John,
It's a good dream, and the right one and it's important not to lose sight of
it.
One approach we have been looking at is the possibility of integrating API
'readiness' out-of-the-box for commercial Collections Management Systems. It
seems to us that one of the break points is in the actual process of
'getting your CMS online' - which should in reality be trivial (and will
become more so as more of the system providers come to adopt an Application
Service Provider model).
This wouldn't, of course, get us round the policy and other issues
surrounding online publishing of collections info, but it seems logical to
treat the 'institution' repository in the same way as the 'public' one.
One thing which we have come up against in various research projects
recently is that there is real reluctance from curators to make their data
publicly available. I still hear an awful lot of 'we'll put it online when
it's ready'. Which, of course, it never will be.
How we get past that one?
Nick
Nick Poole
Chief Executive
MDA
www.mda.org.uk
www.collectionslink.org.uk
Tel: 01223 316028
Fax: 01223 364658
MDA (Europe) Ltd: Company Registration No: 1300565
Reg. Office: 22 Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 1JP.
-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John
Faithfull
Sent: 07 February 2008 15:36
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: APIs and EDL
Hi Jeremy,
>My hope (ever the optimist) was that museums would be able to bypass
the step of putting their
>data online themselves, with the technical expertise this can require,
and concentrate on
>providing this data to content aggregators and thence to EDL,
ultimately benefitting from an API
> that would let them present their collections online in their own
context (as well as on the EDL
> sorry, Europeana, portal)
Hmm - I think this depends on what you mean by "putting online". The
technical issues associated with tools and infrastructure to
automatically and sustainably feed updated content to content
aggregators etc, would seem very similar to those of "putting online" by
having access to a webserver somewhere.
>Another way to look at it: just say that future funding from one stream
or another, perhaps your
>local Hub, depended on your organisation depositing a set of data for
use within the EDL, what
>would you want back?
Again, depends what you mean by "depositing a data set". I think a model
which depends on manual gathering, polishing and delivery of data sets
to central hosts, who then tweak it by hand some more, is more or less
doomed before it starts. The challenge (and I don't think it's
impossible (!??!)) is to develop an infrastructure which allows this
process to be automated and sustained, for a diverse range of museums.
I'm not aware of much effort having gone into this so far. It seems a
potentially really useful area to develop.
>Would you have any interest in working with the application that housed
that data, or would you
>not be bothered?
I'm deeply suspicious of this. This has to work as a positively
beneficial service, or it won't happen at all. Resources are so scarce,
that the last thing we need is another obligation. We need stuff that
makes everything easier/cheaper/faster/better rather than having extra
things to do, at extra cost.
>I have no idea if EDL will flourish, let alone if there will ever be
any sort of obligation to
>house your content there, of course, but if it was in there then surely
you'd want to be able to
>play with it?
We can do this now, at least in the Hunterian. All our computerised
records have been online for several years, and all online content
updating is fully automated and hence sustainable. While our service
could undoubtedly be improved, we can do this ourselves, or get project
funding to do so. I don't see any current prospect of any deus ex
machina. I've not seen any central initiatives that offer anything much
in the way of skills or resources which will help. They're more likely
to be a distraction from the actual business of content creation. And
too often, they siphon off sector resources without delivering much...
>As you say, the big issue of decent data is yet to be solved. But if
you have it, and it's in EDL, >then the question is, what would you want
to do with it? EDL could take quite a load off and this >is where we get
to say how.
It's quite enough work for museums to maintain their own collections
managment data. Having to keep an eye on maintainence of separated
chunks of external data would simply not be feasible. Hence the need for
the links to be automated.
Maintain data once, in one place, and automate re-use as much as
possible. I have a dream...
Cheers
John
**************************************************
For mcg information and to manage your subscription to the list, visit the
website at http://www.museumscomputergroup.org.uk
**************************************************
**************************************************
For mcg information and to manage your subscription to the list, visit the website at http://www.museumscomputergroup.org.uk
**************************************************
|