Metadata provides information about the content, quality, condition and other characteristics of data.
Within the context of learning, education and training, metadata is structured data used to describe the characteristics of a learning resource, a data object, or a component of a learning technology system.
By using BS 8419, developers and managers in the UK can benefit from guidance on the use of metadata. The effective creation, structuring and deployment of metadata can maximize opportunities for interoperability with other systems.
BS 8419 makes recommendations about data models and XML bindings enabling searches across multiple systems over the internet for application profiles, but does not prescribe the use of any particular encoding mechanism. It is intended to optimize, rather than completely remove, human interaction in the transfer of information between systems.
Part 2 provides recommendations for methodologies that will enable developers and implementers to maximize interoperability, focusing on how to make data transfer between metadata systems as automatic as possible. It describes an overall approach for maximizing interoperability, which is applicable across different types of interoperability requirements.
BS 8419-2:2005 exists alongside a number of relevant international and national frameworks and emerging standards pertaining to metadata and interoperability, including:
- industry standards and specifications such as those issued by the IEEE, the IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS) or the DCMI
- de facto technical standards such as those issued by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
- standards and specifications, such as the e-Government Metadata Standard (e-GMS).
Contents:
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Scope
- Normative references
- Terms and definitions
- Rationale for interoperability
- Specifying interoperability between homogenous systems
- Specifying interoperability between heterogeneous systems
- Interoperability plan
- Tools for achieving interoperability
- Annex A (informative) - Options for sharing metadata instances
- Annex B (informative) - Example rule set for crosswalking
- Bibliography