Exemplar Projects

We are currently developing two large scale exemplars to demonstrate the potential for content aggregation around a single research topic, made possible through open metadata. Both projects are the result of exemplar suggestions made in a workshop session held during the Discovery Conference last year. These particular exemplars were chosen based on the widespread, potentially global, appeal of their subject matter and the fact that both had upcoming anniversary events.

Will’s World is being developed by EDINA as an example of ‘aggregation as a tactic’ and to demonstrate the value of metadata enhancement in the run-up to the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth in 2014. The project involves building and populating a prototype registry of digital resource metadata covering anything from Shakespeare’s life and work, to modern performances, interpretation or geographical and historical contextual information. Tools such as text mining or geo tagging are being used to further enhance the aggregated data and APIs will allow efficient ‘machine to machine’ interaction with the registry.

The World War One Discovery Project being developed by Mimas, will build an exemplar aggregation layer to serve up WW1 digital resources identified by Kings College London in an earlier phase of the JISC WW1 Discovery Programme. The Mimas project is funded as part of a broader collection of activities and funded projects taking place as part of the JISC World War One Commemoration Programme which will mark the centenary of the outbreak of World War One in 2014. The Mimas World War One Discovery Project will apply the vision and the principles of the Discovery programme to make the WW1 digital content discoverable via an aggregation layer and a range of interfaces. This programme will also benefit from the endeavours of one of the Phase 2 Discovery projects , Trenches to Triples which is providing Linked Data markup to the First World War holdings of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives.