This page is based upon text submitted to the Interoperability Focus Advisory Committee, and represents a number of the main activities in the month of September. The list is not exhaustive, and comments and queries are welcomed.
Events attended
- Early in September, Paul chaired a meeting for the New Opportunities Fund, at which all of their nof-digi projects with a GIS component were gathered together in order to investigate lessons they might learn from one another, economies of scale, etc. Paul's presentation is at www.ukoln.ac.uk/interop-focus/presentations/, and a report on the meeting should be available from NOF soon.
- Paul attended a meeting of the e-Government Champions' Metadata Group, at which the new improved www.govtalk.gov.uk/ and the Government Category List were amongst items discussed. The government metadata set is currently undergoing testing within a small number of agencies, and work is proceeding well with moving towards an international
view on Government requirements for DC-like metadata.
- Paul had a visit from Louis Houle, of the Quebec government. We spent an interesting day exploring similarities of approach between the UK and Quebec, and the message was reinforced that the Canadian provinces are as interested to work with us as the Federal Government has been.
- Pete contributed two sessions to a workshop on XML and metadata for librarians within the West Midlands NHS, the first an introduction to XML, and the second on RDF, XML and interoperability.
Publications
- Standing on the Shoulders of Giants, a report by Paul and committee members John Perkins and David Dawson on the successful international seminar we held in July. This is likely to be an increasingly important part of IF work in the near future...
http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue5/giants/
- A True New Opportunity for Cultural Content Digitisation in the UK, a report by Paul and Sally Criddle of UKOLN on the nof-digi Programme, and UKOLN's support service to it.
http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue5/nof/
- Architects of the Information Age, a report by Paul on the Architectures seminar held at the Office of the e-Envoy back in July.
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue29/miller/
Monthly News