Advisory Group Meeting 25 May 2006

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Advisory Group Meeting25 May 2006
Create once, use many times
Clever Recordkeeping Metadata Project Advisory
Group Meeting 25 May 2006
CRKM Research Team
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A quick recap

• Sustainability requires moving beyond hand
  crafting crosswalks and hard wiring applications
• Constraints of records management and archival
  processes, technologies and tools developed for
  paper recordkeeping and in application-centric IT
  environments

• First Iteration
• Establish and instantiate a scenario in which to
  explore metadata re-use
• Conceptualise application independent metadata
  translation as a metadata broker, i.e. middleware
• Determine technical environment for the
  prototyping

• Standards not as interoperable as assumed
• Complexity in recordkeeping metadata re-use
• Limitations of current recordkeeping metadata
  standards

• Use XML and XSL technologies to instantiate
  schemas and crosswalks

• Second Iteration
• Develop metadata broker as a cluster of web
  services
• Revise scenario processes in line with continuum
  and SOA view
• Test use of broker within such a framework
• Develop business case for recordkeeping metadata
  in such a framework

• Todays meeting-
• Discuss actions, observations and reflections

Source Kemmis and McTaggert 1988
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CRKM Metadata Broker November 2005
Validation service
Target metadata
Source metadata
Translation service
Crosswalk compilation service
Crosswalk compilation service
Registration
Registry services
Schema information
Repository Machine processable representations of
metadata schemas and crosswalks
Registry Authoritative information on metadata
schemas, metadata elements and crosswalks in
human readable and machine processable forms
Request for Schema
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ebXML Registry

• Two part specification of requirements for object
  repository and associated registry
• ebXML Registry Information Model
• ebXML Registry Services and Protocols
• Availability of freeBXML Registry - open source
  reference implementation of an ebXML Registry
• see http//ebxmlrr.sourceforge.net/

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CRKM Metadata Broker Implementation
CRKM Registry
ebXML Registry

Metadata Broker

Schemas


Crosswalks
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CRKM Descriptive Requirements
Conceptual Model
Metadata/Data Standard
Metadata/Data Standard
Metadata/Data Standard
Version 1
Version 2
Version n
Encoding 1
Encoding 2
Encoding n
Version 1
Version 2
Version n
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CRKM Recordkeeping Requirements

• Need to respect SOA design principles of loose
  coupling and minimal dependencies
• Each component keeps records of its transactions
• ebXML Registry Event Information Model
• AuditableEvent class allows for the event to be
  located in time (timestamp), linked to the agent
  responsible for generating the event (user), and
  the transaction that generated the event
  (requestId).
• Stamp target instance with translation details
• Implications for schema design in incorporating
  metadata about the metadata

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Realising sustainable interoperability
API
EDI
Middleware
Web services
Service oriented architecture
Prototype
Conceptualisation
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Metadata broker as middleware
Records Management Application
Web Management Systems
Archival Gateways
Email and Desktop Applications
Metadata Broker
Subject Portals
Community Archives
Archival Management Application
Business Information Systems
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Metadata broker as web services cluster
Source instance
Target instance
Metadata Broker Client
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Service oriented architectures
Recordkeeping Services
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Recordkeeping services in SOA
Metadata Broker
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Conclusions

• Extent to which paper paradigms still dominate
  recordkeeping practice
• Why the service oriented paradigm is desirable
  for recordkeeping
• Point to the degree of re-thinking required in
  the profession to make recordkeeping in such
  environments a reality
• Highlight the infrastructure required to support
  clever metadata, particularly the role of
  registries at different levels of operation and
  granularity

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Conclusions (continued)

• For schema and standard developers
• Moving from compliance to interoperability
  requires rigorous conceptual modelling
  translatable into unambiguous and precise
  representations for machine processing
• Need for identification and descriptive
  frameworks for schemas to facilitate their use