2002/03/21: Citation Management as the way forward

Happy Birthday, JSB!

Johann Sebastian Bach was born 317 years ago on March 21, 1685.

The thought of it....

I'm not sure whether to be scandalized or pleased that Karin would draw the comparison between JSB and Sebastian Bach! :-)

Jim Seymour on abadoned software like Ecco

Jim Seymour (PC Magazine): "We need more areas of gray between black and white. One relevant example is the so-called 'abandoned code.' There are lots of older programs that remain very useful for some people. Their creators and copyright owners have given up on them and are no longer marketing them. What if I want a copy of one of those, such as Ecco Professional, a brilliant calendaring program? I can no longer find a copy to buy, but if people start selling CDs of the last release, you can bet that the copyright holder on that code is going to come out of the woodwork and come down on them. If the owner no longer has any hope of making money on a product and has effectively abandoned it, why shouldn't someone else be able to make it available?"

I wish I could start sharing Ecco with my friends since it has been abandoned by NetManage, the current owner of Ecco. Better yet, I wish NetManage would put the code for Ecco into the public domain. But very few people think that this will ever happen. Sigh.

In case you ever get hit by a DMCA letter

See Touretzky, D. Do-It-Yourself Counter Notification Letter, 2002. "One of the favorite tools of both cults and corporations seeking to take embarassing information off the Internet is to falsely claim violation of a copyright or trademark. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, enacted in 1998, set out a notification procedure that can be used to request an ISP to remove allegedly infringing material from a web page. However, there is a defense against this attack: it's called a counter notification letter. Most people don't know how to write such a letter, which is why I've put together this helpful form." [link from Wes Felter]

This reference comes in the context of reports of how the Church of Scientology is forcing google to take down references to websites critical of Scientology via the DMCA. [news.com, Wired]

Malcolm Gladwell strikes again, this time about paper

Thanks to Lynn for pointing out Malcolm Gladwell's latest piece in the New Yorker: The Social Life of Paper Great article about why computers haven't replaced paper. I learned a big lessonn in this regard as I was finishing my dissertation, when I was essentially trying to computerize everything associated with the writing process. When Dorothy Duff Brown, the "dissertation lady" told all of us ABDs to use a binder and sketch cognitive maps on paper, I had an ah ha experience. This morning, I spent a lot of time sketching out ideas for citation management -- which I will write out below.

Gladwell's essays are highly recommended -- and you find them on the Web.

Citation Management as the next big steps

As I continue on my work on educational technology/library interop (METSInterop), I want to get back to building a working prototype of B-OLE I will provide more detail tomorrow morning -- but let me get down the basic drift.

The central theme of my technical development lately has been to create flow among three groups -- or worlds, if I think bigger: 1) the educational technology world (with its learning management systems (LMS), course creation tools, digital learning tools, etc -- and as represented by such specifications as the IMS; 2) the library and museum world and their digital collections which are (or being) encoded in such formats as MOA2 and METS; and 3) the larger world of the collaborative, writable Web, weblogs, groupware, etc.

Let me take two paragraphs from my Blogging Technology Draft 1 to elaborate. I'm interested in connecting a blogging system (such as Manila) with not only other blogging systems but with systems of particular interest to the university and K-12 world. The libraries and museums on the campus have been at the forefront of developing XML encoding standards for marking up their artifacts. The library and museum world has been working with MOA2 (http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/MOA2/) and METS its successor (http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/) to encode digital artifacts and EAD (http://www.loc.gov/ead/) to mark up finding aids. Learning management systems may have interoperability through the implementation of IMS standards. I envision a Manila/Radio/Blogger hook-up with the digital libraries and museums that would allow one to easily write about materials in the libraries and museums and embed these objects within the narrative of the blog in a seamless way. Pictures, video clips, text -- along with the associated metadata (and provenance information) would -- flow right into the discussion.

Right now, Radio (and other tools) allow for the syndication and aggregation of RSS XML items. What we find exciting is the prospect of syndicating and aggregating a broader arrange of materials, such as MOA2 or METS encoded objects , or learning objects that are encoded in IMS format. What would people do with such objects? With RSS, people are gathering these items, commenting on them, and then republishing them in their own blogs. That's functionality allowed in Radio. However, once we get materials richer than RSS channels, we will want to have other services. A good blogging system would allow the development of new functionality. Manila supports extensiblity through plugins, and Radio, through a Tools architecture.

Now connecting all these pieces is to much for me to do in one go. What I want to write about tomorrow morning is how I will use the specific area of citation management as a specific case to get me started in developing B-OLE. Citing others (usually by linking) is at the heart of blogging. However, there is a deep tradition in the academic world of citing others too. There are commonalities but there are big differences in how citations and bibliographies are handled -- and how information can flow.

For example, I've been blogging over a year and embedded within the narrative of my blog are many useful citations. I also maintain an Endnote database that I use in my paper-writing. I'd like to bring the two together. The Endnote database allows me to treat my references in a more object-like fashion (which I can reuse). Manila shortcuts are a bit like reusable references. But the way I've been doing blogging doesn't allow me to easily reuse my references. (Cutting and pasting is not "easy" in my estimation since it is tedious and error-prone.) Moreover, I'd like to be able to add metadata to my citations. (I know some people are building up Radio databases of citations -- and that would be a start. But I want to keep using Manila, thank you.)

More tomorrow on what I want to build to address this problem.

David Davies' XML syndication of resource

Thanks, David, for pointing me to MCQ Resource Discovery Using XML. "his page showcases searching across multiple databases of multiple choice questions (MCQs) running in different institutions. The database servers use a simple XML RSS file to return search results to the user in a consistent, platform and database independent format. The XML RSS results are then transformed to HTML for display on an conventional web browser. You can view the raw XML files by selecting [XML]"

It looks like David is already doing some of what I've been thinking about! Wonderful.

and database independent format. The XML RSS results are then transformed to HTML for display on an conventional web browser. You can view the raw XML files by selecting

Your Comments?

[Macro error: Can't evaluate the expression because the name "email" hasn't been defined.]

Feb Apr

The opinions or statements expressed herein should not be taken as a position of or endorsement by the University of California, Berkeley. Nor should the opinions or statements expressed herein be taken as a position of or endorsement of the University of California, Berkeley. Links on these pages to commercial sites do not represent endorsement by the University of California or its affiliates.