26 January 2011
When supercomputers meet the Semantic Web… - semanticweb.com
When supercomputers meet the Semantic Web… - semanticweb.com: "Despite everything that has happened over the years, from technological advances to organisational wobbles, bankruptcies and buy-outs, the name retains a certain cachet. They make super computers! Their computers come (came) with seats and bubbling coolant systems and everything! To someone growing up with early examples of rudimentary computing in the home, Cray was the stuff of Tomorrow’s World, Bond villains, and more. This was what real computers were all about."
Microformats and RDFa deployment across the Web « Tripletalk
Microformats and RDFa deployment across the Web « Tripletalk: "Microformats and RDFa deployment across the Web
Posted January 25, 2011
Filed under: Uncategorized |
I have presented on previous occasions (at Semtech 2009, SemTech 2010, and later at FIA Ghent 2010, see slides for the latter, also in ISWC 2009) some information about microformat and RDFa deployment on the Web. As such information is hard to come by, this has generated some interest from the audience. Unfortunately, Q&A time after presentations is too short to get into details, hence some additional background on how we obtained this data and what it means for the Web. This level of detail is also important to compare this with information from other sources, where things might be measured differently."
Posted January 25, 2011
Filed under: Uncategorized |
I have presented on previous occasions (at Semtech 2009, SemTech 2010, and later at FIA Ghent 2010, see slides for the latter, also in ISWC 2009) some information about microformat and RDFa deployment on the Web. As such information is hard to come by, this has generated some interest from the audience. Unfortunately, Q&A time after presentations is too short to get into details, hence some additional background on how we obtained this data and what it means for the Web. This level of detail is also important to compare this with information from other sources, where things might be measured differently."
LITA Standards Task Force White Paper | ALA Connect
LITA Standards Task Force White Paper | ALA Connect: "As part of the strategic initiatives, LITA believes it needs to be an active participant in the creation and adoption of standards that align with the library technology community. The LITA Executive Committee approved the creation of a LITA Standards Task Force in March, 2010. The Task Force was charged to:
● Explore and recommend strategies and initiatives LITA can implement to become more active in the creation and adoption of new technology related standards that align with the library community.
● Propose an organizational structure that will support and sustain LITA's increased involvement in the standards arena both within ALA and beyond."
● Explore and recommend strategies and initiatives LITA can implement to become more active in the creation and adoption of new technology related standards that align with the library community.
● Propose an organizational structure that will support and sustain LITA's increased involvement in the standards arena both within ALA and beyond."
Catalogablog: Metadata Scheme for the Publication and Citation of Research Data
Catalogablog: Metadata Scheme for the Publication and Citation of Research Data: "The DataCite Metadata Scheme is a list of core metadata properties chosen for the accurate and consistent identification of data for citation and retrieval purposes, along with recommended use instructions. At a minimum, the mandatory metadata scheme properties must be provided at the time of identifier registration. Data centres and other submitters may also choose to use the optional properties to identify their data more clearly. This metadata scheme can fulfill several key functions in support of the larger goals of DataCite. Primarily these are:"
: IFLA World Report 2010 :
: IFLA World Report 2010 :: "The World Report series is a biennial report series that reports on the state of the world in terms of freedom of access to information, freedom of expresion and related issues. The reports are available online at http://www.ifla.org/en/publications/iflafaife-world-report-series and can be downloaded free of charge. The 2010 Report has been designed as a customizable interactive electronic publication and can be accessed in different formats through the maps below:"
23 January 2011
Open Knowledge Foundation Blog » Blog Archive » More library-related open data!
Open Knowledge Foundation Blog » Blog Archive » More library-related open data!: "Open Knowledge Foundation Blog
More library-related open data!
January 5th, 2009
You may have heard that lcsh.info - which explored how Library of Congress Subject Headings could be represented as a Semantic Web application - was closed down last month.
The good news is that there are now two new projects publishing library-related open data:
http://ckan.net/package/read/iconclass
http://ckan.net/package/read/hud-library-usagedata"
More library-related open data!
January 5th, 2009
You may have heard that lcsh.info - which explored how Library of Congress Subject Headings could be represented as a Semantic Web application - was closed down last month.
The good news is that there are now two new projects publishing library-related open data:
http://ckan.net/package/read/iconclass
http://ckan.net/package/read/hud-library-usagedata"
Open Knowledge Foundation Blog » Blog Archive » Introducing GetTheData.org: Ask and Answer Data Related Questions
Open Knowledge Foundation Blog » Blog Archive » Introducing GetTheData.org: Ask and Answer Data Related Questions: "Introducing GetTheData.org: Ask and Answer Data Related Questions
January 20th, 2011
The following post is by Tony Hirst, who has been working with Rufus Pollock of the Open Knowledge to create http://GetTheData.org/, a new question and answer site for data-related questions.
