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IESR Progress Report, January 2003

Summary

  • Title of project: Information Environment Service Registry
  • Project Manager: Amanda Hill
  • Lead Institution: University of Manchester
  • Duration of Award: Nov 2002-Dec 2003
  • Period of Report: Nov 2002-Jan 2003

Confirmation Statement

I confirm that the project development is being conducted under the terms agreed in the initial contract with JISC.

Project staff

MIMAS

  • Amanda Hill (project manager)
  • Ann Apps (senior analyst)
  • Leigh Morris (developer)

UKOLN

  • Rachel Heery (user analysis, evaluation)
  • Andy Powell (technical specification)
  • Pete Johnston (technical specification)
  • Verity Brack (stakeholder analysis)

University of Liverpool

  • Paul Watry (Cheshire development)
  • Rob Sanderson (Cheshire development)

Involvement with Programme

  • 31 Oct-1 Nov 2002 JISC IE Programme Meeting, Nottingham
  • 1 Nov 2002 Shared services cluster meeting, Nottingham

Publications and Publicity

'Introduction to the Information Environment Service Registry' in D-Lib Magazine.

A website for the project has been created at http://www.mimas.ac.uk/iesr/.

Engagement with Potential Outcomes Users

The stakeholder analysis workpackage has begun, with potential stakeholders identified and contacted.

Ann Apps attended The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) Fall Task Force Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, 5-6 Dec 2002.

Rachel Heery and Ann Apps both attended the Euroweb 2002: "The Web and the GRID: from e-science to e-business" conference in Oxford 17-18 December 2002.

Detailed Progress and Future Plans

Work in the early phases of this project has been concentrated in four main areas, each of which is described in more detail below:

1. Software developments (University of Liverpool)

  • Support for XML schemas in Cheshire
  • Support for SRW (Search/Retrieve Web language) in Cheshire
  • Develop support for appropriate SOAP toolkits
  • Creation of SOAP objects and message bindings

2. IESR Metadata developments (MIMAS, UKOLN)

  • First draft of IESR metadata for collections and services - spreadsheet and web page.
  • Format for OAI and RSS descriptions circulated
  • Discussions concerning the technical specification have taken place on the project e-mail list.
  • Research undertaken into existing standard metadata schemas for service descriptions.

3. Stakeholder analysis

  • List of possible stakeholders drawn up
  • Preliminary e-mails sent to stakeholders, inviting further involvement, 21 Jan 2003

4. Dissemination

  • Project website established at http://www.mimas.ac.uk/iesr/, 2 Dec 2002
  • Introductory e-mail sent out, 5 Dec 2002
  • Project plan drawn up: delivered to JISC, 9 Dec 2002, published on project website
  • Short article written for D-Lib Magazine, published 15 Jan 2003

Future Plans

The main objective for the next reporting period (February-July 2003) will be the establishment of a test database at MIMAS for IESR metadata. The design of the metadata will be heavily influenced by the requirements of the stakeholders in the Service Registry, which means that continued communication with the stakeholders will be essential. This will build on the work of the stakeholder analysis which is currently under way. Work on the necessary changes to the Cheshire software is due to be complete by the end of April. The test database will initially build on the work of the ITAM (Implementing the DNER Technical Architecture at MIMAS) project, before broadening out to encompass other service providers.

Amanda Hill, January 2003