Hi Stuart,

Yes, there are many things that could be done to make this more useful than it is now. However, I still think it's useful in its present form to many, and consider the extra step of someone motivated to learn more about a specific standard to retype a few characters somewhere to go to the URL printed (but as you say, not linked) in the glossary, use Wikipedia, or use any of the other zillions of information resources at their disposal to be a small tradeoff for the significant benefit of getting this work in the form it's in now, rather than waiting for me to have the time and resources for development work to evolve this into a more interactive form and keep it hidden until that unknown day. What we've just released is one step along the way - perhaps not all you or I can imagine, but surely more useful than not.

I'm not sure when I'll be able to put more concentrated effort into working on this. In the meantime, it's CC Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States licensed. Re-use away.

Jenn

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> stuart yeates
> Sent: Monday, June 21, 2010 11:03 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Visualization of the Metadata Universe
>
> Hello Jenn
>
> It's a great diagram, lovely and shiny and clearly the work of someone
> with a creative vision for their work.
>
> Alas I think it's substantially less useful than it could be, because
> that sea of acronyms (we do love our acronyms, don't we?) is a sea of
> dead-ends. The work could be made far more useful by having each of
> those acronyms as a link to a sane explanation of the standard. I
> suggest starting with links to the English language wikipedia which
> does
> a better job of explaining most standards to a general audience than
> the
> standards themselves.
>
> Without links a document such as this can only be on the web, not in
> the
> web or of the web.
>
> cheers
> stuart
>
> Riley, Jenn wrote:
> > (This message is being sent to multiple lists; please excuse
> duplication.)
> >
> > The sheer number of metadata standards in the cultural heritage
> sector is overwhelming, and their inter-relationships further
> complicate the situation. A new resource, Seeing Standards: A
> Visualization of the Metadata Universe,
> <http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/~jenlrile/metadatamap/>, is intended to
> assist planners with the selection and implementation of metadata
> standards. Seeing Standards is in two parts: (1) a poster-sized
> visualization plotting standards based on their applicability in a
> variety of contexts, and (2) a glossary of metadata standards in either
> poster or pamphlet form.
> >
> > Each of the 105 standards listed is evaluated on its strength of
> application to defined categories in each of four axes: community,
> domain, function, and purpose. Standards more strongly allied with a
> category are displayed towards the center of each hemisphere, and those
> still applicable but less strongly allied are displayed along the
> edges. The strength of a standard in a given category is determined by
> a mixture of its adoption in that category, its design intent, and its
> overall appropriateness for use in that category.
> >
> > The standards represented are among those most heavily used or
> publicized in the cultural heritage community, though certainly not all
> standards that might be relevant are included. A small set of the
> metadata standards plotted on the main visualization also appear as
> highlights above the graphic. These represent the most commonly known
> or discussed standards for cultural heritage metadata.
> >
> > Work preparing Seeing Standards was supported by a professional
> development grant from the Indiana University Libraries. Content was
> developed by Jenn Riley, Metadata Librarian in the Indiana University
> Digital Library Program. Design work was performed by Devin Becker of
> the Indiana University School of Library and Information Science, and
> soon to be Digital Initiatives & Scholarly Communications Librarian at
> the University of Idaho.
> >
> > I hope this resource proves to be helpful to those working with
> metadata standards in libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural
> heritage institutions.
> >
> > Jenn
> >
> > ========================
> > Jenn Riley
> > Metadata Librarian
> > Digital Library Program
> > Indiana University - Bloomington
> > Wells Library W501
> > (812) 856-5759
> > www.dlib.indiana.edu
> >
> > Inquiring Librarian blog: www.inquiringlibrarian.blogspot.com
> >
>
>
> --
> Stuart Yeates
> http://www.nzetc.org/       New Zealand Electronic Text Centre
> http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/     Institutional Repository