GDFR Project Update and Governance Presentations
| GDFR | Day 1: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 GDFR Project Update and Governance Presentations |
| Day 2: Thursday, November 15, 2007 GDFR Project Update and Governance Presentations |
Day 1: Wednesday, November 14, 2007
- Global Digital Format Registry (GDFR)
- Workshop Keynote:
GDFR, Roles and Challenges- Overview of the Digital Library Federation (DLF)
- Handle System Governance
- Governance as a Socio-Technical System
- Infrastructure for Preservation
- A Distributed Science-Data-Description Registry/Repository: Implementation and Operational Experience
- Practical Aspects of Managing a Standard, a Registry
- National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP)
- University Perspectives on Governance: MetaArchive Cooperation & DSpace Foundation
- National Software Reference Library: Computer Forensics Tool Testing
"Global Digital Format Registry (GDFR)"
Stephen Abrams, Harvard University Library
Slides: http://www.archives.gov/era/research/abrams.ppt
Mr. Abrams provided an overview of the Global Digital Format Registry project operated by Harvard University Library under a Mellon Foundation grant. The goals and status of GDFR development taking place at the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) was reviewed. The status of the project was discussed covering accomplishments and work that remains. Mr. Abrams stressed that this project covers technical issues of content and system technology, and does not address the succession of the work to a maintaining organization and attendant issues of content, system, and organizational governance; issues to be addressed in this workshop.
Workshop Keynote: Peter Brantley
Executive Director, Digital Library Federation
Due to illness, the keynote speaker, Mr. Peter Brantley, Executive Director of the Digital Library Federation (DLF) was unable to attend the workshop. He provided his presentation slides, however, as well as an mp3 audio file speaking to them. A summary of his talk is included with links to his slides and the audio file.
Mr. Barrie Howard of the DLF graciously agreed to speak on very short notice in Mr. Brantley's absence. He provided an extemporaneous overview of the Digital Library Federation (no slides are available). Mr. Howard's remarks are summarized below.
"GDFR, Roles and Challenges"
Peter Brantley, Digital Library Federation
Slides: http://www.archives.gov/era/research/brantley.ppt ,
Audio: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/brantley/brantley_gdfr.mp3
Addressing the perspective of organizational form, he recommended a 501(c)3 corporation. Of the two forms, (membership-based and charitable) he pointed out that as a charitable organization, donations are allowed. The Board of Directors should represent diverse perspectives. The organization should be driven primarily by governmental and academic organizations rather than commercial ones.
From the outset the organization needs at least an informal business plan emphasizing sustainability, and it is critical to have funds for at least 4-5 yrs. The funds should be sufficient to cover an adequate staff which should be in place at the beginning, rather than building slowly person by person starting with an executive director. For the long term it is advantageous to start early in soliciting and build an endowment. Other funding approaches such as subscription (for what?), pay for use (difficult to engineer), charitable contributions (from whom?) need to be considered as well. Solicitation for contributions to build an endowment should focus on corporations, particularly large ones and those that actually designed formats that need to be sustained for preservation. These early exemplar corporations will serve as attractors for additional contributions from other corporations.
"Overview of the Digital Library Federation (DLF)"
Barrie Howard, Digital Library Federation
[No slides available]
Mr. Howard presented an overview of the DLF which was chartered in 1995 through the efforts of 16 university librarians who realized that the issue of digital libraries had become a recurring theme at conferences. Initially there was no funding for the organization which operated under a charter which was essentially a memorandum of understanding, operating through volunteered time and resources of the university participants. This initial DLF organization defined its goals and mission as well as its future organizational structure and funding model for going forward.
Through a planning grant from IBM, a home was found at the Council of Library Information Resources in 1996, and a single staff member was hired (the Director) in 1997. The DLF was incorporated as a 501(c)3 organization and developed a business plan with the assistance of consultants. The DLF evolved into an incubator organization, fostering projects in digital library technology and application. They see themselves as more of a venture capital firm as opposed to a maintenance organization. Their organizational formula specifies an ideal size of 35-40 members (the latest of which was UCLA, joining last week bringing their membership to 42 organizations).
In their governance model there is the Office of the Executive Director which supports a small staff responsible for setting goals and direction for the Federation, managing day to day activities, and providing oversight of initiative working groups. It is through these working groups that the work is executed in the DLF, drawing on a spirit of volunteerism to the extent possible. Every member has a seat on the Board of Trustees which is the over-arching governing body of the DLF, providing oversight on program activity and initiatives. An Executive Committee acts as a bridge between the Board of Trustees, the DLF Executive Director, and the Council of Library Information Resources and is responsible for governance between Board meetings.
