First Topic Listing
Previous Topic Listing
Next Topic Listing
Last Topic Listing
(Links to resources will open in a new window)
In his presentation at the December 2002 CENDI meeting, Dr. Nelson speculated on the future of cyberinfrastructure by looking at the applications and impacts of technologies. He predicted that the infrastructure of the future will be fast, everywhere, always on, intelligent, and easy to use. Computer systems will be easier to manage because they'll be so pervasive. He described cyberinfrastructure as occuring in three phases: one-to-one connectivety; one-to-many via the Web; and many-to-many (peer-to-peer) as defined by NAPSTER. However, first we must survive the current Internet by developing and using standards and allow the private sector and the market to develop. Dr. Nelson predicts that the NGI will be faster and more global in its impact and will result in a drastic cost reduction of information dissemination.
At the August 2002 CENDI meeting, Dr. Cummins provided a historical perspective of the technologies that support information management in public/private sectors. His examples included the marriage of the public and private sector development of the Internet and the copyright battle between NLM and a large medical publisher reqarding fair use for the public. He ended his discussion by distinguishing between the contracting out of government services and privatization.
At the April 2002 CENDI meeting, Mr. Liu provided a detailed overview of XML and its structure and explained NLM's goals in using this mark-up language. NLM is aiming for an infrastructute for web-based information exchange with external and internal partners. XML was selected because it offers proof against technology change, promotes interoperability, and allows for output to multiple channels. All of the MEDLINE database is in XML and its use is being promoted within the biomedical publishing community. NLM is experimenting with other uses of XML some of which include the generic presentation of content; security uses; and getting the web site to talk. Mr. Liu ends his presentation by listing several key lessons learned in the process. These include the need to take a broad and holistic approach to the use of XML; realize that it’s a major organizational change; understand the core standards and keep abreast of domain-specific standards developments; learn from and cooperate with others; the importance of stageing over time; and security needs.
At the April 2002 CENDI meeing, Mr. Dattoria reported that DOE is working with its laboratories in implementing XML and is letting service providers do value-added effects. The metadata standard being used is extended Dublin Core and XML is being used for exchange. The DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information's core business processes, including data import, harvesting from providers, and re-purposing of content are based on these standards.
At the April 2002 CENDI Meeting, Ms. Case enumerated many of XML's expectations by users which include: stat-of-the-art tools for document composition; the ability to produce multiple displays from a single document; easier interchange of data and documents; the ability to search within elements; to search structured data and text; and to have a query language that supported a complete set of text search operators and functions. Ms. Case pointed out that there currently is no search engine to querying XML nor is there a standard for XML querying. Ms. Case is a member of the W3C Xquery working group and is a proponent of more advanced querying concepts. Her goal is to revive some of the sophisticated search functions for web-based searching. The Library of Congress has a keen interest in XML search capabilities but has pointed out that many key search functions are missing, e.g., thesaurus support, character normalization, stemming, stop word lists, and proximity searching.
At the April 2002 CENDI meeting, Ms. Carnahan advised that the CIO Council established an XML Working Group whose goal is to accelerate, facilitate, and catalyze the effective implementation of XML technology in the federal government. The Group's activities span both public and private business and includes developing best practices and recommended standard; establishing partnerships with industry, the public sector, and the government; and conducting research-oriented education and outreach. Ms. Carnahan explained that the Group is divided into several teams, one of which deals with registries and repositories. She described the purpose of the Registry team as being to facilitate the awareness and appropriate reuse of existing data element definitions, schemas, and related documents. The Registry is a service for depositing SML DTDs and other related information and is developing a prototype registry as a proof of concept. The operational registry will be a a series of distributed registries rather than a centralized one.
At the April 2002 CENDI meeting, Ms. Frierson pointed out that the National Agricultural Library's budget has been static for the last six years, while the costs for acquiring journals has steadily increased. In an effort to bring electronic resources to the desktop of more than 100,000 USDA users worldwide, NAL embarked upon a consortium purchasing initiative. A trial was conducted and two consortium licenses were signed. NAL is currently seeking to identify funds for additional joint purchases, as well as how to provide more user support and training.
