I agree with Jay. And let's not forget that the market this demonstration piece (PastPerfect users) showcases is one where federated search is something both truly unusual and highly beneficial given the frequency with which these collections are small and not easily accessible.
Chuck Patch On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 3:41 PM, Jay Hoffman <Jay at gallerysystems.com> wrote: > Dear Stephen, G?nter et al, > > First, congratulations to Stephen for making an interesting project > available. > > I would like to weigh in on this conversation, lest everyone reading it > think that the statements about federated searching should be accepted > without challenge. > > I don't agree that one should assume that "enthusiasm about federated > searching ... has dissipated by now". Maybe "for now" would be a more > appropriate way to put it. There seems to be so many experts with so much > experience in this field in the museum informatics space (this is another > tongue-in-cheek statement). > > There is still research and development taking place in > federated/distributed searching and more interesting things to come, > including ranking. > > Stephen's project is an interesting step in the right direction and I think > we should look at the benefits of the architecture before being dismissive. > The notion that the technology might only be good for a "limited number of > data sources" will also soon be dispelled. > > Best, > > Jay > > Jay Hoffman, CEO > Gallery Systems > 261 West 35th Street, 12th Floor > New York, NY 10001 > jay at gallerysystems.com > +1.646.733.2239 > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu] On Behalf Of > Waibel,Guenter > Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 12:41 PM > To: toney at systemsplanning.com > Cc: Museum Computer Network Listserv > Subject: Re: [MCN-L] MWeb Universal > > Dear Stephen, > > While I don't mean to rain on your parade, I have to admit that my question > was a little bit tongue-in-cheek. The library community has been trying to > get meaningful ranking of federated search results to work for the better > part of 10 years now. At this point, it's widely acknowledged that ranking > is the Achilles heel of federated search, and even with the best technology, > a limitation which can't be completely mediated. I'd say that a lot of the > early enthusiasm about federated searching as the solution to integrating > datasources, especially at scale, has dissipated by now. > > Having said that, I can see the usefulness of this kind of search for a > limited number of datasources, such as library, archive, museum collections. > It's a great first step to see all the content in one place! > > Cheers, > > G?nter > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Stephen Toney [mailto:toney at systemsplanning.com] > Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 8:40 AM > To: Waibel,Guenter > Cc: Museum Computer Network Listserv > Subject: RE: [MCN-L] MWeb Universal > > Hello Gunter, > > At present MWeb Universal sorts alphabetically by the brief name of the > database, subsorted by the type of content. Ranking is a good idea and > we will add it to a future release. > > Thanks for the suggestion! > Stephen > > - > Stephen Toney > Systems Planning > toney at systemsplanning.com > http://systemsplanning.com > > MWeb, CAPS, MARCView, and MARConvert are trademarks of Systems Planning > > > On Fri, 2009-03-13 at 11:29 -0400, Waibel,Guenter wrote: > > Hi Stephen, > > > > How do you deal with ranking search results from various sources? > > > > The Baltimore example seems to side-step ranking. It displays hits > segregated by database. > > > > Cheers, > > > > G?nter > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu] On Behalf > > Of > Stephen Toney > > Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 7:03 AM > > To: Chuck Patch > > Cc: Museum Computer Network Listserv > > Subject: Re: [MCN-L] MWeb Universal > > > > > > On Thu, 2009-03-12 at 09:57 -0400, Chuck Patch wrote: > > > Hi Stephen, > > > > > > This is really interesting. ... looks like you are inches away from > > > being able to create a PastPerfect Consortium. > > > > > > Thanks, Chuck, > > > > Actually MWeb Universal can do that now. Try > > http://searchbaltimore.pastperfect-online.com > > to search a consortium of three Baltimore museums. > > > > The current release is suitable for consortia of any museums, not just > > PastPerfect sites, since it can search any CMSs or databases without > > exporting, FTPing or Z39.50. > > > > MWeb Universal has been tested with 50 databases at once. > > > > Thanks! > > Stephen > > - > > Stephen Toney > > Systems Planning > > toney at systemsplanning.com > > http://systemsplanning.com > > > > MWeb, CAPS, MARCView, and MARConvert are trademarks of Systems Planning > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum > Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) > > > > To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu > > > > To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: > > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > > > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer > Network (http://www.mcn.edu) > > To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu > > To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ > > _______________________________________________ > You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer > Network (http://www.mcn.edu) > > To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu > > To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ >
