http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub92/lynch.html
Canonicalization: A Fundamental Tool to Facilitate Preservation and Management of Digital Information
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september99/09lynch.html
Showing posts with label metadata. Show all posts
Showing posts with label metadata. Show all posts
Monday, January 28, 2008
Clifford Lynch articles
Authenticity and Integrity of Digital Information
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub92/lynch.html
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub92/lynch.html
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Luciana Duranti: Preserving Authentic Electronic Art Over The Long-Term (pdf)
The InterPARES 2 Project
http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/emg/library/pdf/duranti/Duranti-EMG2004.pdf
"For centuries, our presumption of authenticity has been premised on the presence or absence of visible formal elements and on an uninterrupted line of legitimate custody. The use of digital technology has not only reconfigured those formal elements, allowed for the bypassing of production controls, and made of physical custody an elusive concept, but, first and foremost, it has eliminated the original work, that is the first complete instantiation being communicated either across space (to persons other than the author) or time (saved for later access by the author or legitimate successors).
If electronic materials will ever be considered authentic as those on traditional media, the practices by which they are created, maintained, made accessible and used must be analyzed, and strategies and standards for their authentic preservation must be developed. This is the mission of InterPARES (International research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems), a research endeavor that aims to develop the theoretical and methodological knowledge essential to the permanent preservation of authentic materials generated and/or maintained electronically, and, on the basis of this knowledge, to formulate model policies, strategies and standards capable of ensuring that preservation.
[...]
Increasingly, however, organizations and individuals have been generating works of a dynamic, experiential, or interactive nature, which will need different, and perhaps work-type specific, authenticity requirements and selection and preservation strategies.
[...]
Clifford Lynch describes experiential digital objects as objects whose essence goes beyond the bits constituting them to incorporate the behavior of the rendering system, or at least the interaction between the object and the rendering system.
[...] it is necessary to develop an understanding of the new digital objects, not only in the later phases of their life cycle, but from the moment of their creation.
[...] We have to consider the possibility of substituting the characteristics of completeness, stability and fixity with the capacity of the system where the work resides to trace and preserve each change the digital object has undergone. And perhaps we may look at this new digital entity as existing in one of two modes, as an entity in becoming, when its process of creation is in course (even if such creation is ongoing), and as a fixed entity at any given time the work is viewed."
+++++
about the Interpares project:
www.interpares.org
InterPARES1 was initiated in 1999 and concluded in 2001. It focused on the development of theory and methods ensuring the preservation of the authenticity of records created and/or maintained in databases and document management systems in the course of administrative activities, and took the perspective of the preserver.
InterPARES2 was initiated in 2002 and concluded in 2006. In addition to dealing with issues of authenticity, it delved into the issues of reliability and accuracy during the entire lifecycle of records, from creation to permanent preservation. It focused on records produced in complex digital environments in the course of artistic, scientific and e-government activities.
InterPARES3 was initiated in in 2007 and will continue through 2012. The project builds upon the findings of InterPARES 1 and 2, as well as of other digital preservation projects worldwide. It will put theory into practice, working with small and medium-sized archives and archival/records units within organizations, and develop teaching modules for in-house training programs, continuing education, and academic curricula.
Their terminology database (including the glossary, ontology and dictionary):
http://www.interpares.org/ip2/ip2_terminology_db.cfm
http://www.interpares.org/ip2/display_file.cfm?doc=ip2_ontology.pdf
http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/emg/library/pdf/duranti/Duranti-EMG2004.pdf
"For centuries, our presumption of authenticity has been premised on the presence or absence of visible formal elements and on an uninterrupted line of legitimate custody. The use of digital technology has not only reconfigured those formal elements, allowed for the bypassing of production controls, and made of physical custody an elusive concept, but, first and foremost, it has eliminated the original work, that is the first complete instantiation being communicated either across space (to persons other than the author) or time (saved for later access by the author or legitimate successors).
If electronic materials will ever be considered authentic as those on traditional media, the practices by which they are created, maintained, made accessible and used must be analyzed, and strategies and standards for their authentic preservation must be developed. This is the mission of InterPARES (International research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems), a research endeavor that aims to develop the theoretical and methodological knowledge essential to the permanent preservation of authentic materials generated and/or maintained electronically, and, on the basis of this knowledge, to formulate model policies, strategies and standards capable of ensuring that preservation.
[...]
Increasingly, however, organizations and individuals have been generating works of a dynamic, experiential, or interactive nature, which will need different, and perhaps work-type specific, authenticity requirements and selection and preservation strategies.
[...]
Clifford Lynch describes experiential digital objects as objects whose essence goes beyond the bits constituting them to incorporate the behavior of the rendering system, or at least the interaction between the object and the rendering system.
[...] it is necessary to develop an understanding of the new digital objects, not only in the later phases of their life cycle, but from the moment of their creation.
[...] We have to consider the possibility of substituting the characteristics of completeness, stability and fixity with the capacity of the system where the work resides to trace and preserve each change the digital object has undergone. And perhaps we may look at this new digital entity as existing in one of two modes, as an entity in becoming, when its process of creation is in course (even if such creation is ongoing), and as a fixed entity at any given time the work is viewed."
+++++
about the Interpares project:
www.interpares.org
InterPARES1 was initiated in 1999 and concluded in 2001. It focused on the development of theory and methods ensuring the preservation of the authenticity of records created and/or maintained in databases and document management systems in the course of administrative activities, and took the perspective of the preserver.
InterPARES2 was initiated in 2002 and concluded in 2006. In addition to dealing with issues of authenticity, it delved into the issues of reliability and accuracy during the entire lifecycle of records, from creation to permanent preservation. It focused on records produced in complex digital environments in the course of artistic, scientific and e-government activities.
InterPARES3 was initiated in in 2007 and will continue through 2012. The project builds upon the findings of InterPARES 1 and 2, as well as of other digital preservation projects worldwide. It will put theory into practice, working with small and medium-sized archives and archival/records units within organizations, and develop teaching modules for in-house training programs, continuing education, and academic curricula.
Their terminology database (including the glossary, ontology and dictionary):
http://www.interpares.org/ip2/ip2_terminology_db.cfm
http://www.interpares.org/ip2/display_file.cfm?doc=ip2_ontology.pdf
Saturday, January 26, 2008
M.A.D. - Media Art Database(s)
WHY M.A.D.?
If media art is to be accessible to its potential champions and disseminators, to being curated, researched and studied, then new partnerships need to be initiated and ingrained rivalry behaviour patterns replaced by constructive exchange between media competence, creative and theoretical, scattered across the globe and, wherever, gained through much effort, and the infrastructures and resources that have developed through the years. That is the only way that sustainable, i.e. self-supporting projects can be launched with good prospects of survival. M.A.D. sees itself as an information system true to these tenets, at the disposal of media art and its theory; and as a networking interface between material and knowledge while being as independent as possible of individual figures, locations, their respective preferences and interests.
M.A.D.-STRUCTURE
'Top-level networking' in media art history and theory demands a transparent and universally accessible information system that does justice equally to the work done by the sites of production, distribution and data archiving and by the individuals engaged in the provision and scholarly processing of information on media art. Previous experience world wide has shown that the laborious, but for the survival of that information system, crucial task of compiling such a database is at odds with the hitherto customary top-down structures. The signs are that in the longer term, there will be no real alternative but that media theory and practice must meet at eye level.
M.A.D. therefore proposes the networking bottom-up structure to be the decisive motive force in assembling potent aggregates of knowledge and expertise. That should be the forum whence both are delegated/constituted, the 'distributed editors' and an 'advisory board' responsible for development and co-ordination.
M.A.D.-CONTEXTS
M.A.D. should offer a suitable platform of presentation, distribution and interaction - for the proponents of horizontal and collaborative, grass-roots networking with social-networking sites, Wikis and other Web-2.0. attributes, and for artists, theorists and developers interested in setting up a semantic Web 3.0.
M.A.D.-OBJECTIVES
The quality of the M.A.D. is to be assured and sustained not least by minimising editorial stipulations so as to maximise the input from distributed competent potential contributors. Acquiring data and information 'first-hand' will also reduce the time and effort called for in gaining permission from copyright holders and in other editorial matters, as experience has shown - and as users are coming to expect. Lastingly minimised costs and increasing data acquisition speeds are at once among the M.A.D.'s foremost objectives and among the preconditions so that the ultimate aim might be achieved, i.e. the sustainability and durability of data and discourses.
M.A.D. AS A MODEL
The Internet in the (as yet) Browsing Age is without doubt a playground of entropy and a lack of structure - and so, of frustration. Luckily it also lets every and anyone see how removed our offline world still is from a functioning democracy. It shows us the useless waste of creative potential while it is suppressed or squandered.
All, artists, academics and researchers, those on the left, liberals and conservatives, have long understood that human attention represents an economic value. All the more reason why the already acute proliferation and abuse of testimonials, evaluation services, grading and selection, sloganisation and individual criteria should be discussed in an open, decentralised manner and at the same time be evaluated by 'third parties'.
That current state-of-the-art terminology should almost inevitably lead to concepts expressed as tagging and web 3.0 or the Semantic Web lies in the nature of a living language. Irrespective of whether or how far we are removed from this vision, the relevance of M.A.D. will be given, too, in the context of these most recent developments. If the web of the future - the 'Semantic Web', the 'Live Web', the 'Intelligent Web', 'Web 3.0' - may be described as a database of databases, then the M.A.D. could, in the sense sketched out here, serve as a model; for the methods of recording used in and for media art projects are pre-eminently suited also for the description of any 'objects' and 'subjects' real or virtual.
