Metadata

SCHEMAS: Forum for Metadata Schema Implementers

Introduction

The SCHEMAS: Forum for Metadata Schema Implementers project (IST-1999-10010) was funded as part of the Information Societies Technology (IST) Programme, a theme of the European Union's Fifth Framework Programme managed by the Information Society Directorate-General of the European Commission. Work commenced on the project at the beginning of January 2000 and ran until early 2002.

SCHEMAS aimed to provide a forum for metadata schema designers involved in projects under the IST Programme and other national initiatives in Europe. The main objectives were to provide information for schema implementors about the status and proper use of new and emerging metadata standards, as well as promoting good-practice guidelines for adapting multiple standards or metadata modules for local use in customised schemas.

Other partners in SCHEMAS included:

• PricewaterhouseCoopers Technology Consultants (PwC) - Luxembourg [project co-ordinator]

• Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (FhG), formerly the Gesellschaft für Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung (GMD) - Germany

The IST Project Factsheet for the SCHEMAS project was available from the RTD Projects Database of CORDIS at:
<URL:http://cordis.europa.eu/projects/rcn/60666_en.html>

More detailed information about SCHEMAS was available from the project's web site:
<URL:http://www.schemas-forum.org/>

Publications and Presentations

Dissemination activites under taken by the project partners and other related publications were listed on the publications section of the project web site.

Archive of Project Web Site

Work on SCHEMAS at UKOLN:

UKOLN contributed to most workpackages in the SCHEMAS project:

WP2: Metadata Watch

WP Leader: PwC. The Metadata Watch WP had the aim of finding key programmes and projects with practical implementations of metadata initiatives in order to assess the relevance of these activities and to identify key issues for the programme of Workshops.

WP4: Workshops

WP Leader: UKOLN. The Workshops WP aimed to gather requirements for the use of metadata registries, to encourage sharing of information relating to metadata schemas, and to promote good practices with a focus on multilingual issues.

WP5: Registry Maintenance

WP Leader: UKOLN. Objectives of the Registry Maintenance WP included: to encourage the deployment of registries, to encourage the self-registration of authorities where appropriate, and to investigate how implementations and communities might best disclose local metadata usage within registry frameworks.

WP6: Multilingual RDF Registry

WP Leader: GMD. WP6 aimed to promote the deployment of metadata registries defined using the Resource Description Framework (RDF), to promote standards and methods for creating and processing schemas in multiple languages and writing systems, to encourage the reuse and adaptation of global metadata elements in local schemas, to formuate and disseminate good-practice guidelines, and to investigate processes for managing the evolution of multilingual registries.

WP7: Training Material

WP Leader: PwC. The major aims of WP7 were to identify a set of user requirements for the creation and management of metadata schemas, to develop a web-based training course, and to establish a web-based FAQ for questions relating to the creation and management of metadata schemas.

WP8: Publicity and Dissemination

WP Leader: UKOLN. WP8 was responsible for the project web-site and to provide a focus for sharing information regarding metadata schema, to facilitate use of metadata schema by software and human agents, point to "canonical definitions" where they existed, to inform information and software development communities of the benefits of metadata registries and to promote the development of a managed infrastructure of distributed registries.

UKOLN staff who worked on the SCHEMAS project:

Manjula Patel

Technical Research and Development
E-mail: m.patel@ukoln.ac.uk

Rachel Heery

Assistant Director (Team Leader, Research & Development)

Michael Day

Research Officer
E-mail: m.day@ukoln.ac.uk