Where can I find a list of airports with their locations? Where can I find historical weather data? How do I find the county from a postcode or a state from a zipcode? How do I find a book title from its ISBN? What’s the best tool(s) for scraping data from websites? Is there a way to get RDF Linked Data in a format that you can use?"
January 20th, 2011
The following post is by Tony Hirst, who has been working with Rufus Pollock of the Open Knowledge to create http://GetTheData.org/, a new question and answer site for data-related questions.
Where can I find a list of airports with their locations? Where can I find historical weather data? How do I find the county from a postcode or a state from a zipcode? How do I find a book title from its ISBN? What’s the best tool(s) for scraping data from websites? Is there a way to get RDF Linked Data in a format that you can use?"
Go To Hellman: eBook Identifier Confusion Shakes Book Industry
Go To Hellman: eBook Identifier Confusion Shakes Book Industry: "The Book Industry has been experiencing tectonic shifts as it moves from the solid foundation of print-based production and distribution to digital forms. The so-called 'supply chain' is a long-standing edifice of the book industry being shaken by the resulting quakes. One of the strings holding the supply chain together is the ISBN, and it has proven to be reasonably robust. Still, there's been enough 'damage' to the ISBN and the supply chain it holds together that many participants in the book industry have been concerned for its integrity. (I wrote about the situation in July.)"
DigitalKoans » Blog Archive » Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography, Version 2
DigitalKoans » Blog Archive » Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography, Version 2: "Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography, Version 2
Version 2 of the Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography is now available from Digital Scholarship as an XHTML website with live links to many included works. This selective bibliography includes over 500 articles, books, and technical reports that are useful in understanding digital curation and preservation. All included works are in English. It is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License."
Version 2 of the Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography is now available from Digital Scholarship as an XHTML website with live links to many included works. This selective bibliography includes over 500 articles, books, and technical reports that are useful in understanding digital curation and preservation. All included works are in English. It is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License."
[1101.3186] Data Preservation in High Energy Physics
[1101.3186] Data Preservation in High Energy Physics: "Data from high-energy physics (HEP) experiments are collected with significant financial and human effort and are in many cases unique. At the same time, HEP has no coherent strategy for data preservation and re-use, and many important and complex data sets are simply lost. In a period of a few years, several important and unique experimental programs will come to an end, including those at HERA, the b-factories and at the Tevatron. An inter-experimental study group on HEP data preservation and long-term analysis (DPHEP) was formed and a series of workshops were held to investigate this issue in a systematic way. The physics case for data preservation and the preservation models established by the group are presented, as well as a description of the transverse global projects and strategies already in place."
ALCTS E-Forum on Digital Preservation | Celeripedean
ALCTS E-Forum on Digital Preservation | Celeripedean: "There was also a considerable amount of discussion around difficult file formats, especially challenges with video. It’s also really clear that a lot of people are trying to find ways to get institutional support and a sensible infrastructure for digital preservation activities. Creating relevant policies, effectively engaging administrators, and planning with few resources are clearly things all of those in this area have in common."
Personanondata: BISG eBook ISBN Study Findings Released
Personanondata: BISG eBook ISBN Study Findings Released: "BISG eBook ISBN Study Findings Released
BISG held a meeting last Thursday to review the findings from the eBook ISBN study which I conducted for the group. BISG intends to use this study as a first step in defining what the industry should do to identify eBooks and eContent for the future."
BISG held a meeting last Thursday to review the findings from the eBook ISBN study which I conducted for the group. BISG intends to use this study as a first step in defining what the industry should do to identify eBooks and eContent for the future."
Perceptions OCLC Membership Report [OCLC]
Perceptions OCLC Membership Report [OCLC]: "OCLC releases new membership report: Perceptions of Libraries, 2010: Context and Community
DUBLIN, Ohio, USA, 20 January 2011—Americans are using libraries a lot more as the economic downturn has impacted lives, careers and incomes. Americans see increased value in libraries and the value that libraries provide to their communities, and report even stronger appreciation of the value librarians bring to the information search experience, according to a new membership report by OCLC, a nonprofit library services and research organization.
Perceptions of Libraries, 2010: Context and Community is a follow-up to the 2005 Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources. The new report provides updated information and new insights into information consumers and their online information habits, preferences and perceptions. Particular attention was paid to how the current economic downturn has affected information-seeking behaviors and how those changes are reflected in the use and perception of libraries."
DUBLIN, Ohio, USA, 20 January 2011—Americans are using libraries a lot more as the economic downturn has impacted lives, careers and incomes. Americans see increased value in libraries and the value that libraries provide to their communities, and report even stronger appreciation of the value librarians bring to the information search experience, according to a new membership report by OCLC, a nonprofit library services and research organization.
Perceptions of Libraries, 2010: Context and Community is a follow-up to the 2005 Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources. The new report provides updated information and new insights into information consumers and their online information habits, preferences and perceptions. Particular attention was paid to how the current economic downturn has affected information-seeking behaviors and how those changes are reflected in the use and perception of libraries."
Go To Hellman: 2010 Summary: Libraries are Still Screwed
Go To Hellman: 2010 Summary: Libraries are Still Screwed: "In mathematics, catastrophe theory is the study of nonlinear dynamical systems which exhibit points or curves of singularity. The behavior of systems near such points is characterized by sudden and dramatic changes resulting from even very small perturbations. The simplest sort of catastrophe is the fold catastrophe."
19 January 2011
The State of Open Data in Europe
UNCHARTERED WATERS
The State of Open Data in Europe
Alexander Schellong Ekaterina Stepanets
Opening up government data to the public has been part of the European policy agenda since the
introduction of the PSI directive in 2003. European Member States continue to lean towards a cautious
approach of making their data available to citizens. This is partly caused by conflicting legal frameworks,
cultural norms and the idea to recover the costs of data production. At the same time and inspired by
activities in the U.S. and UK, the open data movement has emerged in many countries around the globe.
They have a simple demand: Government agencies should put as much of their data online as possible in
a machine-readable format so that everyone can re-use it since they were paid for by taxes. This study
analyses the current state of the open data policy ecosystem and open government data offerings in nine
European Member States. Since none of the countries studied currently offers a national open data
portal, this study compares the statistics offices’ online data offerings. The analysis shows that they fulfill
a number of open data principles but that there is still a lot of room for improvement. This study underlines that the development of data catalogues and portals should not be seen as means to an end
17 January 2011
IBM Identifies Analytics, Cloud Computing as Key in IT Rebound
IBM Identifies Analytics, Cloud Computing as Key in IT Rebound: "New research commissioned by IBM (news, site) suggests that most mid-sized companies have put the recession behind them and will be focusing on the deployment of new technologies, particularly analytics, over the next 12 months. "
Personanondata: BISG eBook ISBN Study Findings Released
Personanondata: BISG eBook ISBN Study Findings Released: "BISG eBook ISBN Study Findings Released
BISG held a meeting last Thursday to review the findings from the eBook ISBN study which I conducted for the group. BISG intends to use this study as a first step in defining what the industry should do to identify eBooks and eContent for the future.
Here is a link to the summary presentation. BISG plans to distribute the full report in some form within the next few weeks."
BISG held a meeting last Thursday to review the findings from the eBook ISBN study which I conducted for the group. BISG intends to use this study as a first step in defining what the industry should do to identify eBooks and eContent for the future.
Here is a link to the summary presentation. BISG plans to distribute the full report in some form within the next few weeks."
16 January 2011
FUMSI Article: ISKO UK's Legal Know-How Event: Organization & Semantic Analysis
FUMSI Article: ISKO UK's Legal Know-How Event: Organization & Semantic Analysis: "ISKO UK is a not-for-profit scientific/professional association with the objective of promoting research and communication in the domain of knowledge organisation. The Legal Know-How event was held with the support of the Department of Information Studies, University College London (http://www.slais.ucl.ac.uk) on 10 November 2010, attracting over 80 participants. There were six excellent presentations (slides available from http://digbig.com/5bdate) from the field of legal knowledge organisation, kicked off with a legal practitioner's viewpoint, then through practical knowledge management work, to exciting research into using ontologies and challenges for the future."
Turning the page: The future of eBooks
Turning the page: The future of eBooks: "This new study examines trends and developments in the eBooks and eReaders market in the United States, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany, and discusses major challenges and key questions for the publishing industry worldwide. It also identifies market opportunities and developments for eBooks and eReaders, and makes recommendations for publishers, traditional retailers, online retailers, and intermediaries.
Given that publishers, internet bookstores, and companies that manufacture eReaders have high expectations for the digital future of the book industry, the study asks if a new generation of eReaders may, at last, achieve the long-awaited breakthrough that lures consumers away from paper and ink."
Given that publishers, internet bookstores, and companies that manufacture eReaders have high expectations for the digital future of the book industry, the study asks if a new generation of eReaders may, at last, achieve the long-awaited breakthrough that lures consumers away from paper and ink."
