This page is based upon text submitted to the Interoperability Focus Advisory Committee, and represents a number of the main activities in the month of October. The list is not exhaustive, and comments and queries are welcomed.
Events attended
- October kicked off with a trip to Canada. Ostensibly, I was there for the eighth Dublin Core workshop, held this year at Canada's National Library. I also used the opportunity to extend upon work done in previous visits, giving a presentation to the Canadian Initiative on Digital Libraries (CIDL) group, and meeting with two Directors General from the Canadian Federal Government department responsible for 'heritage' (in its broadest sense). The presentation is available, as usual.
- Back in the UK, I travelled down to Bath for the Interoperability Research
Officer interviews. We have appointed someone, and they start (in Bath) in
January.
- Also in Bath, I gave a presentation at a UKOLN event for public library
web managers, talking about the Government's web guidelines.
- Towards the end of the month, I travelled to Luxembourg to do a project
review for the EC.
- I also attended two events in Essex, related to JISC's geospatial work.
JISC has funded EDINA and the HDS (with input from the ADS and MIMAS) to
look at the feasibility and requirements for a 'geodata browser' (a portal
for geospatial data, basically) and a 'geospatial crosswalk' (a gazetteer or
thesaurus to map between terms and co-ordinates, to group terms, etc.).
Parts of the discussion were interesting, with a view that the 'geodata
browser' might usefully be a location-driven 'window' onto ALL of JISC's
content (a book about Sherwood Forest, as well as an Ordnance Survey map of
the area), rather than just providing access to maps and satellite data.
There are obvious overlaps with some of the work being done outside HE
within the National Geospatial Data Framework, and it wasn't always clear
what the HE-specific extra stuff might really be, although that's just a
question of scoping things a little better than the studies (which only just
started) have had time to do so far.
- I travelled to Birmingham to give a presentation to the Libraries Partnership West Midlands conference.
Other things
- My Interoperability article in Ariadne has been translated into Spanish by the National Library
of Argentina.
- The Government metadata guidelines are due to be released for comment in
the next week or two, hopefully via the new www.govtalk.gov.uk/ website, if it's working by then.
- The Interoperability at the Coalface event is well subscribed, with about 90 people registered. Grab your place (we can accommodate 100) while you can.
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