Recommendations for the representation of hierarchical objects in Europeana

The issue of handling hierarchical objects has been always an important topic for Europeana’s network of projects and Data Providers. The implementation of solutions in the Europeana portal has been delayed for a long time mainly due to the fact that complex objects required the development of new functionalities that could not be supported by the Europeana Semantic Elements (ESE) model. Indeed the simplicity and the flatness of this model prevented Data Providers from supplying complex objects

Record Linking in the EHRI Portal

International audiencePurpose This paper aims to describe the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI) project's ongoing efforts to virtually integrate trans-national archival sources via the reconstruction of collection provenance as it relates to copy collections (material copied from one archive to another) and the co-referencing of subject and authority terms across material held by distinct institutions. Design/methodology/approach This paper is a case study of approximately 6,000 words length. The authors describe the scope of the problem of archival fragmentation from both cultural and technical perspectives, with particular focus on Holocaust-related material, and describe, with graph-based visualisations, two ways in which EHRI seeks to better integrate information about fragmented material. Findings As a case study, the principal contributions of this paper include reports on our experience with extracting provenance-based connections between archival descriptions from encoded finding aids and the challenges of co-referencing access points in the absence of domain-specific controlled vocabularies. Originality/value Record linking in general is an important technique in computational approaches to humanities research and one that has rightly received significant attention from scholars. In the context of historical archives, however, the material itself is in most cases not digitised, meaning that computational attempts at linking must rely on finding aids which constitute much fewer rich data sources. The EHRI project’s work in this area is therefore quite pioneering and has implications for archival integration on a larger scale, where the disruptive potential of Linked Open Data is most obvious

The Application of Metadata Standards to Multimedia in Museums

This paper first describes the application of a multi-level indexing approach, based on Dublin Core extensions and the Resource Description Framework (RDF), to a typical museum video. The advantages and disadvantages of this approach are discussed in the context of the requirements of the proposed MPEG-7 ("Multimedia Content Description Interface") standard. The work on SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) by the W3C SYMM working group is then described. Suggestions for how this work can be applied to video metadata are made. Finally a hybrid approach is proposed based on the combined use of Dublin Core and the currently undefined MPEG-7 standard within the RDF which will provide a solution to the problem of satisfying widely differing user requirements

Listening to ab(pre)scence: a derridean approach to the analysis of sound-image relations in early cinema

My thesis is an investigation into the period of history surrounding the introduction of synchronised sound to film. The intention is in part to redress the current position that sound practice and theory holds in film today, but also to discover a method for understanding film as an audiovisual medium; ontologically necessitating an interplay between sound and image. Prioritising sound is not the intention of this thesis, as to do so would negate the ability to understand film as both sound and image. Theoretical concepts from the deconstructionist philosopher, Jacques Derrida, are appropriated to create a new model that can be used for film analysis. This model attempts to treat film as audiovisual, and uncover specifically, a way in which sound and image can be understood and examined together, resulting in a proliferation of available readings and meanings from the film text. Two ‘transitional’ films from 1927, The Jazz Singer, and Sunrise, along with synchronised sound tests from the 1890s onwards, are used as case studies to which the deconstructionist model of analysis is applied. Once the films are removed from their technological and historical positions in film history, the analysis uncovers new meanings and readings. Archival magazines and journals are reviewed to provide additional insights into the period of transition to synchronised sound. The knowledge uncovered here helps to contribute to a greater understanding of the period and, combined with a Derridean analysis, the research also offers insight that is valuable to the understanding of film today

From ambition to action: How to achieve integration in omni-channel?