Open Knowledge Foundation Blog » Blog Archive » Opening up linguistic data at the American National Corpus
Open Knowledge Foundation Blog » Blog Archive » Opening up linguistic data at the American National Corpus: "The American National Corpus (ANC) project is creating a collection of texts produced by native speakers of American English since 1990. Its goal is to provide at least 100 million words of contemporary language data covering a broad and representative range of genres, including but not limited to fiction, non-fiction, technical writing, newspaper, spoken transcripts of various verbal communications, as well as new genres (blogs, tweets, etc.). The project, which began in 1998, was originally motivated by three major groups: linguists, who use corpus data to study language use and change; dictionary publishers, who use large corpora to identify new vocabulary and provide examples; and computational linguists, who need very large corpora to develop robust language models—that is, to extract statistics concerning patterns of lexical, syntactic, and semantic usage—that drive natural language understanding applications such as machine translation and information search and retrieval (à la Google)."
Europeana - Europeana's Strategic Plan 2011-2015 - Europeana News - group
Europeana - Europeana's Strategic Plan 2011-2015 - Europeana News - group: "Europeana's Strategic Plan 2011-2015
January 14, 2011 10:08 AM
The Plan sets out a clear vision for the further development of Europeana. It focuses on four strategic tracks - aggregate, facilitate, distribute and engage - that will enable us to generate real value for our stakeholders.
In the light of the release this week of The New Renaissance, the Comité des Sages’ report on digital cultural heritage to the Commission, this is an opportune moment to look at Europeana’s future direction. Download the full colour version or the black and white print version of the Strategic Plan 2011-2015."
January 14, 2011 10:08 AM
The Plan sets out a clear vision for the further development of Europeana. It focuses on four strategic tracks - aggregate, facilitate, distribute and engage - that will enable us to generate real value for our stakeholders.
In the light of the release this week of The New Renaissance, the Comité des Sages’ report on digital cultural heritage to the Commission, this is an opportune moment to look at Europeana’s future direction. Download the full colour version or the black and white print version of the Strategic Plan 2011-2015."
13 January 2011
VocabControl » Online Information Conference – day two
VocabControl » Online Information Conference – day two: "Linked Data in Libraries
I stayed in the Linked Data track for Day 2 of the Online Information Conference, very much enjoying Karen Coyle’s presentation on metadata standards - FRBR, FRSAR, FRAD, RDA - and Sarah Bartlett’s enthusiasm for using Linked Data to throw open bibliographic data to the world so that fascinating connections can be made. She explained that while the physical sciences have been well mapped and a number of ontologies are available, far less work has been done in the humanities. She encouraged humanities researchers to extend RDF and develop it."
I stayed in the Linked Data track for Day 2 of the Online Information Conference, very much enjoying Karen Coyle’s presentation on metadata standards - FRBR, FRSAR, FRAD, RDA - and Sarah Bartlett’s enthusiasm for using Linked Data to throw open bibliographic data to the world so that fascinating connections can be made. She explained that while the physical sciences have been well mapped and a number of ontologies are available, far less work has been done in the humanities. She encouraged humanities researchers to extend RDF and develop it."
Nodalities » Blog Archive » A Year of Open Government Data: Transparency, but also Innovation
Nodalities » Blog Archive » A Year of Open Government Data: Transparency, but also Innovation: "A Year of Open Government Data: Transparency, but also Innovation
12th January 2011, 05:32 pm by Zach Beauvais In: linked data
Towards the end of 2010, Wikileaks generates many headlines as it publishes information on the web, causing controversy and leading to talk about politicians hiding information from the public. Reporters and commentators express shock or admiration when telling the story of a rogue organisation making governmental information public. What has not been as mainstream is that for the past year or more, governments around the world have been doing something very similar themselves: publishing information online."
12th January 2011, 05:32 pm by Zach Beauvais In: linked data
Towards the end of 2010, Wikileaks generates many headlines as it publishes information on the web, causing controversy and leading to talk about politicians hiding information from the public. Reporters and commentators express shock or admiration when telling the story of a rogue organisation making governmental information public. What has not been as mainstream is that for the past year or more, governments around the world have been doing something very similar themselves: publishing information online."
What to expect in EPUB3 - O'Reilly Radar
What to expect in EPUB3 - O'Reilly Radar: "Just as publishers are wrapping their heads — and workflows — around the current version of EPUB, a new release is scheduled for May. The EPUB3 draft is set to publish for comment later this month, giving publishers and developers their first blush at what the release will mean to them.
In the following interview, Bob Kasher, business development manager for integrated solutions at Book Masters and a member of the International Digital Publishing Forum EPUB Working Group, highlights some of the changes the new version will bring to the publishing industry. Kasher is scheduled to speak in depth on EPUB3 at February's Tools of Change for Publishing conference in New York."