At the February 2002 CENDI meeting, Mr. Lederman explaieds that the invisible web, or deep web, is information that is made available via the web, but cannot be retrieved by web crawlers because it is in databases, behind firewalls, or is available only for a fee or with other access restrictions. Distributed Explorit is the deep web search technology developed by Innovative Web Applications and has been used on DOE's Environmental Science Network and the Energy Portal at DTIC, as well as other web sites including Science.gov. Mr. Lederman explained how Distributed Explorit functions and listed some enhancements that are not usually found in Web search engines or other applications that search the deep web. The ability to mark and download results, field searching (including date-range searching), access to log-in restricted Web sites, and navigation capabilities are a few of the enhancements mentioned. Plans for future enhancements may include the clustering of results, indexing/analysis of results, assisting users identify the most relevant results, and connecting the product with collaborative work tools.
This draft report summarizes the LC Portals Applications Group (LCPAIG)'s research and analysis of portal functionality of particular products that meet the reference and research needs of Library of Congress staff and users and the functional requirements for a portals application for the Library. Products from ZPORTAL, MetaLib/SFX, and ENCompass/LinkFInder Plus were examined.
At the CENDI meeting on April 15, 2003 at USGS, Ms. Roy explained the National Biological Information Infrastructure's (NBII) vision of geospatial access is that all resources, information, and data within the NBII Web, when spatially relevant, will be referenced and retrievable in an interoperable manner. There are three major components in NBII's project: geographically referenced web pages; map viewing capability; and a centralized map service registry. The registry is to be completed by early summer and NBII nodes will be required to comply within six months.
This paper identifies and scopes new issues in authentication and access management for sharing information across organizations, maps best-practice approaches using existing and emerging technologies to accomplish access by multiple communities, provides a common vocabulary and framework to assist in development of licensing and resource-sharing agreements, highlights technological and policy considerations, and lays the foundation for community standards.
The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) reports on new research and tools for assessment and evaluation in higher education. The research and tools discussed in the documents linked to this site are specific to initiatives that support the academic mission relying on networks and networked resources.
The Internet2 project is a joint initiative of academia, government and industry to bring focus to developing a new generation of advanced applications to meet emerging academic requirements in research, teaching and learning. The I2 Homepage provides a search interface to an extensive collection of information and links that includes information about Internet2, technical information, events, news, Internet2 Press, a virtual library collection and password protected resources for members.
MITRE's enterprise-wide network is described. The concept of enterprise thinking based on structured organizational boundaries that are permeable is introduced. The previous corporate environment at MITRE is described, along with the changes required and that which resulted from the introduction of the enterprise network. The types of information available to employees through the network and the privacy and confidentiality issues involved are also described. The MII is an information management system. Knowledge management, dealing with complex cognitive activities, is the next step in applying increased organization and value added to the content of the information system. Using text analysis and extraction of frequently occurring terms, the ranking of search results are being improved. Collaboration tools and integration of video and audio are also being investigated.
This site provides links to large-scale digital preservation initiatives and projects, standards, and technologies. It is a high-level introduction to third-party directories and sites which will provide exhaustive coverage.
Minutes from a presentation by George Strawn, National Science Foundation at the CENDI October 3, 2000 meeting in Germantown, MD on October 3, 2000. Dr. Strawn summarized a report by the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC). The report indicates that Information Technology will transform our society in the way we communicate, deal with information, learn, practice health care, design and build things, conduct research, understand the environment, conduct government, and the nature of commerce and work. During this transformation four areas were identified as needing major improvements: software, scaleable infrastructures, high-end computing, and the socioeconomic impacts of IT. He also highlighted some of the major activities of the Information Technology Research (ITR) Program. These activities include eight areas of research: advanced computational science, human-computer interface design, information management, IT education and the workforce, revolutionary computing, scalable information infrastructure, social and economic implications of IT and software. These areas of research align closely with PITAC's areas of concern. PITAC has been re-authorized until February 2001 and continues to review and report on IT matters including cross-agency the Next Generation Internet program, the digital divide, and the ITR program at NSF.
