Noteworthy

Linked Content Coalition Sets Ten Targets for a Digital Future

The Linked Content Coalition (LCC), a not- for-profit global consortium of standards bodies and registries, was formed to facilitate and expand the legitimate use of content in the digital network through the effective use of interoperable identifiers and metadata.

In its recent manifesto, the LCC has set out ten targets that it believes will best ensure that the digital rights data network operates as effectively as possible. The ten targets are designed “to ensure that every creator and every creation can be automatically identified on the net if they wish to be; that every creation can have machine-readable rights information linked to it (whether for commercial or free use); and that existing standards of different media types can be interoperable.” Thetargetsare:

1. A global Party ID “hub” – Rightsholders and “asserters” should be identified with an identifier linked to the
   ISNI “hub”.

2. Creation IDs for all – Creations of all types should be identified to any required level of granularity.

3. Right IDs – Content rights should be identified distinct from, but linked to, the Creations to which they relate.

4. Resolvable IDs – Identifiers should have a URI form so they may be persistently and predictably resolved to multiple services within the internet.

5. Linked IDs – “Cross-standard” links between identifiers should use interoperable terms and be authorised by interested Parties at both ends of the link.

6. Interoperable metadata – Standard content and rights metadata schemas and vocabularies should have authorised, public mappings which enable terms and data to be automatically transformed from one standard into another.

7. Provenance of Rights data – The provenance (“asserter”) of Rights declarations should be made explicit.

8. Digital Rightsholder Statement (“DRS”) – Anyone should be able to make standardised, machine-interpretable public statements about rightsholdings in Creations.

9. Conflict management – Conflicts between public Rights declarations should be automatically identifiable so that their resolution can be managed.

10. Linkedfingerprints–Wheredigital“fingerprints”or embedded “watermarks” exist, they should be mapped to registered Creation identifiers.

The LCC had previously issued their Framework, which includes the Rights Reference Model, Principles of Identification, and Principles of Messaging. The Framework “offers an integrated strategy which can be applied both “top down” and “bottom up”, making use of existing schemas and infrastructure but describing ways of creating, aggregating and transforming complex, multimedia data to fill gaps in the network.”

The six founder Board members of the LCC are EDItEUR, the International DOI Foundation (IDF), the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC), Movielabs, the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), and the PLUS Coalition.

Linked Content Coalition: http://www.linkedcontentcoalition.org

The Ten Targets: http://www.linkedcontentcoalition.org/#!10-targets/c1wpl

LCC Framework: http://www.linkedcontentcoalition.org/#!lccframe/

BISG Issues Revised and Updated Guide to Identifers

The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) has published a revised edition of the Guide to Identifiers, formerly known as the Roadmap of Identifiers, in two different formats—a new interactive version for online use and a downloadable PDF.

Assigning ISBNs is second nature for book publishers, but a host of other identifiers, such as the ISNI, DOI, and ISTC, have specialized applications increasingly relevant to the publishing industry. With the use of more complex digital content that incorporates other media, each with unique identifier standards, an understanding of the various identifiers across the spectrum of intellectual properties used throughout all sectors of the publishing industry—digital, physical, and abstract—is essential.

BISG's Guide to Identifiers, version 4.0 explains the purpose of each identifier, lists its registration agency, maps its relationship to the various other identifiers, and provides additional information about its commercial opportunities and user guidelines. A highly visual interactive online version enables users to click on any particular identifier for the detailed information. The downloadable PDF, Guide to Identifiers: Explanation of Identifiers is a comprehensive reference document in a directory format, organized by identifier.

This document was developed and revised by the BISG Identification Committee, chaired by Phil Madans, Hachette Book Group.

This document is complementary to BISG’s Roadmap of Organizational Relationships, a graphic of the key organizations important to the book industry.

Guide to Identifiers, version 4.0 interactive format: https://www.bisg.org/guide-identifiers

Guide to Identifiers: Explanation of Identifiers PDF format: https://www.bisg.org/publications/guide- identifiers-explanation-identifiers

Roadmap of Organizational Relationships: https://www.bisg.org/docs/Roadmap_of_ Organizations.pdf

W3C Provides Best Practices for Linked Data

While writing the Linked Data Platform Specification, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Linked Data Platform Working Group also prepared a best practices document “to help system implementers avoid common pitfalls, improve quality, and achieve greater interoperability with other Linked Data systems.” The Linked Data Platform specification and a primer on it are still in draft stage.

Specific practices recommended in the Working Group Note Linked Data Platform Best Practices and Guidelines are:

»  Predicate URIs should be HTTP URLs.
»  Use and include the predicate rdf:type to represent the concept of type in LDPRs.
»  Use relative URIs.
»  Avoid dot-segments in URIs of POSTed content or use with caution.

»  Represent container membership with hierarchical URIs.

»  Include a trailing slash in container URIs.

»  Use fragments as relative identifiers.

»  Prefer standard data types.

»  Re-use established linked data vocabularies instead of (re-)inventing duplicates.

»  Use qvalues properly.

»  Respond with primary URLs and use them for identity comparison.

»  Represent relationships between resources.

»  Minimize server-specific constraints.

More details about these recommendations are provided in the full Working Group Note. The Note also refers implementers to two sources for existing vocabularies: the Linked Open Vocabularies website and a wiki on Common Vocabularies / Ontologies / Micromodels.

Linked Data Platform Best Practices and Guidelines: http://www.w3.org/TR/ldp-bp/

Linked Data Platform Specification: http://www.w3.org/TR/ldp/

Linked Data Platform Primer: http://www.w3.org/TR/ldp-primer/

Linked Open Vocabularies (LOV): http://lov.okfn.org/dataset/lov/

Common Vocabularies / Ontologies / Micromodels: http://www.w3.org
/wiki/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/ LinkingOpenData/CommonVocabularies