http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/authors/andy-powell/ Recent content in Andy Powell on Ariadne Hugo -- gohugo.io en-gb Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/51/powell-recordon/ Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/51/powell-recordon/ OpenID [1][2] is a single sign-on system for the Internet which puts people in charge. OpenID is a user-centric technology which allows a person to have control over how their Identity is both managed and used online. By being decentralised there is no single server with which every OpenID-enabled service and every user must register. Rather, people make their own choice of OpenID Provider, the service that manages their OpenID. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/50/allinson-et-al/ Tue, 30 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/50/allinson-et-al/ In May 2006, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) [1] approached UKOLN [2] and the Eduserv Foundation [3] to collaborate on the development of a metadata specification for describing eprints (alternatively referred to as scholarly works, research papers or scholarly research texts) [4]. A Dublin Core (DC) [5] application profile was chosen as the basis of the specification given the widespread use of DC in existing repositories, the flexibility and extensibility of the DCMI Abstract Model [6] and its compatibility with the Semantic Web [7]. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/41/powell/ Fri, 29 Oct 2004 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/41/powell/ As a child I can remember watching an episode of Tomorrow's World (the BBC's weekly popular science programme of the time) [1] that showed the use of a video phone and how people would soon actually be able to see the person to whom they were talking.  "Wow," I thought, "that is the future." Well, it certainly was the future!  It's probably 30 years since that programme was aired and we still don't see this kind of technology widely deployed in the form of telephone handsets. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/39/powell/ Thu, 29 Apr 2004 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/39/powell/ Over the last eighteen months or so, the UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) has been funding some collaborative work between the Resource Discovery Network (RDN) Hubs [1] and Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN) Centres [2]. The primary intention of these subject-based RDN/LTSN partnerships was to: Develop collection policies that clarified the relationships between the two sets of activities.Enable the sharing of records within and beyond partnerships using the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) [3]. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/38/guy/ Fri, 30 Jan 2004 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/38/guy/ Throughout the eprints community there is an increasing awareness of the need for improvement in the quality of metadata and in associated quality assurance mechanisms. Some [1] feel that recent discussion of the cultural and institutional barriers to self-archiving, which have so far limited the proliferation of eprint archives in the UK, have meant that anything that is perceived as a barrier between academics and their parent institutions needs to be played down. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/37/openurl-rpt/ Thu, 30 Oct 2003 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/37/openurl-rpt/ The JIBS User Group [1] holds regular workshops on issues relating to the use and development of electronic resources by the Higher Education community. The OpenURL was selected as a topic as JIBS perceived a growing interest in this issue, as shown by correspondence on email lists such as lis-e-journals, and the increasing uptake of OpenURL resolvers by the community. For example, the number of UK HE subscribers to SFX has risen from 5 in 2001 to 20 in 2003. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/36/powell/ Tue, 29 Jul 2003 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/36/powell/ This largely graphical article attempts to explain the JISC Information Environment (JISC IE) [1] by layering a set of fairly well-known services, projects and software applications over the network architecture diagram [2]. The JISC Information Environment (JISC IE) technical architecture specifies a set of standards and protocols that support the development and delivery of an integrated set of networked services that allow the end-user to discover, access, use and publish digital and physical resources as part of their learning and research activities. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/34/powell/ Wed, 15 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/34/powell/ An introduction to the IMS Digital Repositories Working GroupIMS [1] is a global consortium that develops open specifications to support the delivery of e-learning through Learning Management Systems (LMS). (Note: in UK higher and further education we tend to use the term Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in preference to LMS). IMS activities cover a broad range of areas including accessibility, competency definitions, content packaging, digital repositories, integration with ‘enterprise’ systems, learner information, metadata, question & test and simple sequencing. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/33/info-environment/ Wed, 09 Oct 2002 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/33/info-environment/ This document provides a brief introduction to the JISC Information Environment (JISC-IE) [1], with a particular focus on the technical steps that content providers need to take in order to make their systems interoperable within the JISC-IE technical architecture. The architecture specifies a set of standards and protocols that support the development and delivery of an integrated set of networked services that allow the end-user to discover, access, use and publish digital and physical resources as part of their learning and research activities. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/31/information-environments/ Wed, 10 Apr 2002 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/31/information-environments/ The JISC Information EnvironmentThe Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER) [1] is a JISC-funded, managed, heterogeneous collection of information resources and services (bibliographic, full-text, image, video, geo-spatial, datasets, etc.) of particular value to the further and higher education communities. The JISC Information Environment (JISC IE) [2] is the set of networked services that allows people to discover, access, use and publish resources within the DNER. The JISC IE technical architecture [3] specifies the standards and protocols that provide interoperability between this network of services. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/28/resolver/ Thu, 21 Jun 2001 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/28/resolver/ This article provides a brief introduction to the deployment and use of the OpenURL [1] [2] by walking through a few simple examples using UKOLN's OpenResolver, a demonstration OpenURL resolution service [3]. The intention is to demonstrate the ability of OpenURL resolvers to provide context-sensitive, extended services based on the metadata embedded in OpenURLs and to describe the construction of simple OpenURL resolver software. The software described here is made available on an opensource basis for those who would like to experiment with the use of OpenURLs in their own services. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/27/metadata/ Fri, 23 Mar 2001 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/27/metadata/ This article proposes a mechanism for embedding machine parsable citations into Dublin Core (DC) metadata records [1] based on the OpenURL [2]. It suggests providing partial OpenURLs using the DC Identifier, Source and Relation elements together with an associated 'OpenURL' encoding scheme. It summarises the relevance of this technique to support reference linking and considers mechanisms for providing richer bibliographic citations. A mapping between OpenURL attributes and Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (DCMES) [3] elements is provided. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/biblink/ Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/biblink/ BIBLINK [1] is a project funded within the Telematics for Libraries programme of the European Commission. It is investigating the bi-directional flow of information between publishers and National Bibliographic Agencies (NBAs) and is specifically concerned with information about the publication of electronic resources. Such resources include both on-line publications, Web pages, electronic journals, etc. and electronic publications on physical media such as CD-ROMs. The project has recently finalised the Functional Specification for the ‘BIBLINK workspace’ - a shared, virtual workspace for the exchange of metadata between publishers, NBAs and other third parties such as the ISSN International Centre. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/14/metadata/ Thu, 19 Mar 1998 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/14/metadata/ The third phase of the ROADS eLib project [1] puts service interoperability at centre stage. The project, which provides software to a number of subject services within eLib and beyond, is now working in an environment where interoperability is a requirement. There is a ‘strand’ within the project where we are investigating a variety of tools and protocols that might contribute inter-working functionality to the ROADS ‘toolkit’. This account attempts to give some brief notes by way of context to this work and to provide a sketch of work in progress. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/10/dublin/ Fri, 18 Jul 1997 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/10/dublin/ The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (the Dublin Core) [1] is a 15 element metadata set that is primarily intended to aid resource discovery on the Web. The elements in the Dublin Core are TITLE, SUBJECT, DESCRIPTION, CREATOR, PUBLISHER, CONTRIBUTOR, DATE, TYPE, FORMAT, IDENTIFIER, SOURCE, LANGUAGE, RELATION, COVERAGE and RIGHTS. As we begin to consider some initial implementations using the Dublin Core we need to consider how best to manage large amounts of metadata across a Web-site. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/8/unix-security/ Wed, 19 Mar 1997 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/8/unix-security/ The eLib Technical Concertation day last November brought together techies from many of the eLib projects. (See Clare McClean’s report in Ariadne issue 6 for more details [1]). A wide range of the technical issues associated with running electronic library services were discussed at the meeting but inevitably, given the time constraints, some of these were not covered in any great detail. However, two issues were clear from the meeting; that server performance and system security were both areas of concern to system administrators and that most eLib projects were using UNIX based machines to make their services available. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/8/unique-identifiers/ Wed, 19 Mar 1997 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/8/unique-identifiers/ On the afternoon of Friday the 14 March more than 50 people involved in electronic publishing met for a seminar reviewing recent developments in the unique identification of digital objects. Delegates included representatives of publishers, libraries and other organisations. The seminar was organised jointly by Book Industry Communication (BIC) and the UK Office for Library and Information Networking (UKOLN) with support from the eLib programme. A brief report follows: Introduction - Why we need identifiersBrian Green (BIC) and Mark Bide (Mark Bide and Associates) introduced the seminar with an overview of why the publishing industry needs identifiers [1]. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/7/access-control/ Sun, 19 Jan 1997 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/7/access-control/   AbstractThe growth of networking and the Internet has led to more and more information resources being funded centrally by JISC (the Joint Information Systems Committee of the Higher Education Funding Council) and provided from a single or limited number of locations to the whole of the academic community. Centralised networked services such as these have been a fact of life in commercial organisations for many years and this model is now being adopted by government agencies like the NHS.