FYI: it's now official, Digital Repository Interoperability has been
approved as an IMS Specification (until now it was a draft spec).
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Press Release: IMS releases new spec that connects digital
content across the Web for eLearning
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 16:28:10 -0500
From: IMS Global Learning Consortium, Inc. <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
*IMS releases new spec that connects digital content across the Web for
eLearning*
/Business, Government, Digital Libraries, Higher Education, and K-12 to
benefit from expanded power to discover, retrieve, store, share, and
deliver digital information and training/
*Burlington, Mass. - March 10, 2003* - IMS Global Learning Consortium
(IMS) today announced the release of its new Digital Repositories
Interoperability (DRI) specification. DRI v1.0 defines a specific set of
functions and protocols that enable diverse eLearning components to
communicate with each other. These functions and protocols draw on XML
technologies such as SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and XQuery,
and established technologies such as Z39.50, developed by the library
community. The specification acknowledges a wide range of content
formats and is applicable internationally to both learning object
repositories, as well as to other traditional content sources such as
libraries and museum collections. The specification is available to the
public without charge at <http://www.imsglobal.org>http://www.imsglobal.org.
"The IMS DRI Specification is very important to corporate training,
government, and education as well as to emerging performance support
applications. DRI enables interoperability and discoverability across
all of the applications and software tools in the eLearning supply
chain. With DRI we can exchange and re-use content," said Tom Barefoot,
Chief Operating Officer of Learning Objects Network, Inc., an Internet
infrastructure company enabling secure commerce in high value digital
content.
*Easier access to digital content*
In a word, DRI enables interoperability, providing an immediate benefit
to the international community of educational content publishers and
users by facilitating easy exchange of content and interaction between
systems. A key feature of the specification is that DRI includes
existing search technologies (Z39.50) that have successfully served the
library community for many years.
"This combination will enable a broad dissemination of third-generation
publishing technologies such as Web Service for content brokerage and
personalization - making DRI a Copernican revolution for publishing in
the digital era," said Fabrizio Cardinali, Chief Executive Officer of
Giunti Interactive Labs, the New Media and eLearning Company of the
Giunti Publishing Group and a leading European R& D company for
eLearning, e-Publishing, and mobile communication.
*International scope*
In keeping with other IMS specifications, DRI encompasses user needs
across education and training sectors and geographic regions. DRI was
developed by an international group of technical experts from higher
education, government agencies, corporations, libraries, and learning
management system vendors.
Neil McLean, Director of IMS Australia, commented, "The DRI
specification marks the first step in creating a globally accessible
network of digital assets of relevance to learning communities. The
challenge now is to extend the specification to ensure effective access
management at the institutional level."
*DRI Evolves from eLearning community*
Building on specifications for meta-data and content packaging, the DRI
recommends XQuery for XML Meta-data Search and simple messaging using
SOAP with Attachments over HTTP for interoperability between
repositories and learning management and content authoring systems.
Recommendations also include use of unique identifier technologies such
as DOI, Open URL, and PURL and future development of search
intermediaries to provide common search across repositories using
XQuery, Z39.50, or SQL. The DRI specification package includes an
information model, a best practices guide, and a binding document.
*Using tools from the Library community
*In building a specification for digital library interoperability, the
DRI group looked to the existing practices of actual libraries. For
decades academic libraries have used internationally recognized
standards such as MARC and Z39.50 for classifying, storing, managing,
and retrieving massive amounts of information resources. The DRI work
group also included participants from OCLC, a global library cooperative
offering services for libraries and their users.
Lorcan Dempsey, Vice President, Research at OCLC commented, "DRI
embraces current library practice as well as emerging approaches in the
online learning space. The library community has had considerable
experience building services layered across distributed repositories and
has earned considerable understanding of the issues that need to be
addressed for such services to work well, such as meta-data consistency,
controlled vocabularies, and digital archiving. Yet the community has
had much to gain from the DRI development process with its focus on
managing complex objects, content packaging, and providing support for
rich learning experiences."
Fretwell-Downing Informatics (FDI), a leading supplier of
standards-based software solutions to libraries worldwide, was another
primary contributor to DRI v1.0.
Robin Murray, FDI Managing Director said, "We are involved in several
initiatives which demonstrate the rapid convergence of the digital
library and eLearning communities. The release of DRI marks an important
milestone in the development of mutual understanding between the two
communities. The strength of DRI lies in its clear definition of the
problem space, its re-use of existing standards and best practices where
appropriate and its forward-looking approach to emerging technologies.
It will prove a useful reference point for building standards-based and
interoperable products in this arena."
*About IMS*
The IMS Global Learning Consortium develops open technical
specifications to support distributed learning. All specifications
developed by IMS are available to the public without charge through the
IMS website. IMS is a non-profit organization supported by a worldwide
consortium that includes 50 Contributing Members and 60 Developers
Network subscribers. The IMS in Europe foundation supports activities
among European members. Information about IMS specifications, on-going
activities, and membership is available at the IMS website
http:// <http://www.imsglobal.org>www.imsglobal.org
<http://www.imsglobal.org>.
*For more information contact:* Caroline Oldershaw, Manager of Marketing
and Public Relations, +1 608-233-3277, [log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the
trademarks of their respective owners.
--
Phil Barker Learning Technology Advisor
ICBL, School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences
Mountbatten Building, Heriot-Watt University,
Edinburgh, EH14 4AS
Tel: 0131 451 3278 Fax: 0131 451 3327
Web: http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/~philb/
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