Monthly NewsI attended a meeting at the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) earlier this month, to look at Government approaches to metadata. The meeting had been called for the Cabinet Office's Central IT Unit (CITU) by CCTA, and was chaired by Jeremy Crump, Deputy Director of CITU. Attendees included representatives of the Cabinet Office, LIC, and the big Whitehall departments, as well as people from the Welsh and Northern Irish assemblies. No one from the Scottish Parliament, which was surprising given the interesting stuff they're doing with Digital Scotland...
Discussion started by looking at existing uses of metadata and controlled terminologies within Government, and we found that quite a lot of people are using - or are just about to use - Dublin Core.
There was some useful discussion which identified the need for consistent terminology (settling on the 15 elements of the Dublin Core isn't enough - you need to offer guidance on how they are filled), as well as examining the different needs for the information. The citizen requires access to information from across government, possibly based around the notion of life events (I'm having a baby, what Government services to myself and the child need, etc). Government itself also requires access to information from across departmental boundaries in order to govern more effectively. The types of questions asked by these users, and the answers they ultimately want, will be different.
An outcome of this meeting will be the creation of a guidance document in the Information Age Government Champions series (http://www.iagchampions.gov.uk/Guidelines.htm). A working group under the Information Age Government Champions is also to be established, drawn mainly from government departments. UKOLN is to be represented on this group.
On the same day, I attended the first meeting of Book Industry Communication's (BIC) Product Metadata Working Group at the British Library. This group comprises publishers (Cambridge University Press, etc.), resellers (Waterstones, amazon.co.uk), and others, and aims to move forward some of the standards work that BIC is involved with in the publishing sector. The meeting was interesting, and we discussed a range of topics, including looking at the recently announced ONIX standard from the American Association of Publishers.
There was also some interesting discussion of Z39.50, which publishers have traditionally not been keen on. It is now hoped that there might be some joint UKOLN/BIC work in this area to show how it could be used effectively.