In the following interview, Bob Kasher, business development manager for integrated solutions at Book Masters and a member of the International Digital Publishing Forum EPUB Working Group, highlights some of the changes the new version will bring to the publishing industry. Kasher is scheduled to speak in depth on EPUB3 at February's Tools of Change for Publishing conference in New York."
Home - Yourtopia.net
Home - Yourtopia.net: "The idea: Construct a measure of social progress world-wide based on your preferences for development. Participate in a global effort to improve tracing of humanity's progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.
More about YourTopia »"
More about YourTopia »"
12 January 2011
Academic Bibliography data available from Acta Cryst E | Open Biblio (graphic) Projects
Academic Bibliography data available from Acta Cryst E | Open Biblio (graphic) Projects: "he bibliographic data from Acta Cryst E, a publication by the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr), has been extracted and made available with their consent.
You can find a SPARQL endpoint for the data here and the full dataset here.
I have also geocoded a number of the affiliations of the authors, plotting them on a timemap (visualising the time of publication against the location of the authors), and you can see this at this location."
You can find a SPARQL endpoint for the data here and the full dataset here.
I have also geocoded a number of the affiliations of the authors, plotting them on a timemap (visualising the time of publication against the location of the authors), and you can see this at this location."
OPDS Catalog 1.0
OPDS Catalog 1.0: "The Open Publication Distribution System (OPDS) Catalog format is a syndication format for electronic publications based on Atom and HTTP. OPDS Catalogs enable the aggregation, distribution, discovery, and acquisition of electronic publications. OPDS Catalogs use existing or emergent open standards and conventions, with a priority on simplicity."
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/digital_libraries/doc/reflection_group/final-report-cdS3.pdf
REPORT OF THE ‘COMITÉ DES SAGES’
REFLECTION GROUP ON BRINGING EUROPE’S
CULTURAL HERITAGE ONLINE
07 January 2011
SLA Taxonomy Division - SLA Taxonomy - SLA's Wiki Spaces
SLA Taxonomy Division - SLA Taxonomy - SLA's Wiki Spaces: "Welcome to the home page for the SLA Taxonomy Division. We are very pleased to have you visit us here.
In this space you will find an increasing resource of information on Controlled Vocabularies including Taxonomies, Thesauri, Ontologies, Terminologies, and other Knowledge Organization and Classification Systems. We encourage you to contribute!"
In this space you will find an increasing resource of information on Controlled Vocabularies including Taxonomies, Thesauri, Ontologies, Terminologies, and other Knowledge Organization and Classification Systems. We encourage you to contribute!"
FreePint Newsletter: 317
FreePint Newsletter: 317: "My Favourite Tipples
By Heather Hedden
Taxonomist Tipples
As a consultant and trainer in the field of taxonomies, people have often asked me what resources I would recommend for doing taxonomy work. There are various useful sites, including blogs, the collected presentations and articles of taxonomy consultancies, professional organization sites, and sites that are collections of links to publicly accessible taxonomy examples. Following are some resources that cover all the basics of taxonomies for those, by accident or not, find themselves working as taxonomists."
By Heather Hedden
Taxonomist Tipples
As a consultant and trainer in the field of taxonomies, people have often asked me what resources I would recommend for doing taxonomy work. There are various useful sites, including blogs, the collected presentations and articles of taxonomy consultancies, professional organization sites, and sites that are collections of links to publicly accessible taxonomy examples. Following are some resources that cover all the basics of taxonomies for those, by accident or not, find themselves working as taxonomists."
FreePint Newsletter: 317
FreePint Newsletter: 317: " My Favourite Tipples
By Heather Hedden
Taxonomist Tipples
As a consultant and trainer in the field of taxonomies, people have often asked me what resources I would recommend for doing taxonomy work. There are various useful sites, including blogs, the collected presentations and articles of taxonomy consultancies, professional organization sites, and sites that are collections of links to publicly accessible taxonomy examples. Following are some resources that cover all the basics of taxonomies for those, by accident or not, find themselves working as taxonomists."
By Heather Hedden
Taxonomist Tipples
As a consultant and trainer in the field of taxonomies, people have often asked me what resources I would recommend for doing taxonomy work. There are various useful sites, including blogs, the collected presentations and articles of taxonomy consultancies, professional organization sites, and sites that are collections of links to publicly accessible taxonomy examples. Following are some resources that cover all the basics of taxonomies for those, by accident or not, find themselves working as taxonomists."
