Subject: Pointers to the Content/Context Issue

From: [email-masked] (Phil Bourne)
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 94 11:17:24 -0500

Hi: I am new to this group so forgive me if I am dealing in FAQ's.
For the past 2 years we have been developing a dictionary based
on the STAR (Self Defining Text Archival and Retrieval) for
describing the structure of biological macromolecules. This began as
a project for achiving purposes, since this had been successful in
the related discipline dealing with data from small molecules -- 
by successful I mean it was adopted by the community. As the dictionary
has developed the idea that STAR can be used to define the context of
the data, by that I mean explicit relationships between data items
among other things arose. I see this as being of enormous potential
in software development in our field. My questions are as follows:
 (i) From this brief blurb can you point me to other domains from
     which we might gain some insight?
(ii) Related to (i) is what I refer to as the content versus context
     battle whereby the domain scientists want to maintain a
     user readable data dictionary whereas us software types want
     to turn it into a tool we can really use. Is there documented
     evidence of this type of battle elsewhere, and more importantly
     some kind of outcome?
(iii)Is there a concise review of the evolving field of metadata?

        Thanks.. /p
===========================================================================
Philip E. Bourne
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics
Columbia University
630 W. 168th Street New York NY 10032 USA

Telephone: (212) 305-3657
FAX:       (212) 305-7379

Internet: [email-masked] (128.59.98.1)
===========================================================================

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 13:01:49 -0500 (EST)

> (iii)Is there a concise review of the evolving field of metadata?

In response to your question 'i', we are participating in the Consultative
Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) Panel 2 program, and included
here is what we call our "Data Entity Dictionary" draft standard.  We
are applying it to data taken from, or derived from, space borne
sensors.  We are evolving it as we encounter new issues.  We are about
the generate a new version of the document, and will be glad to
put you on a list to receive it.  We will need your hard copy mail address.

In response to your question 'ii', this is certainly a concern we have.
Our Dictionary is intended to be human readable, but it is growing in
its support to software services.  However we have separated issues
like the representation of base data types at the bit level to another
language, which we refer to as a Data Description Language (DDL).  Both
of these are really description languages.

Sorry I can't help you with your question 'iii'.

We would be very interested to get some documentation on your Dictionary
work.  If you need to send hard copy, please send it to my address below.

Thanks
Don
=======================================

Don Sawyer
Code 633
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD 20771