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Appendix 3 DOI® Data Model and sector applications
This appendix comments on some sectors which are using DOI names in conjunction with
existing metadata schemes or where existing schemes are likely to be of particular
relevance. Please refer to a relevant Registration Agency for further information.
© International DOI Foundation 2006
A3.1 DOI Data Model and text applications
A3.2 DOI Data Model and learning object applications
A3.3 DOI Data Model and MPEG applications
A3.1 DOI Data Model and text applications
The ONIX (Online Information Exchange) metadata specification (http://www.editeur.org) is the international standard for representing and book, serial and video product information in electronic form. One of the key aims of ONIX is to provide a format for delivering structured data, and to that end that ONIX has a much more highly structured model for information than other descriptive metadata formats, such as Dublin Core. ONIX is of particular importance since many initial DOI System applications are in the text sector, and therefore are based on ONIX or on other standards which are mapped to ONIX (e.g. (SCORM), and potentially (PRISM) etc. EDItEUR and the International DOI Foundation (IDF) are collaborating to ensure that users of ONIX and the DOI® System will be able to easily achieve interoperability.
EDItEUR is committed to managing ONIX in such a way that any DOI System Registration Agencies who choose to use it will get the support they need, and the user community can be assured that different applications of ONIX and DOI names will be consistent wherever they overlap. The International DOI Foundation is committed to ensuring that ONIX specifications can be easily used in developing DOI System Applications. The joint intention is to produce a combined common data dictionary, the indecs Data Dictionary, for use by both ONIX and IDF.
The International DOI Foundation (IDF) and EDItEUR (the International Group for electronic commerce in the book and serial sectors) announce their intention of continuing the work announced last year* towards ONIX and DOI Data Model harmonisation, through the development of a common data dictionary.
IDF has carried out a proof-of-concept exercise aimed at providing support for all current and future DOI Data Model requirements through use of this dictionary. Terms from the DOI Data Model, ONIX for Books Release 2.0, CrossRef DOI System applications and relevant portions of the draft MPEG21 Rights Data Dictionary (RDD) have been mapped together using the "contextual" methodology developed through the original indecs framework and subsequent work including the MPEG21 Rights Data Dictionary standardization process**. The ONIX mappings are now under review, completion and approval by EDItEUR. On approval, an essential first step will have been taken towards the establishment of a single operational dictionary to support both DOI® Application Profiles and the various ONIX messages.
The single operational dictionary of ONIX and IDF will be known as the indecs Data Dictionary in recognition of the fact that this work is fundamentally grounded in the work of the indecs project and subsequent developments of the principles and framework of indecs through activities such as the ISO MPEG-21 Rights Data Dictionary development work co-funded by IDF. The indecs Data Dictionary forms a core component of the DOI Data Model and is discussed in detail elsewhere in this Handbook.
A common dictionary, and processes to support its maintenance and ongoing development, allow:
- DOI System Registration Agency (RA) and ONIX Terms to be part of a single dictionary.
- Each Term in the dictionary to have a unique XML tag and URI (DOI name), which could be explicitly cross-referenced in any DTD or Schema for an RA or ONIX format in which it appears. The Term may have a different name and written definition in each different scheme, but as long as it is recognised as having the same meaning it could be linked to a common dictionary tag and URI.
- The dictionary supports mapping different RA and ONIX schemes using the methodologies developed in the indecs framework and MPEG21 RDD.
- A broad and continually expanding dictionary of well-formed metadata Terms is available to RAs to help in developing their own metadata declarations.
EDItEUR and IDF will continue to work together on the next stages of this development, and intend to do everything possible to ensure that DOI Data Model policies and ONIX formats are consistent in those areas where interoperability is increasingly required. This leaves open the possibility of other bodies participating or joining in the use of this dictionary: IDF and EDItEUR also welcome collaboration with other parties wishing to adopt a similar open and interoperable approach to metadata use.
In addition to the ONIX web site, text publishers should also consult the AAP 2001 Open eBook Standards Project ( http://www.publishers.org/digital/drm.pdf) numbering and metadata recommendations ( http://www.publishers.org/digital/metadata.pdf, http://www.publishers.org/digital/numbering.pdf), which provides recommendations on the use of ONIX-based metadata and DOI System-based identifiers for E-Books.
A3.2 DOI Data Model and learning object applications
Some DOI System users are currently working with a number of partners in a development project for Advanced Distributed Learning for the US department of Defense and others. ADL provides common standards for the application of learning technology in education and training. A mapping of the SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model, which is a major output of ADL to date) to ONIX Release 2.0 has been completed by Francis Cave Digital Publishing on behalf of AAP. SCORM is a reference model that defines a Web-based learning "content model" (SCORM has an element ("general.identifier") to carry a unique, permanent identifier for a content object. A DOI name is mappable to this element (and this is assumed in the Francis Cave mapping).