JOIN AND BUILD UP M.A.D.
Let's find out what we may achieve together in rule-free discourse, ubiquity, global consciousness, open and active archiving, and distributed knowledge. Become a part of the M.A.D. community and help shape M.A.D. as a model for a meeting of creative competence and competent discussion in media practice and theory. Please visit M.A.D., find out the missing links, and help create new mind mappings out of yesterday's and the future's media meta-noise. With your contribution, the important initial steps so far taken by media creators, curators and thinkers could continue in a more constructive, joint way for any of the interest groups mentioned (and not mentioned) above.
--------------------------------
note: head Slavko Kacunko
http://www.slavkokacunko.de/
http://www.media-art-database.com/
If media art is to be accessible to its potential champions and disseminators, to being curated, researched and studied, then new partnerships need to be initiated and ingrained rivalry behaviour patterns replaced by constructive exchange between media competence, creative and theoretical, scattered across the globe and, wherever, gained through much effort, and the infrastructures and resources that have developed through the years. That is the only way that sustainable, i.e. self-supporting projects can be launched with good prospects of survival. M.A.D. sees itself as an information system true to these tenets, at the disposal of media art and its theory; and as a networking interface between material and knowledge while being as independent as possible of individual figures, locations, their respective preferences and interests.
M.A.D.-STRUCTURE
'Top-level networking' in media art history and theory demands a transparent and universally accessible information system that does justice equally to the work done by the sites of production, distribution and data archiving and by the individuals engaged in the provision and scholarly processing of information on media art. Previous experience world wide has shown that the laborious, but for the survival of that information system, crucial task of compiling such a database is at odds with the hitherto customary top-down structures. The signs are that in the longer term, there will be no real alternative but that media theory and practice must meet at eye level.
M.A.D. therefore proposes the networking bottom-up structure to be the decisive motive force in assembling potent aggregates of knowledge and expertise. That should be the forum whence both are delegated/constituted, the 'distributed editors' and an 'advisory board' responsible for development and co-ordination.
M.A.D.-CONTEXTS
M.A.D. should offer a suitable platform of presentation, distribution and interaction - for the proponents of horizontal and collaborative, grass-roots networking with social-networking sites, Wikis and other Web-2.0. attributes, and for artists, theorists and developers interested in setting up a semantic Web 3.0.
M.A.D.-OBJECTIVES
The quality of the M.A.D. is to be assured and sustained not least by minimising editorial stipulations so as to maximise the input from distributed competent potential contributors. Acquiring data and information 'first-hand' will also reduce the time and effort called for in gaining permission from copyright holders and in other editorial matters, as experience has shown - and as users are coming to expect. Lastingly minimised costs and increasing data acquisition speeds are at once among the M.A.D.'s foremost objectives and among the preconditions so that the ultimate aim might be achieved, i.e. the sustainability and durability of data and discourses.
M.A.D. AS A MODEL
The Internet in the (as yet) Browsing Age is without doubt a playground of entropy and a lack of structure - and so, of frustration. Luckily it also lets every and anyone see how removed our offline world still is from a functioning democracy. It shows us the useless waste of creative potential while it is suppressed or squandered.
All, artists, academics and researchers, those on the left, liberals and conservatives, have long understood that human attention represents an economic value. All the more reason why the already acute proliferation and abuse of testimonials, evaluation services, grading and selection, sloganisation and individual criteria should be discussed in an open, decentralised manner and at the same time be evaluated by 'third parties'.
That current state-of-the-art terminology should almost inevitably lead to concepts expressed as tagging and web 3.0 or the Semantic Web lies in the nature of a living language. Irrespective of whether or how far we are removed from this vision, the relevance of M.A.D. will be given, too, in the context of these most recent developments. If the web of the future - the 'Semantic Web', the 'Live Web', the 'Intelligent Web', 'Web 3.0' - may be described as a database of databases, then the M.A.D. could, in the sense sketched out here, serve as a model; for the methods of recording used in and for media art projects are pre-eminently suited also for the description of any 'objects' and 'subjects' real or virtual.
JOIN AND BUILD UP M.A.D.
Let's find out what we may achieve together in rule-free discourse, ubiquity, global consciousness, open and active archiving, and distributed knowledge. Become a part of the M.A.D. community and help shape M.A.D. as a model for a meeting of creative competence and competent discussion in media practice and theory. Please visit M.A.D., find out the missing links, and help create new mind mappings out of yesterday's and the future's media meta-noise. With your contribution, the important initial steps so far taken by media creators, curators and thinkers could continue in a more constructive, joint way for any of the interest groups mentioned (and not mentioned) above.
