aka: a more detailed response to "eye of newt, wing of bat"
WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO GET OUT OF DC4
===================================
As I am new to this international standard setting
business, the following wish list should be taken as just
that. I have explained below where I am coming from and
why our timeline is probably unreasonably demanding.
With these caveats, here is what I would like to get out
of DC4, or very shortly thereafter:
* An agreed syntax for putting DC metadata, and our
extensions of it, in HTML which allows for our own
requirements by way of both qualifiers / schema (I'm a
bit shaky on terminology here) and new fields.
* A syntax which is relatively easy to type in by hand,
and to understand when reading HTML source.
* Expectations of how this, probably interim, syntax will
migrate to more purpose designed containers.
* Guidance on when to use DC fields with our own
qualifiers, and when to create our own fields (see for
example my discussion paper via
http://www.edna.edu.au/vetwp/ and the issue of whether
to include organisational jurisdiction as a form of
COVERAGE)
* Some recommended assumptions about how metadata using
the recommended syntax will be interpreted by search
engines for example will it be recommended that a
search engine which doesn't know 'EDNA.COVERAGE' would
use the text in 'DC.COVERAGE' as free text content.
* Miscellaneous syntax issues: eg how are multiple values
separated, are multi word values supported (eg is
"training packages, software" different to "training,
software packages") - in vocational education and
training, many important keywords are multiword.
I am also interested in discussing hierarchical content
values. For example "org.school.primary" would be found
in a search for type:"org"
BACKGROUND: WHAT IS EdNA
========================
EdNA (Education Network Australia) is a cooperative
exercise among the sectors of education in Australia.
One aspect of EdNA is the Web site at
http://www.edna.edu.au
Much work has been going on in the background but will
become more public in 1997. From late April onwards we
will be focussing on encouraging teachers and others
involved in education to use EdNA as an avenue for
sharing information about educational resources available
online. A public launch is planned for around October
1997.
My work is specifically with the vocational education and
training side of things. The model we are working on is
that all sorts of people in all sorts of organisation
relevant to education (central agencies, research
organisations, colleges, TAFE institutes, universities,
schools, private training provider etc. etc.) will create
Web pages on many different servers, which will end up
indexed and pointed to by the Directory at the EdNA site.
Some of these organisation will be authorised to submit
entries directly to the EdNA Directory (with some quality
assurance undertakings), other will submit their pages
for inclusion subject to approval by some other
organisation.
In both cases, we want to set a metadata standard which
will minimise the work in administering the entries for
these pages, and maximise the ease and power with which
uses can find the material they want via EdNA searches or
Directory browsing. Conclusions I draw from this model
are:
* metadata needs to be in the HTML itself - at least to
start with, EdNA server then reads and stores it
* the entry of EdNA metadata will be done with many
different tools, including some hand coding and the
format therefore needs to be as easy to enter as
possible (even by typing)
* but we have to provide tools which automate the process
as much as possible to really get people implement it -
to do this we need a relatively stable syntax that we
can implement in software
* the EdNA metadata needs to be as clear as possible when
reading HTML source code.
Thanks
Jack
end =============================================================
Jack Gilding ph: (03)9628-4652
Project Manager, VET EdNA Project fax: (03)9628-2472
Communications & Multimedia Unit [log in to unmask]
OTFE, PO Box 266D Melbourne VIC 3001 http://www.edna.edu.au/vetwp/
(level 4 Rialto Sth Tower 525 Collins Street Melbourne Australia)
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