analysis of the potential interoperability of metadata has resulted in the identification of favoured levels (semantic, dynamic and organizational) as well as the deficiencies. Finally, the study of the automatically created metadata with the proposed method has enabled knowledge of their interoperability potential and clearing up whether automatic creation fulfils the requirements of institutions and organizations. An interoperability model is proposed based on the Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) metadata, as well as a method for automatic metadata creation and a methodology allowing analysis of the interoperability provided by them. Metadata constitute an essential piece for SDI‘s; they catalogue geographic information (GI), describe its characteristics, quality, conditions, etc, and their roles are: discovery, evaluation, access and exploitation of GI. Interoperability is an essential aim for GI to be shared, cooperated, communicated and exchanged in SDI‘s. The formulation of interoperability models allows analyzing system behavior from different approaches or levels. The lack of interoperability models applied to SDI‘s, and the lack of studies analyzing the interoperability provided by metadata and of methods of automatic metadata creation constitute the research aims of this thesis. The proposed interoperability model for SDI‘s considers the levels defined in the models applied to the systems of systems since they are considered a specific case of those, and an additional level to deal with legal and organizational aspects. In the context of the metadata-based interoperability models, it seems necessary to possess an original method advancing the automatic metadata creation as well as a methodology allowing analysis of the interoperability provided by them. The proposed method to automatically create metadata organize the process of information compilation and handling, it composes and stores metadata in a standard fashion and may be integrated into GI workflows. The analysis of the interoperability provided by the ISO-19115 metadata has allowed their interpretation from an alternative viewpoint different than the traditional function-based approach. The validation of the model with the help of an expert survey has dispelled the uncertainty around the subjectivity of the interoperability identification provided by the metadata. The analysis of the potential interoperability of metadata has resulted in the identification of favored levels (semantic, dynamic and organizational) as well as the deficiencies. Finally, the study of the automatically created metadata with the proposed method has enabled knowledge of their interoperability potential and clearing up whether automatic creation fulfils the requirements of institutions and organizations

Advanced Knowledge Technologies at the Midterm: Tools and Methods for the Semantic Web

The University of Edinburgh and research sponsors are authorised to reproduce and distribute reprints and on-line copies for their purposes notwithstanding any copyright annotation hereon. The views and conclusions contained herein are the author’s and shouldn’t be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of other parties.In a celebrated essay on the new electronic media, Marshall McLuhan wrote in 1962:Our private senses are not closed systems but are endlessly translated into each other in that experience which we call consciousness. Our extended senses, tools, technologies, through the ages, have been closed systems incapable of interplay or collective awareness. Now, in the electric age, the very instantaneous nature of co-existence among our technological instruments has created a crisis quite new in human history. Our extended faculties and senses now constitute a single field of experience which demands that they become collectively conscious. Our technologies, like our private senses, now demand an interplay and ratio that makes rational co-existence possible. As long as our technologies were as slow as the wheel or the alphabet or money, the fact that they were separate, closed systems was socially and psychically supportable. This is not true now when sight and sound and movement are simultaneous and global in extent. (McLuhan 1962, p.5, emphasis in original)Over forty years later, the seamless interplay that McLuhan demanded between our technologies is still barely visible. McLuhan’s predictions of the spread, and increased importance, of electronic media have of course been borne out, and the worlds of business, science and knowledge storage and transfer have been revolutionised. Yet the integration of electronic systems as open systems remains in its infancy.Advanced Knowledge Technologies (AKT) aims to address this problem, to create a view of knowledge and its management across its lifecycle, to research and create the services and technologies that such unification will require. Half way through its sixyear span, the results are beginning to come through, and this paper will explore some of the services, technologies and methodologies that have been developed. We hope to give a sense in this paper of the potential for the next three years, to discuss the insights and lessons learnt in the first phase of the project, to articulate the challenges and issues that remain.The WWW provided the original context that made the AKT approach to knowledge management (KM) possible. AKT was initially proposed in 1999, it brought together an interdisciplinary consortium with the technological breadth and complementarity to create the conditions for a unified approach to knowledge across its lifecycle. The combination of this expertise, and the time and space afforded the consortium by the IRC structure, suggested the opportunity for a concerted effort to develop an approach to advanced knowledge technologies, based on the WWW as a basic infrastructure.The technological context of AKT altered for the better in the short period between the development of the proposal and the beginning of the project itself with the development of the semantic web (SW), which foresaw much more intelligent manipulation and querying of knowledge. The opportunities that the SW provided for e.g., more intelligent retrieval, put AKT in the centre of information technology innovation and knowledge management services; the AKT skill set would clearly be central for the exploitation of those opportunities.The SW, as an extension of the WWW, provides an interesting set of constraints to the knowledge management services AKT tries to provide. As a medium for the semantically-informed coordination of information, it has suggested a number of ways in which the objectives of AKT can be achieved, most obviously through the provision of knowledge management services delivered over the web as opposed to the creation and provision of technologies to manage knowledge.AKT is working on the assumption that many web services will be developed and provided for users. The KM problem in the near future will be one of deciding which services are needed and of coordinating them. Many of these services will be largely or entirely legacies of the WWW, and so the capabilities of the services will vary. As well as providing useful KM services in their own right, AKT will be aiming to exploit this opportunity, by reasoning over services, brokering between them, and providing essential meta-services for SW knowledge service management.Ontologies will be a crucial tool for the SW. The AKT consortium brings a lot of expertise on ontologies together, and ontologies were always going to be a key part of the strategy. All kinds of knowledge sharing and transfer activities will be mediated by ontologies, and ontology management will be an important enabling task. Different applications will need to cope with inconsistent ontologies, or with the problems that will follow the automatic creation of ontologies (e.g. merging of pre-existing ontologies to create a third). Ontology mapping, and the elimination of conflicts of reference, will be important tasks. All of these issues are discussed along with our proposed technologies.Similarly, specifications of tasks will be used for the deployment of knowledge services over the SW, but in general it cannot be expected that in the medium term there will be standards for task (or service) specifications. The brokering metaservices that are envisaged will have to deal with this heterogeneity.The emerging picture of the SW is one of great opportunity but it will not be a wellordered, certain or consistent environment. It will comprise many repositories of legacy data, outdated and inconsistent stores, and requirements for common understandings across divergent formalisms. There is clearly a role for standards to play to bring much of this context together; AKT is playing a significant role in these efforts. But standards take time to emerge, they take political power to enforce, and they have been known to stifle innovation (in the short term). AKT is keen to understand the balance between principled inference and statistical processing of web content. Logical inference on the Web is tough. Complex queries using traditional AI inference methods bring most distributed computer systems to their knees. Do we set up semantically well-behaved areas of the Web? Is any part of the Web in which semantic hygiene prevails interesting enough to reason in? These and many other questions need to be addressed if we are to provide effective knowledge technologies for our content on the web

