Interoperating: What, Why, and Towards How

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InteroperatingWhat, Why, and Towards How

• Paul Miller
• Interoperability Focus
• UK Office for Library Information Networking
  (UKOLN)
• P.Miller_at_ukoln.ac.uk http//www.ukoln.ac.uk/

UKOLN is funded by Resource the Council for
Museums, Archives and Libraries, the Joint
Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the
Further and Higher Education Funding Councils, as
well as by project funding from JISC and the EU.
UKOLN also receives support from the Universities
of Bath and Hull where staff are based.
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eGovernment
e
New Library the Peoples Network
Joined up Talking
A Netful of Jewels
CIMI.
MEG
the Semantic Web
Culture Online
eUniversity
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National Electronic Library for Health
SCRAN
AMICO
24 Hour Museum.
Joined up Building
ukonline.gov / firstgov.gov / .gov
The Peoples Network
A2A/ Archive Hub
Distributed National Electronic Resource
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Joined up Doing
Interoperability
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What is interoperability?

• to be interoperable,
• one should actively be engaged in the ongoing
  process of ensuring that the systems, procedures
  and culture of an organisation are managed in
  such a way as to maximise opportunities for
  exchange and re-use of information, whether
  internally or externally.

See www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue24/interoperability/
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Why interoperate?

• because, at the end of the day, the user really
  doesnt care which high quality data repository
  gives them the stuff they want
• so long as they can get it!
• because the barriers we erect between ourselves
  serve merely to impede.

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Why interoperate?

• Resources need not respect organisational views
  we impose upon them
• A virtual museum of all Da Vincis work?
• Citizenfocussed access to information and
  services across local, national and international
  government?
• The content of the British Museum available to
  people in a language other than English?
• The paintings of the Louvre, explained to a seven
  yearold?
• Books, archival folios, and physical objects
  relating to a topic available together?.

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Why interoperate?

• Internally
• to manage our information better
• Externally
• to be more visible
• to meet the needs of our (often remote) users
• To avoid (endless?!) duplication of effort and
  resource
• to align with portal, etc., developments
• To minimise manual repackaging of information in
  response to every request, exhiblet, etc..

See www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue24/interoperability/
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How to interoperate

• Depends upon the situation, of course, but

de jure
standards
standards
community
standards!
international
national
de facto
initiative
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The nice thing about standards is that
there are so many to choose from!
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Standard solutions
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Some examples
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JISC

• Joint Information Systems Committee
• to stimulate and enable the costeffective
  exploitation of information systems and to
  provide a high quality national network
  infrastructure
• development not research
• Funded by topslice from the Further and Higher
  Education Funding Councils for England, Scotland,
  Wales, and Northern Ireland
• Funds eLib, the JISC Data Centres, UKOLN, the
  Focus posts, DNER Programme, etc..

See www.jisc.ac.uk/
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eLib

• Electronic Libraries Programme
• Over 15,000,000 of funding for a large number of
  small/mediumsize projects in three Phases
• Plus supporting work such as the MODELS workshops
• Phases 1 2 (now complete) explored
• Electronic Publishing
• e.g. intarch.ac.uk/
• Access to Network Resources (the Subject
  Gateways)
• e.g. www.sosig.ac.uk/
• Training services (e.g. Netskills), Preprint
  services, etc..

See www.ariadne.ac.uk/
See www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib/
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eLib Phase 3

• Building upon success
• Hybrid Libraries
• Large scale resource discovery (Clumps)
• Preservation
• Turning successful Phase 1 2 projects into
  sustainable Services.

See www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib/
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The D N what?

• Distributed National Electronic Resource
• Policy aspiration of the Joint Information
  Systems Committee
• Intended to provide greater access to JISCs
  Current Content Collection
• RDN
• AHDS
• MIMAS/ EDINA/ Data Archive
• EDUSERVE
• COPAC
• eLib projectsetc.

See www.jisc.ac.uk/dner/
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Building the DNER

• Construction of various Portals to facilitate
  usercentric access
• JISC Portal ?
• Data Centre Portals (EDINA, MIMAS)
• Subject Portals (the RDN, etc.)
• Data Type Portals (images, movies, sound)
• Institutional Portals (a Hybrid Library?)
• Personal Portals (Pauls web!)
• Also providing other access to discrete resources.

See www.jisc.ac.uk/dner/
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Building the DNER

• Z39.50 as the glue
• Thus, JISC funding of Bath Profile development,
  working closely with NLC and others around the
  world
• Also looking at Open Archives model
• Technical Standards document in preparation by
  UKOLN and JISC
• will apply immediately to the projects started
  by a 10,000,000 funding allocation this summer
  intended to make the DNER useful for learning and
  teaching
• Technical requirements for contributors already
  written
• What does an AI service need if it wants JISC to
  subscribe, etc

See www.jisc.ac.uk/dner/
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nofdigi

• New Opportunities Fund receives money from the
  UKs National Lottery
• nofdigi programme committing 50,000,000 over
  23 years to digitisation of learning materials
  for use in lifelong learning.
• UKOLN providing coordinated (and partially
  mandatory) technical guidelines across the
  programme, and a support service.

See www.ukoln.ac.uk/nof/support/
See www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk/nof/technicalstandar
ds.html
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UK Online

• All government services available online by 2005
• UK Online brand launched in September. Portal
  etc. to follow.
• Office of the eEnvoy oversees strategy across
  public sector
• (with a big stick when needed)
• Government Interoperability Framework available
• (XML, XML, XML)
• Draft Government Metadata Framework imminent
• (Dublin Core)
• Culture OnLine
• 5,000,000 announced to scope
• Obvious overlap with whats happening in Canada
  and elsewhere.

See www.ukonline.gov.uk/
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Common themes

• whether actual or desirable
• A vision
• Access, Access, Access
• Effective scoping
• Nothing can be all things to all people
• User rather than institutional focus
• Are historical organisational structures really
  relevant?
• A managed programme
• Requires funding, staff, and the power to
  mandate/ coordinate for the common good

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Common themes

• Considered deployment of standards
• Bath Profile, Dublin Core, terminological
  controls, procedural controls, etc.
• Dont just adopt help to shape
• Interoperability Focus is active across a range
  of initiatives.

.