The DLF continues to expand its reach beyond the US, already enjoying the participation of Oxford University, the British Library, and Bibliotheka Alexandrina. The work is done in a distributed fashion, making oceans a small impediment; however, they have found that having occasional face-to-face conferences is an important key to effective operation.
"Handle System Governance"
Laurence Lannom, Corporation for National Research Initiatives
Slides: http://www.archives.gov/era/research/lannom.ppt
Mr. Lannom presented the Handle System which implements a W3C protocol enabling a distributed computer system to store names or handles of digital resources and resolve those handles into the information necessary to locate, access, and otherwise make use of the resources. He described the client-server architecture including its network topology.
The governance of the Handle System was presented covering topics such as policy making, funding, sustainability, and organizational characteristics. Challenges in carrying the Handle work forward were discussed. Lessons-learned that can be valuable to the GDFR undertaking were presented, stressing the need for simplicity of service profile and focus on organizational incentives.
"Governance as a Socio-Technical System"
Kate Ehrlich, IBM Watson Research Center
Slides: http://www.archives.gov/era/research/ehrlich.ppt
Ms. Ehrlich defined governance as the activities surrounding decision-making, tracking, compliance, policy formation, and audit; and then introduced the importance of considering social networks in planning governance. Organizations typically form in a hierarchy designed to execute the business and governance of the organization. However, a social organization inevitably evolves that is the "real" decision making network. Understanding the underlying organization is essential to understanding who the key people are (those whose absence would cause the most disruption to effective operation.) The hierarchical structure's evolution needs to be advised by these considerations. It is important to understand that though governance is often designed along the lines of the hierarchy, understanding where governance is really happening requires considering the underlying socio-technical decision network.
Ms. Ehrlich enumerated specific questions that should be addressed in designing an organization and its governance structure:
- Are technical dependencies aligned with social support networks?
- Is decision-making aligned with the goals of the group?
- Are the decision-makers getting the right information?
- Are some people getting overloaded and becoming bottlenecks for decision-making?
- Is there sufficient awareness of others to coordinate work?
- Are there adequate safe-guards against indispensability of individuals?
"Infrastructure for Preservation"
David Giaretta,
Director of CASPAR Project and
Associate Director, UK Digital Curation Centre
Slides: http://www.archives.gov/era/research/giaretta.ppt
Mr. Giaretta pointed out that there is a gap between information (semantic) and its representation (syntactic). He introduced the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model standard (ISO 14721) wherein an information object is a collection of data objects and representation information objects. Both information objects and data objects are described through representation information objects, enabling both the description of format and semantics.
He then discussed the CASPAR project an EU FP6 integrated project). CASPAR is an open-source project based on open source standards intended to manage the gaps between information and data representation. He discussed the nature of "preservation" and the necessary characteristics of systems that purport to support preserved digital information and data. The challenges of registries and repository trust were discussed.
"A Distributed Science-Data-Description Registry/Repository: Implementation and Operational Experience"
Donald Sawyer, NASA/GSFC, and John Garrett, SPSystems
Slides: http://www.archives.gov/era/research/sawyer.ppt
Mr. Sawyer addressed the organizational characteristics of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) which is a working body for ISO TC20/SC13 responsible for developing science-discipline-independent standards. It contains an Information Interchange Panel to promote the interchange, preservation, and use of space-related information.
For the ingestion and registration of data descriptions, Member Agency Control Authority Offices were established to provide the benefits of a single organization while remaining a loosely federated structure which suits international collaboration. Mr. Sawyer described the operations, policies, and governance structure implemented through the CCSDS Control Authority Office pattern as well as the challenges faced by the organization.
"Practical Aspects of Managing a Standard, a Registry"
Sally H. McCallum, US Library of Congress
Slides: http://www.archives.gov/era/research/mccallum.ppt
Ms. McCallum introduced the "Preservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies" (PREMIS), a working group sponsored by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC). The PREMIS working group aimed to build on the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) reference model (ISO14721) to develop a Data Dictionary of core metadata elements to be applied to archived objects, give guidance on the implementation of that metadata element set in preservation systems, and suggest best practice for populating those elements. Lessons-learned from the experience of maintaining PREMIS were discussed including governance and support facilities. She went on to discuss the governance, organization and funding models of the ISSN (and related) international centers which register international identifiers for such things as books, serials, notated music, etc.
"National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP)"
Caroline Arms and Carl Fleischhauer, US Library of Congress
Slides: http://www.archives.gov/era/research/arms.ppt
The presenters provided an overview of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP). The evolution and maturation of the International Internet Preservation Consortium was presented in terms of its goals, governance, and organization. Member organizations often maintain format registries specialized by the type of information customarily supported by the format, e.g., scholarly literature, engineering, and social science data. Beyond cataloging information about formats, the program assesses formats in terms of long-term sustainability. The NDIIPP "network of networks" organizational principles were discussed in the context of a "stewardship network." The presentation concluded with the suggestion that GDFR stakeholders should be identified that rely on the GDFR services in order to construct an appropriate oversight program. Lessons-learned from the NDIIPP that are germane to the GDFR were summarized.
"University Perspectives on Governance: MetaArchive Cooperation & DSpace Foundation"
Tyler O. Walters, Georgia Tech Library & Information Center
Slides: http://www.archives.gov/era/research/walters.ppt
Mr. Walters presented the lessons-learned in regards to organizational and governance aspects from two organizations: the MetaArchive Cooperative of the Educopia Institute which began as part of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) and the DSpace Foundation which has produced an open-source digital repository system. Modes of sustainability that must be addressed in such organizations were outlined, specifically Organizational, Economic, Technological, and Collections. He elaborated on the difficulties faced by each undertaking in their evolution and the remedies applied. The challenges facing the organizations going forward were summarized, providing a rich source of issues to be addressed in going forward with the GDFR.
"National Software Reference Library: Computer Forensics Tool Testing"
Barbara Guttman, US National Institute of Standards and Technology
Slides: http://www.archives.gov/era/research/guttman.ppt
Ms. Guttman presented an overview of efforts to provide international standard reference data to tool makers that investigators can use in their work and to establish a computer forensic tool testing methodology. She described the National Software Reference Library and the use of its Reference Data Set by law enforcement, investigators, and researchers. The strategies and technologies applied to the system were presented, among them the ability to uniquely "fingerprint" a digital artifact which reliably identifies a file. Testing was emphasized as an essential element in reference efforts stressing well developed specification, peer review of those specifications, and the development of test methodology for quantifying the effectiveness of tools.
| GDFR | Day 1: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 GDFR Project Update and Governance Presentations |
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Day 2: Thursday, November 15, 2007
GDFR Project Update and Governance Presentations |
Day 2: Thursday, November 15, 2007
"Engineering Formats and GDFR Governance"
Josh Lubell,
Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory,
US National Institute of Standards and Technology
Slides: http://www.archives.gov/era/research/lubell.ppt
Mr. Lubell presented pertinent results from a NIST workshop held in April 2007 on "Long Term Sustainment of Digital Information for Science and Engineering." Participants included implementers of the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model standard (ISO 14721), government representatives (NARA, Library of Congress, Navy, US Government Printing Office), and universities. Among the results of the workshop was the identification of the need to collect end-user use-cases and the importance of considering format sustainability factors (disclosure, adoption, transparency, self-documentation, external dependencies, patents, and access restrictions). Though addressed in an engineering context, the sustainability factors are not domain specific. Mr. Lubell noted that format classification schemes will vary by specific domains (e.g., engineering), suggesting that governance and content development will require a coalition of domain-oriented entities. He recommended that the GDFR look at other registry projects that have succeeded, and in particular, at those that have failed to bring that experience to the GDFR organization at the outset.
"Information Discovery, Use and Sharing"
Mary Brady, Information Technology Laboratory,
US National Institute of Standards and Technology
Slides: http://www.archives.gov/era/research/brady.ppt
Ms. Brady presented the challenges of information discovery encountered in diverse domains: medical imaging, computational biology, shape searching (from protein structures to 3-D computer-aided design models), and human language processing (including text, video, and speech). Without the capability of finding specific information in a vast sea of data, innovation is impaired. She stressed the importance of testing methodologies and frameworks drawing examples from XML and ebXML.
"From Stovepipes to Wind-chimes: Advancing Agility Through Communities of Practice"
Susan Turnbull,
US General Services Administration
Slides: http://www.archives.gov/era/research/turnbull.ppt
Ms. Turnbull presented the effectiveness of light-weight, loosely-coupled, grass-roots, federated Communities of Practice as an effective paradigm for collaboration. Drawing from her experience as co-chair of the Emerging Technology Subcommittee of the US cross-agency Architecture Infrastructure Committee, she cited examples of the use of this paradigm such as the Ontolog Forum, the development of the US Federal Enterprise Architecture's Data Reference Model, and the Communities of Practice established by the Emerging Technology Subcommittee. Key tools enabling these Communities of Interest are wiki's and threaded discussion lists.
Page Last Updated: 02/28/08