OCLC and The Combined Regions announce plans to launch first Web [OCLC]
OCLC and The Combined Regions announce plans to launch first Web [OCLC]: "updates and offers
News releases
OCLC and The Combined Regions announce plans to launch Web-based public library national union catalogue in UK
BIRMINGHAM, UK, 06 January 2011—
New shared Web catalogue to boost visibility and usage of public library resources
OCLC and The Combined Regions (TCR) have announced plans to launch Britain's first freely accessible national public library union catalogue. Containing the bibliographic data from 80% of the UK's public libraries, the service will make it possible for Web users to simultaneously search 9 million bibliographic records and 50 million holdings.
Leveraging information already indexed in WorldCat, the world's largest online resource for finding library materials, this customised union catalogue will provide a view of holdings contributed by the 149 local authorities with a current full package subscription to UnityUK, the UK's only nationwide network for resource sharing.
The initiative will make bibliographic data more discoverable on the open Web. Indexing of WorldCat data through search engines such as Google and Yahoo! will vastly improve awareness of public library resources and drive significantly increased traffic back to local libraries."
News releases
OCLC and The Combined Regions announce plans to launch Web-based public library national union catalogue in UK
BIRMINGHAM, UK, 06 January 2011—
New shared Web catalogue to boost visibility and usage of public library resources
OCLC and The Combined Regions (TCR) have announced plans to launch Britain's first freely accessible national public library union catalogue. Containing the bibliographic data from 80% of the UK's public libraries, the service will make it possible for Web users to simultaneously search 9 million bibliographic records and 50 million holdings.
Leveraging information already indexed in WorldCat, the world's largest online resource for finding library materials, this customised union catalogue will provide a view of holdings contributed by the 149 local authorities with a current full package subscription to UnityUK, the UK's only nationwide network for resource sharing.
The initiative will make bibliographic data more discoverable on the open Web. Indexing of WorldCat data through search engines such as Google and Yahoo! will vastly improve awareness of public library resources and drive significantly increased traffic back to local libraries."
Cloud-sourcing Research Collections Report Announcement [OCLC]
Cloud-sourcing Research Collections Report Announcement [OCLC]: "DUBLIN, Ohio, USA, 6 January 2011—This report presents findings from a year-long study designed and executed by OCLC Research, the HathiTrust, New York University's Elmer Bobst Library, and the Research Collections Access & Preservation (ReCAP) consortium, with support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The objective of the project was to examine the feasibility of outsourcing management of low-use print books held in academic libraries to shared service providers, including large-scale print and digital repositories. The study assessed the opportunity for library space saving and cost avoidance through the systematic and intentional outsourcing of local management operations for digitized books to shared service providers and progressive downsizing of local print collections in favor of negotiated access to the digitized corpus and regionally consolidated print inventory."
The objective of the project was to examine the feasibility of outsourcing management of low-use print books held in academic libraries to shared service providers, including large-scale print and digital repositories. The study assessed the opportunity for library space saving and cost avoidance through the systematic and intentional outsourcing of local management operations for digitized books to shared service providers and progressive downsizing of local print collections in favor of negotiated access to the digitized corpus and regionally consolidated print inventory."
04 January 2011
Catalogablog: New Vocabularies Added to LC Authorities and Vocabularies Service
Catalogablog: New Vocabularies Added to LC Authorities and Vocabularies Service: "Good news from LC more linked data.
The Library of Congress is pleased to make available new vocabularies from its Authorities and Vocabularies web service (ID.LOC.GOV), which provides access to Library of Congress standards and vocabularies as Linked Data. The new additions include :
MARC Code List for Countries
MARC Code List for Geographic Areas
MARC Code List for Languages"
The Library of Congress is pleased to make available new vocabularies from its Authorities and Vocabularies web service (ID.LOC.GOV), which provides access to Library of Congress standards and vocabularies as Linked Data. The new additions include :
MARC Code List for Countries
MARC Code List for Geographic Areas
MARC Code List for Languages"
MagicTile - geometrical and topolgical analogues of Rubik's Cube
MagicTile - geometrical and topolgical analogues of Rubik's Cube: "...and many more!
This program aims to support twisty puzzles based on regular polygonal tilings having Schlafli symbols of the form {p,3} for any p>=2. That is, all regular tilings of polygons with two or more sides, where three tiles (puzzle faces) meet at a vertex. The Rubik's cube is the special case where faces are squares (p=4). The other familiar special cases are the Megaminx (p=5) and the Pyraminx (p=3), although you'll discover the last takes a slightly different form under this abstraction (akin to Jing's Pyraminx). All the other puzzles are new as far as I know, and some may be surprising, e.g. the puzzles based on digons (p=2)."
This program aims to support twisty puzzles based on regular polygonal tilings having Schlafli symbols of the form {p,3} for any p>=2. That is, all regular tilings of polygons with two or more sides, where three tiles (puzzle faces) meet at a vertex. The Rubik's cube is the special case where faces are squares (p=4). The other familiar special cases are the Megaminx (p=5) and the Pyraminx (p=3), although you'll discover the last takes a slightly different form under this abstraction (akin to Jing's Pyraminx). All the other puzzles are new as far as I know, and some may be surprising, e.g. the puzzles based on digons (p=2)."
Semantic Web New Year's Resolutions - Web Science - the World of the World Wide Web Blog | Nature Publishing Group
Semantic Web New Year's Resolutions - Web Science - the World of the World Wide Web Blog | Nature Publishing Group: "Semantic Web New Year's Resolutions
Posted by James Hendler on Jan 3, 2011
I am using the New Year as an excuse to explore my Semantic Web research agenda. This past year was a great year for the Semantic in industrial uptake, in seeing respect grow in the government open data community, and in seeing a new intake of people at the Semantic Technologies conference in the US and related conferences overseas. (My slideshare talk on the status of the Semantic Web covers some of this)"
Posted by James Hendler on Jan 3, 2011
I am using the New Year as an excuse to explore my Semantic Web research agenda. This past year was a great year for the Semantic in industrial uptake, in seeing respect grow in the government open data community, and in seeing a new intake of people at the Semantic Technologies conference in the US and related conferences overseas. (My slideshare talk on the status of the Semantic Web covers some of this)"
Peter Suber, SPARC Open Access Newsletter, 1/2/11
Peter Suber, SPARC Open Access Newsletter, 1/2/11: "Open access in 2010
The growth of OA over the past year was deep, wide, and steady. While this has been true every year since my first year-end review in 2003, the difficulty of documenting that growth with useful detail has become nearly unmangeable. In fact, this has also been true for several years. At some point --roughly now-- we'll have to accept that OA movement is so large that annual reviews must either be sketchy or come out six months late. To cover the territory in a manageable time, I've long since dropped most new developments in open education, public-sector information, and wikis. I don't even try to list all new individual OA journals, OA repositories, or all new open-data or open-digitization projects. I'm keeping the section I added last year on the recession, since the recession continues to permeate action and policy nearly everywhere.
But with these caveats, here's a feast of the OA highlights from 2010. As always, apologies to the many projects I had to omit.
If you're in a hurry, jump to Section 10 for some highlights of the highlights."
The growth of OA over the past year was deep, wide, and steady. While this has been true every year since my first year-end review in 2003, the difficulty of documenting that growth with useful detail has become nearly unmangeable. In fact, this has also been true for several years. At some point --roughly now-- we'll have to accept that OA movement is so large that annual reviews must either be sketchy or come out six months late. To cover the territory in a manageable time, I've long since dropped most new developments in open education, public-sector information, and wikis. I don't even try to list all new individual OA journals, OA repositories, or all new open-data or open-digitization projects. I'm keeping the section I added last year on the recession, since the recession continues to permeate action and policy nearly everywhere.
But with these caveats, here's a feast of the OA highlights from 2010. As always, apologies to the many projects I had to omit.
If you're in a hurry, jump to Section 10 for some highlights of the highlights."
03 January 2011
Guide to Managing IPR in Digital Repositories | Digital Curation Centre
Guide to Managing IPR in Digital Repositories | Digital Curation Centre: "The final outputs of the JISC TrustDR project, which examined the practical issues in setting up digital rights management systems (DRM) in repositories of learning objects, are now available: Managing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in Digital Learning Materials: A Development Pack for Institutional Repositories. Distributed under a Creative Commons License - Attribution 2.5 UK: Scotland, the pack is aimed at those who are setting up or running digital collections of learning materials that are managed at an institutional level."
Provenance XG Final Report
Provenance XG Final Report: "2. What is provenance
Provenance is too broad a term for it to be possible to have one, universal definition - like other related terms such as 'process', 'accountability', 'causality' or 'identity', we can argue about their meanings forever (and philosophers have indeed debated concepts such as identity or causality for thousands of years without converging). Our goal was to develop a working definition reflecting how the W3C Provenance Incubbator Group views provenance in the context of the Web.
To develop this view, we first the activities reported in the rest of this document. That is, we did not start out trying to agree on a definition of provenance but rather the group came to a shared view once we had a common background and context, based on months of discussions.
2.1 A Working Definition of Provenance
Provenance is a very broad topic that has many meanings in different contexts. The W3C Provenance Incubator Group developed a working definition of provenance on the Web:
Provenance of a resource is a record that describes entities and processes involved in producing and delivering or otherwise influencing that resource. Provenance provides a critical foundation for assessing authenticity, enabling trust, and allowing reproducibility. Provenance assertions are a form of contextual metadata and can themselves become important records with their own provenance."