Central to standardisation in this area is the IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee, now mirrored by an equivalent technical sub-committee (JTC 1/SC36) set up jointly by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Committee (IEC). The IEEE LTSC is responsible, among other things, for the Learning Object Metadata (LOM) specification on which the IMS Global Learning Consortium's Learning resource Metadata specification is based. SCORM implements the IMS specification.
In the UK, discussions have taken place between EDItEUR (ONIX) and the UK Metadata in Education Group on areas of mutual interest and prospects for future harmonisation.
The Curriculum Online project is a UK government supported project in the area of learning objects for school-level education. The project is now working on a specification to enable them to finalise a contractor to be the preferred developer of a detailed metadata scheme, which is to be based on the existing National Curriculum Scheme (http://www.nc.uk.net/metadata/index.html). IDF have been involved in discussions with the technical consultant advising on issues of identifiers and metadata for this project, who indicates that it should be possible to do appropriate mappings with the DOI Data Model. The preliminary draft of the Curriculum Online Metadata Scheme specifies that "Identifiers...for the learning resource could be expressed as a Digital Object Identifier and may be associated with a publisher code. It is intended that there is only one such identifier for any single learning resource, even if that resource is available for several uses or from several suppliers."
A3.3 DOI Data Model and MPEG applications
The IDF has taken an active role in introducing the concept of the digital object identifier to the MPEG-21 multimedia framework activity ( http://www.chiariglione.org/mpeg/standards/mpeg-21/mpeg-21.htm). The indecs metadata framework, which IDF supports and recommends as a basis for wellformed structured metadata, is also a key component of the MPEG-21 framework.
The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is a working group of ISO/IEC in charge of the development of standards for coded representation of digital audio and video. Established in 1988, the group has produced MPEG-1, the standard on which such products as Video CD and MP3 are based, MPEG-2, the standard on which such products as Digital Television set top boxes and DVD are based, MPEG-4, the standard for multimedia for the fixed and mobile web and MPEG-7, the standard for description and search of audio and visual content. Work on the standard MPEG-21 "Multimedia Framework" started in June 2000.
The MPEG-21 Multimedia Framework recognises that to achieve true end-to-end interoperability for digital exchange of content, more is needed than interoperable terminal architecture. MPEG-21's goal is to describe a 'big picture' of how different elements to build an infrastructure for the delivery and consumption of multimedia content -- existing or under development -- relate to each other. In setting the vision and starting the work, MPEG-21 has drawn much new blood to MPEG, including representatives from major music labels, the film industry and technology providers; both IDF and the indecs consortium are now active participants.
The MPEG-21 world consists of Users that interact with Digital Items. A Digital Item can be anything from an elemental piece of content (a single picture, a sound track) to a complete collection of audiovisual works. What MPEG calls a "digital item" can be considered a sub set of what the IDF calls a "Digital Object"; hence DOI names can be used to identify MPEG-21 Digital Items.
MPEG-21 seeks to use existing standards where possible, to facilitate their integration and to fill in gaps. Counting the MPEG-21 Technical Report as part number one, the second part of MPEG-21 will be ready in summer 2002. This is the Digital Item Declaration, a concise XML-based schema for declaring Digital Items. Arguably more ambitious is MPEG- 21's third part: the Digital Item Identification and Description. This work solves the problem of uniquely identifying digital content in a global way, and giving a resolution mechanism along with the unique identification. The specification of identifier for the MPEG-21 DIID is: "Digital Items and their parts within the MPEG-21 Framework are identified by encapsulating Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs), into the Identification DS." As noted in chapter 4, A DOI NAME is specified as a URI and therefore can be used in MPEG-21. DOI Names are listed (under "Identification Systems for Digital Items and their Parts") as valid identifier systems for MPEG-21 in the DIID MPEG-21 Digital Item Identification and Description (DII&D).
Further, IDF was a founding sponsor of a Consortium to develop a Rights Data Dictionary - a common dictionary or vocabulary for intellectual property rights -- based on indecs. The MPEG-21 Rights Data Dictionary, based on indecs principles, provides a key part of the architecture required to deliver interoperability between develop a digital rights management (DRM) standard systems. Since the IDF has adopted the indecs approach from its outset and will implement the indecs dictionary, creating a mechanism to provide a description of what is identified in a structured way and allowing services about digital content objects to be built for any purpose, there should be easy mapping and interoperability between DOI names with structured metadata and MPEG-21 identification and description.
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