The paper aims to identify how companies can enhance their omni-channel activities through improved data management and integration. Multiple case studies of ten leading UK companies are conducted by using multiple sources of data, including interviews, archival documents and expert focus groups. The case companies are manufacturers and retailers in the clothing, food, and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sectors. A thorough list of challenges in the implementation of omni-channel systems is generated and a number of propositions on enablers and barriers to omni-channel data integration are recommended. Our findings emphasise the importance of automating and standardising data capturing and sharing methods, and centralising data storage among companies and channels, which lead to improved efficiencies. They also indicate that omni-channel systems should be responsive to the choices of customers, and integration of the information systems of logistics service providers and their buyers is crucial in making omni-channels more efficient and consumer-responsive

Pervasive Personal Information Spaces

Each user’s electronic information-interaction uniquely matches their information behaviour, activities and work context. In the ubiquitous computing environment, this information-interaction and the underlying personal information is distributed across multiple personal devices. This thesis investigates the idea of Pervasive Personal Information Spaces for improving ubiquitous personal information-interaction. Pervasive Personal Information Spaces integrate information distributed across multiple personal devices to support anytime-anywhere access to an individual’s information. This information is then visualised through context-based, flexible views that are personalised through user activities, diverse annotations and spontaneous information associations. The Spaces model embodies the characteristics of Pervasive Personal Information Spaces, which emphasise integration of the user’s information space, automation and communication, and flexible views. The model forms the basis for InfoMesh, an example implementation developed for desktops, laptops and PDAs. The design of the system was supported by a tool developed during the research called activity snaps that captures realistic user activity information for aiding the design and evaluation of interactive systems. User evaluation of InfoMesh elicited a positive response from participants for the ideas underlying Pervasive Personal Information Spaces, especially for carrying out work naturally and visualising, interpreting and retrieving information according to personalised contexts, associations and annotations. The user studies supported the research hypothesis, revealing that context-based flexible views may indeed provide better contextual, ubiquitous access and visualisation of information than current-day systems

Smart PIN: performance and cost-oriented context-aware personal information network

The next generation of networks will involve interconnection of heterogeneous individual networks such as WPAN, WLAN, WMAN and Cellular network, adopting the IP as common infrastructural protocol and providing virtually always-connected network. Furthermore, there are many devices which enable easy acquisition and storage of information as pictures, movies, emails, etc. Therefore, the information overload and divergent content’s characteristics make it difficult for users to handle their data in manual way. Consequently, there is a need for personalised automatic services which would enable data exchange across heterogeneous network and devices. To support these personalised services, user centric approaches for data delivery across the heterogeneous network are also required. In this context, this thesis proposes Smart PIN - a novel performance and cost-oriented context-aware Personal Information Network. Smart PIN's architecture is detailed including its network, service and management components. Within the service component, two novel schemes for efficient delivery of context and content data are proposed: Multimedia Data Replication Scheme (MDRS) and Quality-oriented Algorithm for Multiple-source Multimedia Delivery (QAMMD). MDRS supports efficient data accessibility among distributed devices using data replication which is based on a utility function and a minimum data set. QAMMD employs a buffer underflow avoidance scheme for streaming, which achieves high multimedia quality without content adaptation to network conditions. Simulation models for MDRS and QAMMD were built which are based on various heterogeneous network scenarios. Additionally a multiple-source streaming based on QAMMS was implemented as a prototype and tested in an emulated network environment. Comparative tests show that MDRS and QAMMD perform significantly better than other approaches

Resilient architecture (preliminary version)

The main objectives of WP2 are to define a resilient architecture and to develop a range of middleware solutions (i.e. algorithms, protocols, services) for resilience to be applied in the design of highly available, reliable and trustworthy networking solutions. This is the first deliverable within this work package, a preliminary version of the resilient architecture. The deliverable builds on previous results from WP1, the definition of a set of applications and use cases, and provides a perspective of the middleware services that are considered fundamental to address the dependability requirements of those applications. Then it also describes the architectural organisation of these services, according to a number of factors like their purpose, their function within the communication stack or their criticality/specificity for resilience. WP2 proposes an architecture that differentiates between two classes of services, a class including timeliness and trustworthiness oracles, and a class of so called complex services. The resulting architecture is referred to as a "hybrid architecture". The hybrid architecture is motivated and discussed in this document. The services considered within each of the service classes of the hybrid architecture are described. This sets the background for the work to be carried on in the scope of tasks 2.2 and 2.3 of the work package. Finally, the deliverable also considers high-level interfacing aspects, by providing a discussion about the possibility of using existing Service Availability Forum standard interfaces within HIDENETS, in particular discussing possibly necessary extensions to those interfaces in order to accommodate specific HIDENETS services suited for ad-hoc domain