Presentation given in 44rd CEN WS/LT meeting in Brussels on Jan 17 2011 on the funded Project Team on interoperability of (Collection) registries

1. !
PT Interoperability of
Registries
Joris Klerkx, David Massart, Dan Rehak, Fredrik Paulsson
and many volunteers...
44RD MEETING OF CEN/ISSS/WS-LT,
BRUSSELS, 17/01/2011

2. PT Objectives
Enable the interconnection of learning object
repositories (LORs)
Increase LORs impact in making relevant content
available
Specify how a network of registries can be set up
with existing standards and specifications

3. PT Tasks
T0: Selection Team Members
T1: Related Work
T2: Proposal specifiation for a LOR registry
T3: Reference Implementations
T4: Revision of proposal (T2), based on feedback T3
T5: Discussion & Consensus Building
T6: Public Commenting Phase
T7: Dissemination of Results

4. PT Timing
Reference
Implementations
Public Commenting
Revision Proposal phase

5. Interim Report - M12
Introduction & Objectives
Definitions
Related Work
Data Model
Access to Registry
Reference Implementation
Future Work

6. Existing Standards &
Specifications
IEEE 1484.12.1-2002 Standard for Learning Object Metadata (LOM) specifies how to describe
learning content [IEEELOM 2002];
CWA 15555 Guidelines and Support for Building Application Profiles in e-Learning (delivered
under SA/CEN/2004/25) specifies how application profiles can be derived from IEEE LOM
[CWA15555 2006];
CWA 14645 Availability of alternative language versions of a learning resource in IEEE LOM
(delivered under SA/CEN/2000/42) specifies how the availability of alternative language versions
of a learning resource can be described in IEEE LOM [CWA14645 2003];
CWA 15454 A Simple Query Interface Specification for Learning Repositories (delivered under
SA/CEN/2003-13) defines SQI -- a query interface to access content in learning repositories
[CWA15454 2005]. Alternatives to SQI include SRU/SRW [SRU 2007];
The ProLearn Query Language defines a query language for searching learning object
repositories [PLQL 2008]. Alternatives include CQL [CQL 2008] and XQuery [XQuery 2007];
Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) defines how metadata can
be harvested from learning object repositories [OAIPMH 2002]. Alternatives include publishing a
sitemap for a web crawler to harvest [Sitemap 2008].
The Simple Publishing Interface (SPI) (under SA/CEN/2007-24A) in the CEN Workshop on
Learning Technologies defines how metadata and content can be inserted into learning object
repositories [CWA16097 2010]. Alternatives include the Atom Publishing Protocol [ATOM 2005]
and PENS [PENS 2006]

7. GLOBE
>1.000.000
“Alliance to make shared online learning resources available to
educators and students around the world”
HTTP://WWW.GLOBE-INFO.ORG/
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8. BMBWK EUN MEC RVP
SQI UDDI OAI
SQI Client LOR Registry
OAI-PMH
Registry SQI ARIADNE C-H FWU MESC TLF
Harvester
OAI
ASPECT
CFL INDIRE MSU UL-FRI
MELT
SQI SQI
Federated EDUCATIO KUL NCTE XTEC
GLOBE Search
SPI OAI
OAI-PMH
ARIADNE
SQI Harvester
WINDS DYNAMO
ARIADNE
Harvester
MACE
MACE IRB CuminCAD
OAI OAI OAI SQI SQI SQI SQI
SQI SQI SQI
LACLO NIME EUN EdNA CGIAR Pubelo Merlot
OAI OAI SQI SQI SQI SQI
SQI SQI
ISKME KERIS III COSL LORNET Ariadne
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9. Networks of registries
4.
3.2

10. Objectives
How to
set up this network of registries
by Profiling existing standards and
specifications

11. Methodology
Rapid Prototyping
Build reference implementations
Specify best practices in managing and
maintaining registries
How and how often to synchronize?
How to find collections of interest?
What kind of authorization is needed?
etc.

12. Interim Report - M12
Introduction & Objectives
Definitions
Related Work
Data Model
Access to Registry
Reference Implementation
Future Work

13. Definitions

14. Interim Report - M12
Introduction & Objectives
Definitions
Related Work
Data Model
Access to Registry
Reference Implementation
Future Work

15. Related Work
The Federated Repositories for Education (FRED)
project
Services: Harvest (OAI-PMH), Obtain, Search
Service (SRU + LOMCQL)

16. Related Work
The Learning Registry
“learning resources easier to find, easier to access and easier to
integrate into learning environments wherever they are stored --
around the country and the world
Capabilities:
Publish
Consume + feedback
Synchronizing by replication