Minutes from a presentation by Dr. Robert Kahn, President, Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI) at the CENDI meeting on March 14, 2000. Dr. Kahn expects that the information architecture of the future will be flexible enough to accommodate changing forms of creativity and open enough to allow for third-party, value-added services. It will also continue to be a distributed one. The components of the future information architecture will include a framework for digital objects, key aspects of distributed database access, semantics and knowledge-based systems, rights management, and multiple user interfaces. All of these technologies will operate with common repository designs, federated testbeds, and metadata standards. User interface will become more important. Privacy will be a pervasive issue Dr. Kahn also highlighted some of CNRI's activities. These include receiving a grant from DARPA to create a means of federating digital libraries of documents; building a system for registering for copyright, developing a system for music publishers, and building the metadata system for CrossRef.
Minutes from a presentation by Clyde Housel, Systems Design Engineer, National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) at the CENDI meeting on April 6, 1999. Mr. Housel provided a brief overview of NIMA and indicating that it has approximately 260 organizations and 6,000 users who access their imagery indirectly. NIMA is in the process of developing th United States Imagery and Geospatial Information System (USIGS) Architecture. This encompasses the structure of components, their relationships, and the principles and guidelines governing their design and evolution over time. The Architecture will provide through interoperable systems and metadata, access to imagery and mapping information across the partner organizations and will integrate these remote sources seamlessly with the customer's own libraries. The design of the architecture is separated into Operational Architecture, Systems Architecture, Technical Architecture and Conceptual Data Model which ties all the components together. The new system will allow for more customization of data and more precise information on a smaller topographic area.
Minutes from a presentation by Kay Howell, CICC at the CENDI meeting on June 1, 1999. Ms. Howell describes several federal organizations and initiatives with responsibilities in IT including the High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) initiataive, the National Coordination Office (NCO) for Computing, Information and Communications, the Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative, the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC), and the Information Technology for the 21st Century (IT2) initiative. She also explained the interrelationships and the status of each of these efforts.
Minutes from a presentation by Pete Suthard at the CENDI meeting on June 1, 1999. Mr. Suthard describes DTIC's Web-based training center which is being developed as part of its Strategic Plan for Distance Learning. DTIC's course is on scientific and technical information and is to be used in conjunction with a three-day, full-time class. The course covers scientific and technical publishing and features audio and video clips from vairous members of the user community.
Minutes from a presentation by Carlynn Thompson at the CENDI meeting on June 1, 1999. Ms. Thompson discussed the Channel DoD system project which provides customized portals for DoD users. Portals have content channels that are directories or guides to information that are grouped in a logical way based on the needs of the user. Portals can also perform special searches based on the content and user characteristics. The user can also customize the way the content is presented. The Channel DoD design is based on "My Netscape" and provides a personalized Internet starting page. However unlike the commercial portal site, it will deliver DoD specific newsfeeds, search tools, and listservs.
The National Information Infrastructure (NII) developed by the Clinton Administration is a policy which includes federal programs to enhance and support the development of relevant technologies and a wide range of applications which demonstrate the uses and benefits of the technologies. This paper provides an in-depth background and analysis of the NII and examines the role of the federal government in this effort.
This report discusses the complexities of gathering Internet statistics, describes the types of statistics collected, how to evaluate them and provides Web addresses for locating them. Also included is information on the size of the Internet including number of hosts, Web sites, and online users, and demographic information about users. A brief overview of the digital divide is given and a selected list of Web sites which contains demographic and statistical information about the Internet and electronic commerce is included.
Minutes from a presentation by Dr. David Nagel (President's Information Technology Advisory Committee) at the CENDI meeting on December 6, 2000. Dr. Nagel gave a brief history of PITAC and highlighted some of the major challenges it faces, one of which is digital libraries and their potential impacts on society and the economy. Of particular concern is our ability to create and manage digital libraries. In addition to the challenge of digital libraries, the Committee has identified the following areas for technical and policy research: intellectual property, privacy, preservation, retrieval, and security and authentication. Each of these issues were discussed briefly. He also discussed the use of a micro payment system for certain types of government information. Dr, Nagel has identified the following issues that also need to be investigated: productivity in an electronic environment, energy intensity and networking, and the need to abolish some of the myths about the cost of electronic publishing.
