Metadata requirements for EngSC OER project

Lisa Rogers <L.J.Rogers@hw.ac.uk> & Phil Barker <philb@icbl.hw.ac.uk>.

ICBL, MACS, Heriot Watt University <http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/>
Created: 03-Oct-2009

Because Phil said "It would be useful first to define what information about a resource
you think should be provided, why, for whom, and in what format."

Who: includes project funders (HEFCE + JISC and Academy as their agents), project
partner contributing resource, project manager, end users (teachers and students),
aggregators—that is people who wish to build services on top of the collection.

Why: includes resource management, selection and use as well as discovery through
Google or otherwise, etc. etc.

Format: includes free text for humans to read (which is incidentally what Google
works from) and encoded text for machine operations (e.g. XML, RSS, HTML
metatags, microformats, metadata embedded in other formats or held in the database
of whatever content management system lies behind the host we are using).

It is important to keep the requirements manageable, and hence speculative uses

(where use = who + why) have been avoided. For each use we should be able to point
to an actual instantiation that is at least planned, if not under development or
implemented.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

Metadata requirements for EngSC OER project Phil Barker & Lisa J Rogers Heriot-Watt University

Characteristic For Whom Why? Format Notes

Title End User Aid resource discovery Human readable. In resource, as title Needs to convey maximum information in
and selection page and as running header; or on minimum space, e.g. subject + level
resource display page. Formatted as formula of "Perl for beginners"
heading / title or running header.
Host platforms must allow title to be
specified on upload and handle display on
resource page and metadata in feeds.

Do any host systems extract embedded

metadata other than Flickr from images?
In structured markup <title>, <h1>,
suitable word style / format.

May be worth adding to EXIF

metadata of images.
Contributor Easy reference, to allow If search is via Google then format as
rapid identification and above.
location of known
resource. If search is via API then must be in
host's content management metadata.
Proj Mngr
Aggregators Display of available RSS/ATOM item-level title
resources <item><title>
Description End User Search & Human readable. In resource as Should be short and key-word intensive;
Selection abstract, or on resource display page. including content subject and level.

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Metadata requirements for EngSC OER project Phil Barker & Lisa J Rogers Heriot-Watt University

In structured markup <meta

Aggregators Display to users
Provenance Funders Accountability—direct
(program) from JISC/Academy to
HEFCE/DIUS so they
know where the money
went (assume they'll do
this by aggregation)
description = ""> if that can be done
automatically.
In RSS/ATOM item-level description
<item><description>
Structured in RSS feed
Host platforms must allow description to
be specified on upload and handle display
on resource page and metadata in feeds.
ie UKOER tag
Host platform must allow tag to be added
and included in RSS feed

Accountability—indirect. Human readable? Acknowledgement

The funders might want with link to info about programme?
users to be aware of their
role in the release of this
resource.
End Users Might be a factor in
resource selection (e.g. if
they know UKOER
funded good stuff)

Contributing To manage their stuff Encoded, in RSS feed and/or in host’s A tag for each contributor would help.
partner (maybe by aggregation) content management metadata.

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Metadata requirements for EngSC OER project Phil Barker & Lisa J Rogers Heriot-Watt University

Provenance For attribution. In text, with author information Would be best if host system knew who
(source (top/front of document?) and with © contributor was and had their profile, i.e.
institution) info (end/back of document), or on Flickr photostream or YouTube channel
resource display page. for each contributor. Many (most? all?)
hosts use this info for attribution and ©
Encoded, in RSS feed with © and
ownership info.
licence info.

Proj Manager To monitor the partners' Encoded, in RSS feed and/or in host's
contributions (by content management metadata.
aggregation)
End User May want stuff from As searchable text, or
specific HEI As an association between resource
and information about institution
Provenance End User May be interested in In text in resource description
(source known course; also useful
course) for selection as indicator Link to course web page
of subject and level.
Provenance Funders Accountability—direct Structured in RSS feed or API ie EngSCOER tag and logo
(project) from us to them so we
can tell them what we've Host platform must allow tag to be added
done with their money and included in RSS feed
(assume we'll do this by
aggregation) Desirable for host platform to allow some
form of pooling for resources from several
contributors.

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Metadata requirements for EngSC OER project
Accountability—indirect. Human readable? Acknowledgement
We might want users to with link to info about project.?
be aware of our role in
the release of this
resource.
End Users Might be a factor in
resource selection (e.g. if
they know EngSCOER
delivered good stuff)
Provenance Contributor To manage their stuff
(author) (maybe by aggregation)
For attribution.
End User Selection or search is
author is known to user
Creation / End User Selection—is it current
revision Date
Aggregator Selection—is it current
Phil Barker & Lisa J Rogers Heriot-Watt University
Encoded, in RSS feed and/or in host's Difficult to think how host platforms
content management metadata. i.e. might manage this and institutional
<dc:creator> provenance in a way that will be encoded
in feeds. – separate account for each
In text, on title page (top/front of author and pool by institution may be
document?) and with © info problematic in terms of number of
(end/back of document), or on authors.
resource display page.
Encoded, in RSS feed with © and
licence info. so that it is passed on to
aggregators. . i.e. <dc:creator>
In Resource, Front page
In text, on title page (top/front of Beware of hosts using upload date as
document?), and/or on resource default.
display page
Encoded at item level in RSS feeds.
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Metadata requirements for EngSC OER project Phil Barker & Lisa J Rogers Heriot-Watt University

Contributor Version Control (dunno,

problematic)

Date of Proj manager? accountability? Automatically generated

Upload
In RSS Feed
End User/ See what’s recently been
Aggregator added
Format End User Selection Automatically generated
<dc:format>?
Licence End User Know rights restrictions In text and with © info (end/back of cc-by
Selection document), or on resource display See
page. http://wiki.creativecommons.org/RSS_1.0
Contributor Protect Rights
for guidance on embedding CC Licences
Encoded, in RSS feed so that it is in RSS 1.0 feeds.
passed on to aggregators
Subject End User Discovery and selection Keywords in abstract / description Host must handle these as tags.
Keywords
Encoded, in RSS feed so that it is
passed on to
aggregators.<dc:subject>?
Duration End User Discovery and selection: In description, automatically
is resource generated (e.g. by YouTube) or
implicit (e.g. for image)
Encoded, in RSS feed so that it is
passed on to aggregators
Third Party End User Know rights restrictions How does host platform
Rights manage/acknowledge these rights.

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Metadata requirements for EngSC OER project Phil Barker & Lisa J Rogers Heriot-Watt University

Third Party Attribution In text and with © info (end/back of

document), or on resource display
page.
Contributor Correctly Attributed 3rd
Parties
Encoded, in RSS feed so that it is
passed on to aggregators
Understand how resource Could form part of the description
How can this End User was intended to be used within text/abstract or on resource
be used? description page.
Source URL End User May wish to link to Link in Resource or on resource
original resource rather description page.
than a copy elsewhere or
to check for a newer
version.
May be curious as to
origin of the resource.
File Size End User They may wish not to Usually automatically generated by
incur data charges for system, may appear as text next to
downloading large files download button
(i.e. if they were using
mobile broadband)
Language End User Selection, to know if they Can usually select language within
can understand the web 2.0 service. Can sometimes be
resource automatically generated.
Identifier End User Easy reference, to cite the The URI of the resource and is
resource or for attribution automatically generated by the
system. Should be a persistent link.

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