--------------------------------
note: head Slavko Kacunko
http://www.slavkokacunko.de/
http://www.media-art-database.com/
Monday, January 21, 2008
Video Ontology @ Carnegie Mellon
"Video indexing suffers from inadequate metadata and an inability to derive reliable annotations automatically. In addition, there are no standards regarding how video should be indexed. Even for video that was born digital, there typically is insufficient metadata available. We develop a video indexing ontology that provides a large core set of primitives and relations for indexing video content across diverse domains. Complementing 
work done in the Library of Congress' Thesaurus of Graphic Materials, and MPEG-7 standardization efforts, we will study the theoretical and empirical aspects of the automatic detection of semantic concepts and their temporal and spatial relationships in video material informed by an indexing ontology."
http://www.informedia.cs.cmu.edu/ontology/index.html
work done in the Library of Congress' Thesaurus of Graphic Materials, and MPEG-7 standardization efforts, we will study the theoretical and empirical aspects of the automatic detection of semantic concepts and their temporal and spatial relationships in video material informed by an indexing ontology."http://www.informedia.cs.cmu.edu/ontology/index.html
Informedia - goals
"The Informedia system provides full-content search and retrieval of current and past TV and radio news and documentary broadcasts. The system implements a fully automated process to enable daily content capture, information extraction and storage in on-line archives by applying artificial intelligence and advanced systems technology. The current library consists of a 1,500 hour, one terabyte library of daily news captured over the last two years and documentaries produced for public television and government agencies. This prototype database allows for rapid retrieval of individual video paragraphs which satisfy an arbitrary spoken or typed subject area query based on the words in the soundtrack, closed-captioning or text overlaid on the screen. There is also a capability for matching of similar faces and images."
http://www.informedia.cs.cmu.edu/dli2/index.html
(also see post on Aquaint)
that's what they say about their goals:
" We will work with content providers to make their materials more accessible, and to study patterns of use of their video by appropriate communities of users. Our goal for unlocking the information embedded in video for easy access by the student, teacher, journalist, scientist or home user has the potential to create video resources with significant educational and commercial value. Our approach of automatically processing large libraries will stress current limits on network and i/o bandwidth, disk space and processor speed. Our focus on video as a searchable resource has broad implications for information gathering and dissemination."
http://www.informedia.cs.cmu.edu/dli2/index.html
(also see post on Aquaint)
that's what they say about their goals:
" We will work with content providers to make their materials more accessible, and to study patterns of use of their video by appropriate communities of users. Our goal for unlocking the information embedded in video for easy access by the student, teacher, journalist, scientist or home user has the potential to create video resources with significant educational and commercial value. Our approach of automatically processing large libraries will stress current limits on network and i/o bandwidth, disk space and processor speed. Our focus on video as a searchable resource has broad implications for information gathering and dissemination."
The MXF Format - Video File Wrapper
http://videopreservation.stanford.edu/dig_mig/index.html#TheVideoSignal
in the "migrate digital" section, bottom of the page:
"The Material eXchange Format (MXF) is an open file format intended for the interchange of audio-visual material with its associated data and metadata.
It was designed to improve file based interoperability between servers, workstations and other content-creation devices. These improvements should result in improved workflows and in more efficient working practices than is possible with today's mixed and proprietary file formats.MXF was designed by the leading players in the broadcast industry – with an enormous amount of input from the user community – to ensure that the format really meets their demands. It is being put forward as an Open Standard which means it is a file transfer format that is openly available to all interested parties.
It is not compression-scheme-specific and it simplifies the integration of systems using MPEG and DV as well as future, as yet unspecified, compression strategies such as JPEG2000. This means that the transportation of these different files will be independent of content, and will not dictate the use of specific equipment. Any required processing can simply be achieved by automatically invoking the appropriate hardware or software codec."
Informedia Project - Aquaint II
"The overarching goal of the Informedia initiatives is to achieve machine understanding of video and film media, including all aspects of search, retrieval, visualization and summarization in both contemporaneous and archival content collections.
http://www.informedia.cs.cmu.edu/aquaint/aquaintII.html
http://www.informedia.cs.cmu.edu/aquaint/images/AQUAINTII_quad.png
Informedia Aquaint II (click to enlarge img)
The base technology developed under Informedia-I combines speech, image and natural language understanding to automatically transcribe, segment and index linear video for intelligent search and image retrieval. Informedia-II seeks to improve the dynamic extraction, summarization, visualization, and presentation of distributed video, automatically producing “collages” and “auto-documentaries” that summarize documents from text, images, audio and video into one single abstraction."
http://www.informedia.cs.cmu.edu/
http://www.informedia.cs.cmu.edu/aquaint/aquaintII.html
http://www.informedia.cs.cmu.edu/aquaint/images/AQUAINTII_quad.png
Informedia Aquaint II (click to enlarge img)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
