tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495500078306016514.post2020018465968860201..comments2023-01-19T06:00:58.290-08:00Comments on UK Council of Research Repositories: OAI-PMH aggregation?Dominic Tatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16810507522854441709noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495500078306016514.post-10961534433032948602010-12-22T03:38:51.550-08:002010-12-22T03:38:51.550-08:00Interesting post - a couple of quick thoughts:
I ...Interesting post - a couple of quick thoughts:<br /><br />I would agree that OIA-PMH has a very strong feature - it is currently pretty much ubiquitous in the field. The difficulty of identifying metadata records which point to a full text artefact is not really a weakness of the protocol as such. I think that harvesters and aggregations will need to be able to adopt other protocols in addition to OAI-PMH, rather than instead of it.<br /><br />I agree with James when he suggests that it's the potential for enhancements to the data which are interesting. I also completely agree with his assertion that the community has no interest in going to a central aggregation just to search for records. It's been my contention for some time, however, that such a central aggregation could be an important component in a wider system. An aggregation of metadata is useful as a starting point - however harvested - as it solves the network latency problem. As more data is exposed elsewhere, the potential for applying data mashing techniques to enhance the aggregation becomes interesting.<br /><br />For all the rhetoric about Linked Data offering a more distributed data model for the Web, the emerging model seems closer to the existing one underpinning the Web of documents, with the widespread use of a few concentrations of data, enhanced by smaller, localised datasets for local requirements. If we view an aggregation of metadata records as open infrastructure, perhaps we can encourage others to apply the enhancements.<br /><br />UKOLN is working on this kind of aggregation and I would be very interested in hearing suggestions for the sorts of data enhancements which would be useful or interesting to readers.<br /><br />PaulAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07735656830382779362noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495500078306016514.post-78005617998785340292010-12-21T07:37:53.143-08:002010-12-21T07:37:53.143-08:00One of the reasons OAI-PMH never took off that I c...One of the reasons OAI-PMH never took off that I can see is the lack of business model for the service provider end. OAIster itself has struggled along by finding people with money as needed and I'm guessing that rian.ie is funded publicly. Neither generate income, though, unless you count the indirect income that accrues from investment through awareness. But it has been hard to justify the costs of service providers in these terms.<br /><br />There are clearly other technical solutions now, of which linked data holds much promise. However, the same business model dilemma applies, and it will be interesting to see whether linked data services manage to overcome this barrier and succeed where OAI-PMH hasn't. Providing tools that allow low-level entry may be one approach (OAI service provider set-up was fine, but not simple).<br /><br />Having said that, I tend to agree that OAI-PMH may still have it's place for focused, targeted services where the business model works. EThOS is one example where OAI-PMH is proving useful in supporting the service's development, and a great deal of thought and effort went into developing the business model for that before it got going.<br /><br />ChrisChris Awrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13908501561109029720noreply@blogger.com