17. Related Work
ARIADNE/GLOBE (UDDI)

18. The Spider
Searching repositories targeting Swedish schools
RDF-store
OAI-PMH
SQI
SRU

19. Interim Report - M12
Introduction & Objectives
Definitions
Related Work
Data Model
Access to Registry
Reference Implementation
Future Work

20. Data Model
IMS LODE REGISTRY MODEL
BASED ON THE ISO 2146 STANDARD: “REGISTRY SERVICES FOR
LIBRARIES AND RELATED ORGANIZATIONS

21. Example
XML -
binding

22. Interim Report - M12
Introduction & Objectives
Definitions
Related Work
Data Model
Access to Registry
Reference Implementation
Future Work

23. Access to Registry
How to query a registry?
How to synchronize the contents of different
registries with each other?
How to add a new repository to the registry?
How to update a description of a registry?
...
WHICH SPECIFICATIONS? STANDARDS?

24. How to Query?
Simple Query Interface (CWA 15454)
SQI is neutral in terms of results format and query languages.
SQI supports synchronous and asynchronous queries to support
heterogeneous use cases.
SQI supports both a stateful and a stateless implementation.
SQI is based on a session management concept in order to
separate authentication issues from query management
Search/Retrieval Using URL (SRU)
SRU supports transport via HTTP GET, HTTP POST or HTTP SOAP,
i.e., rest-like and web-service based protocols
Several result formats (context sets) such as DC, IEEE LOM, etc.

25. How to
Synchronize? (1/2)
Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata
Harvesting (OAI-PMH)
OAI-verbs (i.e Identify, ListMetadataFormats, GetRecord,
ListIdentifiers, ListRecords, ListSets)
Subscribe to News
RSS - ATOM

26. How to
Synchronize? (2/2)
Data Replication
Star topology
central registries
local registries
...

27. How to Publish/Update?
The Simple Publishing Interface (CWA 16097)
Submitting (publishing) a resource to a repository/
registry.
Deleting a resource from a repository/registry.
Submitting a metadata record to a repository/registry.
Deleting a metadata record from a repository/registry.

28. Interim Report - M12
Introduction & Objectives
Definitions
Related Work
Data Model
Access to Registry
Reference Implementation
Future Work

29. Interim Specification
Profiled IMS LODE Data model for describing
Collection Descriptions
Synchronization collection descriptors using OAI-
PMH
Adding/Updating/Deleting of collection descriptors
using SPI
Querying/Searching Registry by using SQI

30. Interim Report - M12
Introduction & Objectives
Definitions
Related Work
Data Model
Access to Registry
Reference Implementation
Future Work

31. Reference Implementation 1
supports interim specification
Ariadne Registry
deployed in ARIADNE and in LORNET
http://ariadne.cs.kuleuven.be/ariadne-registry/

32. Currently
Specification Targets
SQI 14
OAI-PMH 38
SRU 1
SPI 1
TOTAL 54
TOTAL Objects Exposed +/- 1.151.000
PROJECTS INVOLVED
ASPECT, ICOPER, ORGANIC.EDUNET,
SHARE.TEC, GLOBE, ...
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33. SQI + PLQL

34. Newsfeeds
ALL REPOSITORIES, OAI-PMH TARGETS, SQI TARGETS, ...

35. Integration of tools (e.g Harvester)

36. Statistics Dashboard

37. Access Reference Implementation
OAI-PMH for synchronizing collection descriptors between
interconnected registries
http://ariadne.cs.kuleuven.be/ariadne-registry/services/oai
SPI for adding, updating and deleting repositories from a registry
http://ariadne.cs.kuleuven.be/ariadne-registry/services/SPI
SOAP-binding of SQI for searching the contents of the registry
Session Management: http://ariadne.cs.kuleuven.be/ariadne-registry/
services/SqiSessionManagement
Target: http://ariadne.cs.kuleuven.be/ariadne-registry/services/SqiTarget
RESTful binding of SQI for searching the contents of the registry
http://ariadne.cs.kuleuven.be/ariadne-registry/api/sqitarget
e.g http://ariadne.cs.kuleuven.be/ariadne-registry/api/sqitarget?
query=ariadne&start=1&size=1&lang=plql1&format=lom

38. Future Work
2nd Reference Implementation
Planned at European Schoolnet
Integration feedback
Query Language specification
Avoiding redundancy
Authorization aspects
Best practices for management and maintenance of registries
Workshop(s) & dissemination activities

39. HTTP://WWW.ICOPER.ORG/ HTTP://ASPECT-PROJECT.ORG/ HTTP://WWW.ROLE-PROJECT.EU/ HTTP://WWW.STELLARNET.EU/
Thanks! Questions?
Interested?
http://bit.ly/c6mRZC
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