a method for the development of dublin core application profiles

TOC Research Background Research Problem DSR Methodological Approach Description of the artifact Concluding The end

A method for the development of Dublin Core ApplicationProfiles

Mariana Curado MaltaAlgoritmi Center, University of Minho

[email protected]

DC, DESRIST 2013

This project is financed with FEDER funds by the Programa Operacional Fatores de Competitividade – COMPETE

and by Portuguese National Funds through FCT – Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia for the project:

FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-022674

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A method for the development of Dublin Core Application Profiles


Research Background

Research Problem

DSR Methodological Approach

Description of the artifact

Concluding

The end

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Semantic Web, Metadata, RDF

I Semantic Web related project

I the Semantic Web is about common formats for theintegration and combination of data from different sources

I Its architecture has several layers

I One layer, the “Data interchange: RDF“ has to do withmetadata

I Metadata: data that describes resources with information,and that follows well defined rules of metadata-schemes

I Metadata-scheme: a set of elements designed for a specificpurpose - to describe a particular resource

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DCAM, DCAP

I Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI1), created newinstruments with a goal: to speak a common language

I Dublin Core Abstract Model (DCAM): a model developed forDCMI syntax specifications

I presents the components and constructs used in DCMIdatabases

I one of them is the Dublin Core Application Profiles (DCAP)

I A DCAP is a generic construct for designing metadatarecords

1http://dublincore.org/Mariana Malta



DCAM, DCAP

I The DCAP is defined in the Singapore Framework for DublinCore Application Profiles2 as composed by:

I Functional Requirements (Mandatory)

I Domain Model (Mandatory)

I Description Set Profile (Mandatory)

I Usage guidelines (optional)

I Encoding Syntax guidelines (optional)

I It is a very important construct to implementinteroperability

2c.f. Baker et al. (2008)Mariana Malta



I A DCAP development is a complex taskI it needs an adequate support

I A study we have performed3 showsI to the best of our knowledge

there is no formal method for the development of DCAP

I It is imperative to have such a method

3c.f. Curado Malta and Baptista, 2012Mariana Malta



Introduction

I According to Hevner (2007) and March and Smith (1995),DSR produces Artifacts that can be either constructs, models,methods or instantiations of the 3

I Purao (2002) and Rossi and Sein (2003) add a 5 th type ofDSR result: better theories

I My artifact is a METHOD: A method for the development ofDCAP (Me4DCAP)

I Me4DCAP ”provides a first solution to a problem“ [Hevnerand Chatterjee, 2010, p.6]

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Definitions

I Takeda et al. (1990), cited by Vaishnavi and Kuechler (2012)present a theory on the reasoning for the knowledge buildingprocess in design science:

I They define a design cycle that “generates understanding thatcould only be gained from the specific act of consctruction“Vaishnavi and Kuechler (2012).

I According to March and Smith (1995) DSR should live in theinteraction of design and natural sciences:

I The 2 basic activities of natural sciences are: to theorize andto justify

I The 2 basic activities of design science are: to build an artifactand to evaluate it

I Hevner (2007) proposes a framework with 3 cyclesI These 3 cycles incorporate March and Smith’s (1995) view and

the cyclic perspective of Takeda et al. (1990)

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Hevner’s 3 cycle view of DSR

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Relevance Cyle

I Works in the ”Environment”I supplies the research project with the needed requisites and the

application context

I ”defines acceptance criteria for the ultimate evaluation for theresearch results“ [Hevner, 2007, p. 89]

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Relevance Cyle - Application

I My ”Environment” is the Metadata Community. Therequisites were obtained:

I Study to find out the techniques and methods that themetadata community used to build Application Profiles

I Semi-structured interviews to 3 DCAP developers

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Relevance Cyle - Application

I The evaluation:I the artifact is a methodI such an intangible artifact can not provide objective metrics for

a quantitative evaluation, so we need to:I find evaluation techniques used in the methods engineering

community, and adapt the chosen technique(s) to our needsI and develop particular metrics for the particular environment

(the semantic web) of the artifact.I PhD time constraints ó focus groupsI further work within the framework of a future project

õ Field Testing, with several instantiations of the method indiferent domains of application - to address the issue ofgenerality.

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Design Cyle

I where the core activities of the artifact building are performed

I Iteration cycles of construction and evaluation

I These cycles generate understanding [Takeda et al, 1990]

I The “evaluation moments are performed in laboratory andexperimental situations“ [Hevner, 2007, p. 91]

I non-formal evaluation called by Vaishnavi (2012)micro-evaluation at every design decision

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Design Cyle - Application - Construction moments

I the artifact is based on 3 types of knowledge

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Design Cyle - Application - Evaluation moments

I Experimental Situation - RIPESS a Social and SolidarityEconomy community with Web Based Information Systems

I We are building together with this community a DCAP-SSE

I We feed back the construction moments with the outputs ofthis experiment

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Rigor Cycle - Theorise - Justify

This cycle incorporates the activities of ”Theorise“ and ”Justify“(natural siences)

I Theorise:I New knowledge is incorporated in the artifact that is produced

and in the process of designI This new knowledge has to be indentified

I Justify:I the DS Researcher theorises to elaborate new theoriesI the DS Researcher Justifies the theories produced

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Rigor Cycle - Application

I The input for the Rigor Cycle of my DSR process:I The artifactI The design Process with its experience and expertise

I the output of the Rigor Cylce are the Methods andTechniques as already mentioned

I Concerning the Rigor cycle activities (CHALLENGES):I how do I identify the new knowledge contained in Me4DCAP

and in the DSR process?I How do I elaborate the perspective theories that come out of

my DSR process?I How do I justify these theories?

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Me4DCAP

I The development of a DCAP is a process by stages

I Me4DCAP defines:I The composition of the work-team

I The deliverables at every stage

I The techniques used to develop those deliverables

I The process workflow

I What type of work each work-team-member should do

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Me4DCAP

Me4DCAP V0.1 deriverables sequence

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The expected Contribution

I The Knowledge Base, in its Foundations will have a newMethod: Me4DCAP

I New theories that will come out of the DSR process

I The Social and Solidarity World Community will have aDCAP (DCAP-SSE) to be used in its Web Based InformationSystems

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Next Steps

I Our Design Cycle is still in place:I Some moments of construction and evaluation in the Design

Cycle are still in progress

I In the Relevance Cycle the Focus Groups for Me4DCAP V0.1evaluation will be developed

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Challenges

I To plan the Focus Groups and to extract information from itfor the ”first” evaluation moment

I To define the particular metrics for the evaluation of the fieldtesting instantiations

I To extract knowledge from the Design Process and fromMe4DCAP and theorise

I To justify

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A method for the development of Dublin Core ApplicationProfiles

Algoritmi Center, University of Minho

[email protected]

Look for references in the paper

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a method for the development of dublin core application profiles

Science

research project

end mariana malta

dcap development

problem hevner

formal method

metadata metadata

end dcam

end hevners