Standards And Architectures For NOF Digitisation Projects

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Standards And Architectures For NOF Digitisation
Projects

• Brian Kelly
• UK Web FocusUKOLN
• University of Bath
• Bath, BA2 7AY

Email B.Kelly_at_ukoln.ac.uk URL http//www.ukoln.ac.
uk/
UKOLN is supported by
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Standards, Architectures, Applications, Resources
Architectures models for implementing systems
Standards concerned with protocols and file
formats
Which standards are applicable and how they are
used OS environment NT / Unix File system /
database application HTML tools / content
management
Open standards vs. Proprietary HTML / XML vs.
PDF XML / XSLT vs. HTML / CSS
Applications software products used to implement
systems
Resources financial and staff costs needed to
implement systems
Apache / IIS FrontPage / Dreamweaver Oracle /
SQLServer ColdFusion vs ASP
Development maintenance costs In-house vs.
out-sourced Recruitment retention
issues Licensed vs. open source
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Standards
Before the Web Access to resources typically
required use of software vendors software
which was only available on limited no. of
platforms. Often the software would be
licensed. The goal of the Web was to provide
universal access to resources. Who could argue
with this goal?

• Need for standards to provide
• Platform and application independence
• Avoidance of patented technologies
• Flexibility and architectural integrity
• Long-term access to data
• Ideally look at standards first, then find
  applications which support the standards.
  However it can be difficult to achieve this ideal!

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GIF

• As an example of the dangers of use of
  proprietary solutions, consider the GIF file
  format
• Unisys announce that they hold patent to
  compression algorithm used in GIF images and
  users of GIF will have to pay
• Following much debate, Unisys require payment for
  licence from graphical software developers - and
  also for end users of unlicensed software
  (5,000!)
• Web community responds with PNG format
• See lthttp//burnallgifs.org/gt
• WARNING
• There is no guarantee that payment will not be
  required for proprietary file formats which are
  currently free

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Standards in NOF Context

• Standards are important for NOF projects to
• Address accountability of public funding
• Provide universal access to resources (cf
  disability legislation)
• Allow deliverables to be reused
• Ensure cultural heritage resources can be
  preserved
• The NOF standards document addresses the
  standards using a Life Cycle approach
• Creation
• Management
• Collection development
• Access
• Repackaging

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Architectures

• Let us consider the following areas
• Content Management
• Systems Architecture
• Access (Browser support)

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Content Management

• Storing resources in HTML and GIF/JPEG is
• Easy to do and is a low cost solution
• Makes reuse and management of resources difficult

HTML
GIF /JPEG
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Systems Architecture

• Issues for you to consider
• Operating SystemShould you go for a Unix OS or
  Windows NT?If Unix, should you go for Linux?
• Open Source vs Licensed SolutionShould you go
  for an open source solution or buy a licensed
  application?
• Package vs Do It YourselfShould you make use of
  a pre-packages solution or develop your own
  solution based on a toolkit (e.g. database,
  scripting language, )?

There are no global solutions your choice
should be based on expertise available locally,
resourcing issues, discussions with partners,
solutions provider, etc.
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Browser Issues

• Which approach to browser issues should you take?

Web sites should be usable to old browsers as
these are still in use and we aim to maximise
access. Therefore you should deliver HTML 3.2 /
4.0 and avoid technologies such as JavaScript and
CSS.
Old browsers are broken and fail to implement new
technologies which provide (a) richer
functionality (b) support for new devices and (c)
better support for people with disabilities.
Therefore you should use the latest stable
versions of HTML (XHTML), CSS, etc.

• NOTE
• Use of clean HTML should degrade gracefully
• XHTML is a useful transition format
• User-agent negotiation may be relevant

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Questions

• Any questions?