Conference - Multiple Perspectives on Metadata

Vienna 12/13 November 2009

Mariella Guercio: (Keynote) Conceptual framework and chain of custody for sustaining the digital trustworthiness With reference to the subject of my presentation I would like to stress the relevance of a consistent conceptual framework and of the robustness of the methodological approach when the digital curation and preservation will transform the traditional environment. The fragmentation in implementing the organizational and the technological solutions of the investments implies the risk of loosing the quality of the investments. Specifically I would like to focus on the needs for a holistic approach on the whole digital heritage, of course with respect of the specificity of each domain but also with the capacity of planning a system able to provide compatible solutions and integrated for all the digital respositories and digital contents created and acquired by the creators with reference to the policies for accessioning, the procedures and the metadata/attributes/elements for the retrieval and the authenticity, the chain of responsibilities. Context: Due to ongoing digitization processes, the topic of structuring and modelling content is increasingly being discussed and new approaches are being developed. Digital Asset Management Systems support users in analyzing, retrieving, processing, filing and citing structured information sources. From a technological perspective, XML-based systems are particularly well-suited for flexible and metadata-enriched methods of asset storage: The primary data content is augmented with additional descriptive elements by making use of modelling standards and markup languages. This facilitaties a multifaceted digital representation of knowledge as well as data interoperability. Unlike other platforms (e.g. Content- or Learning Management Systems), Digital Asset Management Systems place importance on the sustainability of digital assets as well as flexible long-term accessibility and controlled authorization. The conference will investigate multiple approaches to metadata strategies and discuss how these can support digital edition and preservation projects. On the one hand, metadata hold well-structured administrative, descriptive, technical and long-term preservation information about assets, while on the other hand, they present a domain specific semantic relevance that is embedded in the content of an asset. The conference will cover a range of topics including: • Ontology based metadata specifications • Markup language based edition strategies • Metadata Quality Assurance • Metadata and IPR • Metadata harvesting protocols & incorporation

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