News from 2007

An updated specification for DC-TEXT a syntax for serializing, or representing, a Dublin Core™ metadata description set in plain text has been published as a DCMI Recommended Resource. A new Web page for formal reviews of application profiles by the Usage Board now links to a review of the Collections Application Profile. Public Comment closed on 3 December 2008 for the DCMI Proposed Recommendation, Expressing Dublin Core™ metadata using HTML/XHTML meta and link elements.

The Call for Papers for DC-2008, to be held 22-26 September 2008 in Berlin, is now available from the conference Web site. The theme of the conference is "Metadata for Semantic and Social Applications". Papers, reports, and poster submissions addressing the conference theme as well as a wide range of metadata topics are welcome. Please note that the submission deadline for papers, reports and posters is 30 March 2008.

Public Comment is being held from 5 November through 3 December 2007 on the DCMI Proposed Recommendation, "Expressing Dublin Core™ metadata using HTML/XHTML meta and link elements" by Pete Johnston and Andy Powell. Interested members of the public are invited to post comments to the DC-ARCHITECTURE mailing list, including "[DC-HTML Public Comment]" in the subject line. Depending on comments received, the specification may be finalized after the comment period as a DCMI Recommendation.

At the meeting of the DCMI Global Corporate Circle at DC-2007 in Singapore it was suggested to re-focus the group from its charter that places the main attention on application of Dublin Core™ metadata in corporate environments to a more general focus on Knowledge Management. After further discussion by the DCMI Advisory Board, the suggestion was accepted. As a result, we are now announcing the establishement of the new DCMI Knowledge Management Community. The group is moderated by Mary Woodley of the California State University Northridge and Johannes Keizer of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome. Johannes has also become a member of the DCMI Advisory Board. An invitation to participate in the Knowledge Management Community will be distributed shortly on DC-General and on other lists. The DCMI Global Corporate Circle will be deactivated in the next month.

Over the last months, a number of new translations of DCMI documents have been added to the list on the translations page. The latest additions include translations of the DCMI Metadata Terms into Russian; the Dublin Core™ Metadata Element Set, version 1.1 into German, Persian and Russian; the DCMI Type vocabulary into Russian; Expressing Dublin Core™ in HTML/XHTML meta and link elements into French and Russian, and Using Dublin Core™ into French.

The DCMI Directorate is pleased to announce the appointment of two new members to the DCMI Usage Board: Julie Allinson (Library and Archives, University of York, UK) and Pete Johnston (Eduserv Foundation, UK). Andy Powell (Eduserv Foundation, UK) and Stuart Sutton (University of Washington, USA) both founding members of the Usage Board have stepped down after six years of service.

At the DCMI Advisory Board meeting in Singapore on 1 September, a new Community was established, the DCMI Scholarly Communications Community. This group is a forum for individuals and organisations to exchange information, knowledge and general discussion on issues relating to using Dublin Core™ for describing research papers, scholarly texts, data objects and other resources created and used within scholarly communications. The group is moderated by Rosemary Russell of UKOLN and Julie Allinson of the University of York who have both become members of the DCMI Advisory Board. An invitation to participate in the Scholarly Communications Community will be distributed shortly on DC-General and on other lists.

At DC-2007, a Special Session was held on the issue of identifiers, aimed at those interested in finding out more about work underway around identifiers and to participate in identifying the issues from the DCMI community's perspective. Following that meeting, it was decided to set up a new community, the DCMI Identifiers Community to provide a forum to discuss the design and use of identifiers in metadata. The group will be moderated by Douglas Campbell of the National Library of New Zealand. An invitation to participate in this new community will be distributed shortly on DC-General and on other lists.

A main outcome of DC-2007 is the "Singapore Framework", a set of documents that together form the specification of a Dublin Core™ Application Profile. As presented by Mikael Nilsson at DC-2007, this documentation set puts a formal "Description Set Profile" into the context of functional requirements, domain models, syntax bindings, and user guidelines. The Singapore Framework will guide DCMI Task Groups that are developing Application Profiles and underpins the formal evaluation of Application Profiles by the DCMI Usage Board.

At DC-2007, the location and dates for next year's conference were revealed. DC-2008 will be held in Berlin, Germany from 22 through 26 September 2008. The event will be jointly organized by the Competence Centre for Interoperable Metadata (KIM), Max Planck Digital Library, Gttingen State and University Library, the German National Library and Humboldt University. Please see the Conference Web site for further news as it develops.