UKOLN Dev » IEMSR

IWMW 2009 : prototyping (meta) data structures.

Emma Tonkin — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:45:27 +0000

At IWMW 2009 we gave a little workshop on working with users on prototyping metadata structures. Here are the slides (with audio).

Slides from IWMW 2009 workshop session

View more presentations from ukolndev.

Remembering Rachel Heery

Emma Tonkin — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:51:05 +0000

I originally joined UKOLN as an ‘Interoperability Focus Officer’, the sort of job title which the recent reform in the University pay structure has more or less rendered extinct. Then I met Rachel – who, I will state for the record, scared the socks off me. It did not take long before she discovered that I had a background in Java programming, and shortly thereafter, I found myself working on her metadata schema registry. It was challenging. But it was also a lot of fun.

The project still contains within it the reminder of its defining conflict, which could perhaps be termed ‘idealists versus pragmatists’. Beyond all else, Rachel was a pragmatist. She was entirely able to accept and recognise the beauty of the elaborate, but never hesitated to point out its weaknesses, and so for me she is fondly remembered as a strong, forceful realist who stood for no nonsense. With Rachel, you knew exactly where you stood, which was wonderful, even though for many it took a bit of getting used to. Oh yes – and those who have added that she was funny are entirely right, too. She was sharply intelligent, vital, impatient, inspiring and a rock of stability.

Very few of the people now working on IEMSR have ever met her, which surprises me every time I think about it. Here on level 5 of Wessex House, surrounded with a project and a national and international community that was so very Rachel, it always seemed as though she had never entirely left UKOLN. I am very lucky to have been able to work with her, even for a little while. My condolences go to her family and friends.

Although this is not a personal blog, this is a personal post, and because it’s within my power to choose whatever closing remarks I prefer, I’d like to finish by proposing a toast to the memory of not one but two outstanding people, who would I believe have shared largely similar opinions about the concept of blogging, who are fondly remembered, inspiring, and more deeply missed than I am sure they would ever believe:
Rachel Heery
Professor Patrick Squire

–Emma

Metadata creation tool (IEMSR) features demo is published on youtube

Emma Tonkin — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:26:12 +0000

A new version of feature-rich metadata creation tool demonstration is published now.
The video has a narrator explaining major features like creating Dublin Core application profile, saving that to an RDF file, publishing that to the repository. Also described are major features such as defining metadata vocabulary and user interface internationalization (French, German, Dutch and other languages are supported).

Dublin Core Firefox Extension Internationalisation

ds257 — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:32:02 +0000

One way to demonstrate possible uses for IEMSR – practical use and integration into various systems. What about a Firefox extension?

No – we didn’t make a whole Firefox extension, but we did modify one, the Dublin Core Viewer, to internationalise its display language. Actually, this had already been done, but like the original the new one used hard coded values and text… now, we have plugged it into the IEMSR server so that it is updated in sync with the information that it displays.

The result can be found on the IEMSR Subversion repository.