Andy Kirkwood | Motive wrote:
The main advantages of the Dublin Core metadata is that it represents the efforts of
a group of information and library science experts to translate the cataloguing
conventions previously associated with real world libraries into metadata
equivalents. This translation includes details such as publisher, copyright, etc. For
a complete list of the elements see our glossary entry: <
http://www.motive.co.nz/glossary/dublincore.php >
or even http://www.dublincore.org/ which is the horse's mouth, so to
speak (no disrespect to Motive)
Adhering to the standards the DC working group recommend is one step toward
interoperability--enabling catalogue records to be shared by different
organisations. This aim of interoperability is not dissimilar to that of a web
standards approach to content markup.
We-ell, interoperability goes a little wider than mere data standards,
or even metadata, but good metadata is what enables the power of XML and
related information technologies to help you towards interoperable
services. It means that your back-end doesn't have to be the same, or
know how to talk to each individual system you want to exchange data
with. It's the same theory that drives the Internet - having everyone
talk the same language outside their boundaries means only one
translation at the boundary.
For a look at the NZ e-Government Interoperability Framework (eGIF), go
to http://egif.govt.nz/
AFAIK DC is of most use for custom-build search engines rather than for public
services such as Google. In New Zealand, DC metadata is used for the New Zealand
government porta and locator service: < http://www.motive.co.nz/glossary/nzgls.php
>.
As you mention, strict DC is useful for content description but not for
services. We examined DC as an option and thought we could stretch it to
cover services, as the Australian Government stretched it to produce
AGLS )Australian Government Locator Service) which is the direct
ancestor of NZGLS. AGLS doesn't (yet) do services, nor does DC.
For an in-depth look at NZGLS and our approach to metadata (again, no
disrespect to Motive), see http://nzgls.govt.nz/ and you can find AGLS
at http://www.agls.gov.au/
Cheers
Mark Harris
Ex-manager, Moderation and Web Standards,
NZ State Services Commission
Disclaimer: I didn't work much on NZGLS (although I did convene the
original committee that started examining metadata for Government, but I
did work on the original version of the e-GIF. It's a living standard
and may be subject to change. Further, I no longer work for the
E-government Unit of the State Services Commission (actually, it no
longer exists as such) and I am now in the private sector, occasionally
contracting back to them.
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