Dublin Core: The Road from Metadata Formats to Linked Data

Webinar

About the Webinar

Created in 1995, the Dublin Core was a result of the early phase of the web revolution. While most saw the Dublin Core as a simple metadata format, or as a set of descriptive headers embedded in web pages, a few of its founders saw it as a cornerstone of a fundamentally new approach to metadata. In the shadow of search engines, a Semantic Web approach developed in the early 2000s, reaching maturity in 2006 with the Linked Data movement, which uses Dublin Core as one of its key vocabularies. This webinar will discuss the difference between traditional approaches based on record formats and the Linked Data approach, based on metadata "statements" designed to be merged across data silo boundaries. Focusing on the dual role of Dublin Core as a format and as a Semantic Web vocabulary, it examines new technologies for bridging the gap between traditional and Linked Data approaches, highlighting how old ideas such as as embedded metadata have been reinvented with new web technologies and tools to solve practical problems of resource discovery and navigation.

Event Sessions

Welcome & System Overview

Speaker

1:00-1:05 p.m

Introduction

Speaker

1:05-1:15 p.m

Dublin Core in the Early Web Revolution

Speaker

1:15 pm - 1:30 pm:

Makx will describe how the early history of the Dublin Core illustrates an emerging split between two quite different paradigms for metadata -- one based on closed systems and record formats and the other based on recombinational metadata with an "open-world" assumption.

What Makes the Linked Data Approach Different

Speaker

Thomas Baker

Chief Information Officer, Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative

1:30 pm - 1:45 pm:

Tom will demonstrate how metadata can be designed for merging across the boundaries of repositories and data silos.

Designing Interoperable Metadata on Linked Data Principles

Speaker

Thomas Baker

Chief Information Officer, Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative

1:45 pm - 2:00 pm:

Tom will show how good metadata design is rooted in well-articulated requirements and how the interoperability of metadata depends on shared underlying vocabularies in the context of a shared "grammar" for metadata.

Bridging the Gap to the Linked Data Cloud

Speaker

2:00 pm - 2:15 pm:

Makx will describe how existing metadata applications can participate in the Linked Data cloud with emphasis on the role of simple, generic vocabularies such as the Dublin Core in providing a common denominator for interoperability.

Q&A and Wrap-up

Speaker Biographies

Makx Dekkers has been Managing Director of the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) since March 2001 and Chief Executive Officer of DCMI Ltd. since January 2009. For two decades he has been involved in many projects on information networking with an emphasis on access to public sector information in Europe. Before joining DCMI, he was development manager at a company in the Netherlands that develops software and services for library automation
and co-operation, and manager for technology solutions at a global consultancy company. He holds a M.Sc. in Theoretical Chemistry, Computer Science and History of Science of Utrecht University.

Thomas Baker is Chief Information Officer of DCMI Ltd. and is chair and founder of the DCMI Usage Board. He has previously worked as a researcher at the Goettingen State Library in Germany and the Fraunhofer Society (formerly GMD) in Bonn, and has participated in German and European digital library projects. He holds an M.S. in library science from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in anthropology from Stanford University, and he taught for two years at
the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok. Recently co-chair of the W3C Semantic Web Deployment Working Group, he is a member of the W3C Semantic Web Coordination Group and currently co-chairs a W3C Incubator Group on Library Linked Data.

Additional Information

  • Registration closes at 12:00 pm Eastern on August 25, 2010. Cancellations made by August 16, 2010 will receive a refund, less a $20 cancellation fee. After that date, there are no refunds.
  • Registrants will receive detailed instructions about accessing the webinar via e-mail the Monday prior to the event. (Anyone registering between Monday and the close of registration will receive the message shortly after the registration is received, within normal business hours.) We ask that registrants please turn off any spam blockers or filters to ensure that the information is received. Registrants unable to access e-mail during that time (out of office, etc.) should contact the NISO office to designate an alternate contact. Any registrant who has not received login instructions by 10:00 am Eastern on August 25 should contact the NISO office at nisohq@niso.org or call 301-654-2512.
  • Registration is per site (defined as access for one computer) and includes access to the online recorded archive of the webinar. An unlimited number of participants can view per site. If you are registering someone else from your organization, either use that person's e-mail address when registering or contact the NISO office to provide alternate contact information.
  • Webinar presentation slides and Q&A will be posted to the site following the live webinar.
  • Registrants will receive access information to the archived webinar following the event. An e-mail message containing archive access instructions will be sent within 48 hours of the event.
  • System Requirements
    • Please note: You will need a computer for the presentation and Q&A, and a telephone for the audio.
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