This project was created to serve as a benchmark of the effects of the Internet globally. The study examines the influence of the Internet on social, political, cultural, and economic behavior and ideas as measured by the attitudes, values, and perceptions of both Internet users and non-users. This report is meant to be yearly and will survey the same individuals each year to explore how the role of the Internet evolves. The project is not restricted to any particular method of accessing the Internet or to the Internet in its present form. The World Internet Project was created and organized by the UCLA Center for Communication Policy and includes the UCLA Internet Project and similar studies in countries worldwide. The United States, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Sweden, and Taiwan were participants in the first year of the World Internet Project. This year (2001) the project will expand to another 15 countries including China, Australia, Germany, France, Great Britain, Hungary, Finland, Russia, India, and Brazil. The findings of the report have been categorized into five broad areas: Internet use and non-use:(1) who is online, who is not, what are users doing online?; (2) Media use and trust; (3) Consumer behavior; (4) Communication patterns; and (5) Social and psychological effects.
The Global Internet Project (GIP) was created by a group of international executives who hope to foster the continued growth of the Internet. Members come from the leading Internet companies in telecommunications, software, financial services, and content sectors. The goal of the project is to promote industry actions to minimize the need for government regulation. This Web site hosts a variety of papers and reports on Internet policy, issues, and technology. The site is grouped into the following categories: Internet commerce, content, privacy, security, governance, and infrastructure.
ITAA is a trade organization with over 26,000 members from a broad spectrum of the U.S. IT industry. The Web site focuses on information about the IT industry, its issues, association programs, publications, reports, new developments, electronic commerce, ASP, information security, and NextGen as well as many other topics.
This report is the third annual report by the US Department of Commerce which measures the economic performance of the information technology (IT) revolution. The following points were highlighted: dramatic cost and price reductions in computers and their peripherals; increased electronic connectivity; increased movement to online supply networks and sales channels by businesses; low US inflation due to falling prices of IT goods and services; IT industries are a major source of new R&D investment which are helping to generate higher rates of US labor productivity growth; and the IT industry is characterized by rapid technological innovation. Despite all these positive points, the US regularly runs large trade deficits in IT goods because American IT firms service foreign customers with sales from their overseas affiliates rather than by exports from their US operations. In conclusion, the report suggests that the US economy has "crossed into a new period of higher, sustainable economic growth and higher, sustainable productivity gains."
First Monday is one of the first peer-reviewed journals on the internet that focuses on original articles about the Internet and the Global Information Infrastructure. Some of the topics written about in past issues are Internet content, standards, Internet use in specific communities, political and regulatory issues affecting the Internet, Internet software and hardware reviews, and digital preservation projects. The journal is indexed in LISA and PAIS. First Monday is published monthly and can be received free of charge as a monthly electronic mail posting .
This paper summarizes the Flexible Extensible Digital Object and Repository Architecture (Fedora) project which was funded through a $1,000,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Fedora is a new system designed to be a model upon which interoperable web-based digital libraries can be built. Cornell and the University of Virginia joined forces to build and implement the new open-source version of Fedora. The author provides an in-depth description of Fedora's architectural model, the prototype and test bed at Virginia, and the updated Fedora system specification that includes management service and access service interfaces. An alpha version of the software is planned for release in October 2002. Phase 2 of the project will entail performance optimization for XML.
The Government in the United Kingdom has set a goal that everyone who wants Internet access should have it by 2005. This report by the House of Commons Information Committee examines both the parliamentary and communication infrastructure in the context of its interactions with the public. The report identifies areas where the House can assist in meeting public expectations as well as improve its public image. The report sets forth a draft set of five Principles for Information and Communications Technologies.
First Topic Listing |
Previous Topic Listing |
Next Topic Listing |
Last Topic Listing |