Mapping the interoperability landscape for networked information retrieval

This paper discusses interoperability of networked information. Interoperability is a fundamental challenge for networked information discovery and retrieval. Often treated monolithically in the literature, interoperability is multifaceted and can be analyzed into different types and levels. This paper discusses an approach to map the interoperability landscape for networked information retrieval as part of an interoperability assessment research project

Interoperability for Digital Libraries

Paper discusses Metadata, Syntactic and Syntax Interoperability of Digital libraries in Semantics Web environment

Personalisation and recommender systems in digital libraries

Widespread use of the Internet has resulted in digital libraries that are increasingly used by diverse communities of users for diverse purposes and in which sharing and collaboration have become important social elements. As such libraries become commonplace, as their contents and services become more varied, and as their patrons become more experienced with computer technology, users will expect more sophisticated services from these libraries. A simple search function, normally an integral part of any digital library, increasingly leads to user frustration as user needs become more complex and as the volume of managed information increases. Proactive digital libraries, where the library evolves from being passive and untailored, are seen as offering great potential for addressing and overcoming these issues and include techniques such as personalisation and recommender systems. In this paper, following on from the DELOS/NSF Working Group on Personalisation and Recommender Systems for Digital Libraries, which met and reported during 2003, we present some background material on the scope of personalisation and recommender systems in digital libraries. We then outline the working group’s vision for the evolution of digital libraries and the role that personalisation and recommender systems will play, and we present a series of research challenges and specific recommendations and research priorities for the field

The Application of XML as a Means of Exchanging Discharge Summaries between Hospital Informations Systems.

Achieving interoperability between two or more disparate systems has long been both a strong desire and difficult challenge to information professionals. To make it even more problematic, attributes of an interoperability solution for one situation might not be sufficient for another. However, with the use of XML technologies, interoperability between systems is becoming an attainable goal. In this paper, using the health care system (specifically, discharge summaries) as a backdrop, I explore the issues surrounding an XML-based interoperability solution. The proposed solution creates a connection between a Microsoft Access 2002 database and an Oracle 9i database using XML as the intermediate data format. This paper explores the ramifications of exchanging health data, the current XML application offerings of the two databases in question, and the specific problems that must be addressed when creating an XML-based interoperability solution. The last section explains decision rationales and presents a general framework of steps for reproducing this solution

Interoperabilidade entre os repositórios institucionais brasileiros: uma análise preliminar

O repositório institucional apresenta-se como uma perspectiva de reunir, organizar, preservar, divulgar e garantir o acesso confiável e permanente da produção intelectual gerada na universidade em um único local. Para que isso se concretize, é necessário que os repositórios sejam interoperáveis. Este estudo analisa a interoperabilidade entre repositórios na perspectiva de estabelecer uma comunicação efetiva de modo a viabilizar a interoperabilidade semântica. Foram analisados sites e informações constantes dos diretórios de registros de repositórios OpenDOAR e Roar de 59 repositórios institucionais e identificou-se que 21, além de utilizarem o Dublin Core, disponibilizaram o OAI-PMH, enquanto nos demais só foi possível constatar a utilização do Dublin Core. Concluiu-se que o uso de esquemas de metadados (Dublin Core/OAI-DC), a adoção de boas práticas, como a disponibilização do protocolo OAI-PMH, a divulgação do perfil de aplicação e o estabelecimento de política de informação institucional que contemple esses aspectos são iniciativas que promovem a interoperabilidade técnica, e, consequentemente, permitem vislumbrar boas perspectivas para a interoperabilidade semânticaThe institutional repository represents an opportunity of gathering, organizing, preserving, spreading and guaranteeing reliable and permanent access to the intellectual production created in the university in a single place. To make this become a reality, repositories need to be interoperable. This study analyses the interoperoperability among repositories in the perspective of establishing efficient communication in order to make feasible the semantic interoperability. Sites and information present in the directories registers of Open DOAR and Roar repositories of 59 institutional repositories were analysed. It was found that 21 repositories not only used Dublin Core, but also made the OAI-PMH available, while in the other ones just Dublin Core was used. Therefore, it was concluded that the use of metadata schemas (Dublin Core/OAI-DC), the adoption of good practices like the availability of the OAI-PMH protocol, the spread of the application profile, and the establishment of an institutional information policy which considerates these aspects are initiatives that promote technical interoperoperability, and consequently permit to visualize good perspectives for the semantic interoperability

Information systems interoperability in Public Administration : identifying the major acting forces through a Delphi study

Information Systems (IS) interoperability in Public Administration (PA) is a main goal and a major challenge for PA professionals. Achieving interoperability among IS that are technologically disparate and that exist in different organizational contexts is a complex task, being affected by multiple aspects, not yet satisfactorily known and characterized. The aim of this paper is to unveil the forces that influence IS interoperability initiatives in PA. The inquiry was inspired by Lewin’s Field Theory. The data generation process was based on a Delphi study involving 55 experts from PA, IS/IT industry, and academy. A set of 31 forces were identified and ranked based on the level of importance they assume in IS interoperability initiatives. Thirty eight propositions describing restraining and driving influences were also formulated, as well as 24 propositions about forces’ configuration in the current context of Portuguese PA that represent the specific constellation of forces acting in IS interoperability initiatives in that country. The results of this study provide an understanding of the complex of forces acting in IS interoperability, contributing to improve the study, management, and implementation of these initiatives and, consequently, to the establishment of a PA with more adequate, sustained, and sustainable levels of interoperability