Selected Information Management Resources for Implementing New Knowledge Environments: An Annotated Bibliography

This annotated bibliography reviews scholarly work in the area of building and analyzing digital document collections with the aim of establishing a baseline of knowledge for work in the field of digital humanities. The bibliography is organized around three main topics: data stores, text corpora, and analytical facilitators. Each of these is then further divided into sub-topics to provide a broad snapshot of modern information management techniques for building and analyzing digital documents collections

The best of both worlds: highlighting the synergies of combining manual and automatic knowledge organization methods to improve information search and discovery.

Research suggests organizations across all sectors waste a significant amount of time looking for information and often fail to leverage the information they have. In response, many organizations have deployed some form of enterprise search to improve the 'findability' of information. Debates persist as to whether thesauri and manual indexing or automated machine learning techniques should be used to enhance discovery of information. In addition, the extent to which a knowledge organization system (KOS) enhances discoveries or indeed blinds us to new ones remains a moot point. The oil and gas industry was used as a case study using a representative organization. Drawing on prior research, a theoretical model is presented which aims to overcome the shortcomings of each approach. This synergistic model could help to re-conceptualize the 'manual' versus 'automatic' debate in many enterprises, accommodating a broader range of information needs. This may enable enterprises to develop more effective information and knowledge management strategies and ease the tension between what arc often perceived as mutually exclusive competing approaches. Certain aspects of the theoretical model may be transferable to other industries, which is an area for further research

Public Commons for Geospatial Data: A Conceptual Model

A wide variety of spatial data collection efforts are ongoing throughout local, state and federal agencies, private firms and non-profit organizations. Each effort is established for a different purpose but organizations and individuals often collect and maintain the same or similar information. The United States federal government has undertaken many initiatives such as the National Spatial Data Infrastructure, the National Map and Geospatial One-Stop to reduce duplicative spatial data collection and promote the coordinated use, sharing, and dissemination of spatial data nationwide. A key premise in most of these initiatives is that no national government will be able to gather and maintain more than a small percentage of the geographic data that users want and desire. Thus, national initiatives depend typically on the cooperation of those already gathering spatial data and those using GIs to meet specific needs to help construct and maintain these spatial data infrastructures and geo-libraries for their nations (Onsrud 2001). Some of the impediments to widespread spatial data sharing are well known from directly asking GIs data producers why they are not currently involved in creating datasets that are of common or compatible formats, documenting their datasets in a standardized metadata format or making their datasets more readily available to others through Data Clearinghouses or geo-libraries. The research described in this thesis addresses the impediments to wide-scale spatial data sharing faced by GIs data producers and explores a new conceptual data-sharing approach, the Public Commons for Geospatial Data, that supports user-friendly metadata creation, open access licenses, archival services and documentation of parent lineage of the contributors and value- adders of digital spatial data sets