Provenance is too broad a term for it to be possible to have one, universal definition - like other related terms such as 'process', 'accountability', 'causality' or 'identity', we can argue about their meanings forever (and philosophers have indeed debated concepts such as identity or causality for thousands of years without converging). Our goal was to develop a working definition reflecting how the W3C Provenance Incubbator Group views provenance in the context of the Web.
To develop this view, we first the activities reported in the rest of this document. That is, we did not start out trying to agree on a definition of provenance but rather the group came to a shared view once we had a common background and context, based on months of discussions.
2.1 A Working Definition of Provenance
Provenance is a very broad topic that has many meanings in different contexts. The W3C Provenance Incubator Group developed a working definition of provenance on the Web:
Provenance of a resource is a record that describes entities and processes involved in producing and delivering or otherwise influencing that resource. Provenance provides a critical foundation for assessing authenticity, enabling trust, and allowing reproducibility. Provenance assertions are a form of contextual metadata and can themselves become important records with their own provenance."
02 January 2011
2010 Gov 2.0 Year in Review - O'Reilly Radar
2010 Gov 2.0 Year in Review - O'Reilly Radar: "I recently talked with Federal News Radio anchor Chris Dorobek about Gov 2.0 in 2010 and beyond. While our conversation ranged over a wide variety of topics, it was clear afterwards that I'd missed many of the year's important stories in Gov 2.0 during the relatively short segment. I went back over hundreds of posts on Gov 2.0 at Radar and GovFresh, thousands of tweets and other year-end lists, including Govloop's year in review, Gartner's Top 10 for Government 2.0 in 2010, Bill Allison's end of year review, Andrew P. Wilson's memorables from 2010, Ellen Miller's year in Sunlight 2010, John Wonderlich's 2010 in policy and GovTwit's top Gov 2.0 stories. Following are the themes, moments and achievements that made an impact."
hangingtogether.org » Blog Archive » OCLC Research 2010: Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Preservation and Access
hangingtogether.org » Blog Archive » OCLC Research 2010: Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Preservation and Access: "2010 marked the conclusion of work of the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access. Formed in 2007, the Task Force was an international group convened to examine the issue of economic sustainability in a digital preservation context. Membership included experts from across the digital preservation community, including the public sector, the private sector, cultural heritage, and academia, and reflected a range of expertise, including librarians, archivists, computer scientists, and economists.
The Task Force produced two substantial reports which, provide:
the first comprehensive study of the economics of digital preservation;
a clear definition of the conditions that must be met to achieve economic sustainability in a digital preservation context;
practical, actionable recommendations for achieving economic sustainability, based on detailed analysis of both the economic environment in which preservation decision-making takes place, and the attributes of digital preservation as an economic activity;
a list of priorities for near-term action;
a strong foundation to catalyze additional work on economically sustainable digital preservation."
The Task Force produced two substantial reports which, provide:
the first comprehensive study of the economics of digital preservation;
a clear definition of the conditions that must be met to achieve economic sustainability in a digital preservation context;
practical, actionable recommendations for achieving economic sustainability, based on detailed analysis of both the economic environment in which preservation decision-making takes place, and the attributes of digital preservation as an economic activity;
a list of priorities for near-term action;
a strong foundation to catalyze additional work on economically sustainable digital preservation."
TAI CHI Webinar Series [OCLC - Webinars]
TAI CHI Webinar Series [OCLC - Webinars]: "Technical Advances for Innovation in Cultural Heritage Institutions (TAI CHI) Webinar Series
OCLC Research, on behalf of the RLG Partnership and under the management of Senior Program Officer Roy Tennant, has launched a series of webinars to teach library staff new technology skills and educate them about new products to help increase their productivity in today's changing library, archive and museum environment. The goal of these webinars is to highlight specific innovative applications, often locally developed, that libraries, museums and archives may find effective in their own environments, as well as to teach technical staff new technologies and skills. The series, titled Technical Advances for Innovation in Cultural Heritage Institutions (TAI CHI), has two tracks:"
OCLC Research, on behalf of the RLG Partnership and under the management of Senior Program Officer Roy Tennant, has launched a series of webinars to teach library staff new technology skills and educate them about new products to help increase their productivity in today's changing library, archive and museum environment. The goal of these webinars is to highlight specific innovative applications, often locally developed, that libraries, museums and archives may find effective in their own environments, as well as to teach technical staff new technologies and skills. The series, titled Technical Advances for Innovation in Cultural Heritage Institutions (TAI CHI), has two tracks:"
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