|
ACS Home Related Links:
Advanced Campus Services |
Research Prototype: Semantic Facilitator T (SM) for LDAP Directory Services Georgia State University : Art Vandenberg Jianghua Liang Victor Bolet Hui Kou Vijay Vaishnavi David Kuechler Introduction: While directory services [1] have focused on sharing organizational information, less attention has been given to sharing across organizational boundaries. LDAP directory services enable data sharing by defining both the information schema (format) and its access protocol. A directory schema is created by one of three sources: a standards body, the vendor of a directory product, or a directory administrator. It may take a long time for any standards body to produce a schema: the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative took 2 years to adopt only 15 schemas [ http://dublincore.org/documents/1998/09/dces/ ]; the EDUCAUSE/Internet2 eduPerson Task Force [ http://www.educause.edu/eduperson/ ] took eighteen months to adopt 6 attributes. Slow definition of standard schemas impedes the usability and interoperability of information resources in inter-directory services. Indeed, organizations often extend standard schemas locally to meet needs not covered. A key challenge in schema design is to locate appropriate predefined schemas to use [2]. Fast definition and adoption of schemas across organizations would promote the usability and interoperability of information resources in directory services. The Semantic Facilitator T (SM) provides a tool for clustering and identifying pre-existing schemas in a semantically meaningful way, which could speed up the definition, understanding, and adoption of schemas across organizational boundaries. A fuller description of the Semantic Facilitator T (SM) is available [3], which also shows how it can be used as a component of an architecture for enabling virtual communities of interest on the Web. For Further Information please contact any of the Authors. |
Last Updated: March 2, 2006