Relationships of technical, semantic, and organizational factors on electronic government information systems interoperability in Jordan

Information systems (IS) interoperability has been considered from the main characteristic of successful electronic government (e-Government) projects in the past twenty years. As information systems and technologies are being developed and improved, debates on their success have been constantly discussed by researchers and scholars. Achieving interoperability among different organizations is a complex task and affected by various aspects. Previous studies have shown that many e-Government projects in developing countries, like Jordan have encountered various problems after the implementation phase. Hence, the objective of this study is to develop an e-Government IS interoperability model for the public sector in Jordan. This study examined the technical, semantic, organizational, and information technology (IT) capability factors that impact IS interoperability focusing on IS interoperability as the key concept to reach successful implementation of interoperability in Jordanian government. To explore the study constructs and their relationships a variety of published literatures concerning the scope of the study has been critically reviewed. Data were collected using the survey method, and 335 questionnaires were distributed to IT staff in 25 Jordanian ministries. Two hundred and thirty one usable questionnaires were returned. The data were analyzed using the partial least squares-structural equation modeling technique (PLS-SEM). The findings revealed that the technical factors (IT infrastructure, security and privacy), a semantic factor (standardization), organizational factors (business process management, IT human resources, return on investment, and risk management), and IT capability (IT knowledge and IT operations) positively affected IS interoperability. On contrary, there was no moderating effect of the IT capability in the relationship between technical, semantic, and organizational factors and IS interoperability among ministries in Jordan. Technical, semantic, organizational, and IT capability factors are good for promoting e-Government IS interoperability

Interopérabilité des éléments de métadonnées : vers une approche sémantique

Dans le contexte aussi ouvert et évolutif que celui du Web, les ressources à décrire se sont diversifiées créant ainsi de nouveaux besoins de description auxquels un schéma générique tel que le Dublin Core ne pouvait répondre. De nombreux schémas de métadonnées ont été ainsi développés, le plus souvent sans aucune concertation; les concepteurs étant généralement guidés par la nécessité de répondre à des objectifs spécifiques de leurs communautés respectives. Cette prolifération des schémas est à l'origine de plusieurs problèmes, notamment celui de l'interopérabilité des éléments de métadonnées. L'interopérabilité des métadonnées peut être considérée selon deux niveaux: syntaxique et sémantique. Le niveau syntaxique porte sur la structure des messages échangés et vise à garantir la cohérence dans la manière dont les informations échangées sont représentées. C'est ici qu'entre en jeu le langage XML qui fournit un format de données standard pour permettre l'échange de données entres systèmes hétérogènes. Le niveau sémantique porte sur la signification des messages. Son rôle est de s'assurer que les échanges qui s'effectuent conservent leur sens afin que les parties communicantes aient une compréhension commune de la signification des données qu'elles s'échangent. L'interopérabilité sémantique est actuellement considérée comme le problème le plus important qui affecte la qualité de la recherche et de l'échange d'information. La solution à ce problème d'interopérabilité des métadonnées repose sur une approche centrée sur les communautés d'intérêt. En effet, les niveaux de difficulté et les défis à relever sont d'autant plus grands que l'on s'éloigne d'une communauté spécifique donnée et les coûts pour atteindre l'interopérabilité augmentent sans que la qualité des résultats soit garantie. Par contre, au sein d'un même domaine de connaissances ou d'une même communauté, l'homogénéité si relative soit-elle, réduit le taille des obstacles à surmonter et rend l'interopérabilité sémantique tout à fait réalisable. Plusieurs techniques ont été proposées afin d'assurer l'interopérabilité des métadonnées. Le mapping est la technique la plus utilisée. Néanmoins, ce processus est extrêmement coûteux surtout lorsque le nombre de schémas devient important et il est peu efficace pour résoudre des problèmes de sémantique puisque, dans la plupart des cas, une intervention humaine est requise. La véritable solution au problème d'interopérabilité des métadonnées s'appuie sur les technologies du Web sémantique et plus particulièrement sur RDF et les ontologies. Malheureusement, le déploiement de ces technologies s'est avéré fort limité du fait de leur complexité et il faut recourir à des solutions transitoires telles que les microformats ou les annotations RDF incorporées (RDFa). Comme les microformats n'offrent pas l'extensibilité et le niveau d'expressivité essentielle à l'interopérabilité, RDFa a été privilégié et est devenu une recommandation du W3C. Cette approche a été testée en prenant comme exemple la future norme ISO/IEC 19788, le Metadata for Learning Resources (MLR). L'utilisation de RDFa permet de distribuer dans le Web sémantique des notices MLR centralisés dans un référentiel de ressources d'enseignement et d'apprentissage. RDFa permet également de répondre aux attentes du Web 2.0 pour la contribution distribuée à l'indexation des ressources en utilisant les étiquettes MLR. Cette approche permet d'ores et déjà de contribuer à la mise en oeuvre du Web sémantique mais la simplicité de cette solution n'élimine pas, en définitive, la nécessité de passer un jour aux ontologies et au langage OWL lesquels offrent une solution générique d'interopérabilité des métadonnées. Le besoin d'outils faciles à utiliser reste un défi de taille pour la recherche sur le Web sémantique d'autant plus que l'indexation des ressources sera de plus en plus un processus distribué

Z-Interop

Final report for the Z39.50 interoperability testbed project, phase 2