# Presentation: 199023

## Columbia Earthscape:Overview, Status & Plans

- David Millman
- Columbia University
- dsm@columbia.edu

## Topics

- Earthscape
- business plan, content, technology
- current status
- Organizational Context – the EPIC center
- Technical Context – architecture
- Plans – new applications, standardization

## Earthscape Goals

- to create a fully-integrated, interactive online resource for research and educational materials in Earth Science
- to evaluate the ongoing value and economic viability of providing these services on a subscription-based, cost-recovery model to schools, libraries and individual teachers and students via the Internet

## Earthscape Overview

- a publication in the Earth sciences
- editorial board
- no corresponding print edition
- subscription based, self-sustaining
- a collaboration
- Columbia University Press
- University library
- Academic Information Systems
- partner institutions

## Earthscape Business Plan

- startup funding from NSF, SPARC, internal
- subscription income—institutional subscriptions pricing from $500-$1500/year; teaching edition at $250/year
- 500 institutional subscriptions by end of year 3 to become self-sustaining

## Earthscape Content Plan

- curricular materials for teaching about the earth from an interdisciplinary and interactive perspective
- reports of research projects and conference proceedings
- links to data sets and computer models of ongoing research
- a magazine, *Earth Affairs,* designed to educate students and the general public

## Earthscape Technical Plan

- extensive internal linkage
- citation framework
- multiple classification/term systems
- distributed data/metadata
- distributed security system

## Internal Linkage

- report

- Research
- Reports

- Curriculum
- Modules

*Earth Affairs*

- Resources

- virtual lab experiment

- policy impact, commentary

- underlying research data

## Linkage technology

- Naming scheme
- Markup process
- DOI/Handle/PURL “permanent” identifier

- New linkage uses

- Alternate views of site
- Portions as appropriate, per audience
- Citations

## Term Mapping

- LC subjects

- query

- dataset

- thesaurus

- data
- dictionary
- (“codebook”)

## Distributed Architecture

- Deconstructing “interface”
- kinds of intermediary services
- resolution of location-independent names
- kinds of metadata (structural, descriptive, administrative)
- standards work
- Performance
- Access Management

## Distributed architecture

- Earthscape site

- user

- content

- content

- content

- interface
- intermediary

- content

- partner site A

- content

- partner site B

- ?

- ?

## Search across datasets

- data

- data

- metadata

- interface
- intermediary

- metadata

- 2

- 2

- 3

- 3

- 1

- 4

## Status: June, 2000

- Earthscape launched December, 1999
- 124 curriculum models in Climate Change and Hazards;  50 links to external models
- 210 research reports, 60 books, 49 journals (abstracts)
- 2 (+new preview) magazine issues (4-6 papers in each)
- contains approx 950MB text, still images, & models, plus 30 hours video

## Slide 15

## Status . . .

- subscriptions
- 200 institutions on free trial
- 55 subscriptions purchased, plus 3 consortia, plus Ohio
- 50 content-contributing partner institutions
- some outside of the academic community: news organizations (CBS, NY Times), museums
- creates a rich resource for teaching as well as scholarship

## New Organizational Context

- EPIC—Electronic Publishing Initiative at Columbia
- formed by Exec-Vice Provost Sept, 1999
- formalize partnership among Columbia Press, Academic Computing, the Libraries

- www.epic.columbia.edu

## Slide 18

## EPIC—Models in Four Areas

- acquisition, review, and disseminations of online scholarly content
- development of a collaborative organization involving scholars, libraries, technologists, and publishers
- creation of standardized technology systems that can be used across projects
- evaluation of use and effects on research and teaching

## EPIC Publications

- Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO).  Launched September, 1997.
- Columbia Earthscape.  Launched December, 1999.
- Gutenberg-E.  In development.  To be launched January, 2001.

## EPIC Staffing

- common
- management
- support, marketing
- evaluation
- technology development
- per-project
- editorial
- contribution to production
- technology as needed

## EPIC Technology

- independent layers
- distributed
- modular combinations of facilities
- multi-purpose uses of content

- Uses Columbia Digital Library Architecture

## Architecture Overview

- Interface

- Index

- Access Control

- Naming

- Repository

## 1. Repository

- storage of bits
- content neutral
- priorities
- preservation
- integrity
- e.g.,
- backup, redundancy, signed objects

## 2. Naming

- Interface

- Index

- Access Control

- Naming

- Repository

## 2. Naming

- persistent identifiers
- e.g., DOI, PURL, handles
- for consistent access
- for citations
- issues
- administration
- semantics
- granularity
- hierarchy/inheritance

## 3. Access Control

- Interface

- Index

- Access Control

- Naming

- Repository

## 3. Access Control

- higher-ed is both consumer and provider
- “broker” architecture–among authentication (identity) and authorization (capability) systems (dlib.org, Sept 1998)
- certificate architecture—for both auth & auth, highly distributed (dlib.org, Nov 1999)
- specialized local subscription systems
*toward no IP-based security*

## Access Control

- as campus infrastructure

- browser

- web server

- broker

- unix
- uids

- kerberos

- ldap

- unix
- gids

- organizational boundary

## Access Control

- as publisher

- browser

- web server

- broker

- unix
- uids

- kerberos

- subscriber
- database

- organizational boundary

## Access Control

- as either customer or publisher

- browser

- web server

- ldap

- cert
- issuer

- organizational boundary

- C

- C

- C

## Access Control

- technology pilot using digital certificates, with DLF, UC System, U of Minn, OCLC, JSTOR
- policy pilot with CREN CA and enterprise stakeholders  (counsel, controller, secretary)
- related work: Internet-2 middleware

## 4. Index

- Interface

- Index

- Access Control

- Naming

- Repository

## 4. Index

- classification, retrieval, collation
- full-text retrieval
- performance vs flexibility
- structured text retrieval
- specialized indexes
- master metadata file (MMF)
- traditional bibliographic/descriptive
- structural  (pages, hierarchies)

## 5. Interface

- Interface

- Index

- Access Control

- Naming

- Repository

## 5. Interface

- experience
- conception, description, funding
- vs framework enabling multiple experiences
- content re-use
- integrated content, not links to whole web pages

## DL Applications

- Interface

- Index

- Access Control

- Naming

- Repository

- browser

## DL Applications

- Interface

- Index

- Access Control

- Naming

- Repository

- browser

- 1

- 4

- 2  3

## DL Applications

- Interface

- Index

- Access Control

- Naming

- Repository

- browser

- 1

- 2  3

- 4

- 5

- 6  13

- 7  12

- 8  11

- 9  10

- 14

## Applications--Interoperable

- Interface

- Index

- Access Control

- Naming

- Repository

- browser

## Scalability

- interoperable layers may be
- remote
- have different policies
- use different technologies
- have different audiences

## DL Applications

- Interface

- Index

- Access Control

- Naming

- Repository

- browser

- h. local population

- a. history
- scholars

- b. earthscape

- c, local
- courses

- f. relational
- database

- e, ultraseek

- g. commercial

- j. at Berkeley

- i. Yale community

- d, maps

- l. Library of Congress

- k.. UK mirror

## Further Work

- extend community pilots in scalable access management
- pursue collaborations in descriptive metadata interoperability (e.g., DLF, Open Archives)
- pursue collaborations in structural metadata interoperability  (e.g., object types, harmonization of numerical dataset queries)
- follow preservation and archiving guidelines as they may emerge

## Further Work

- develop “depository” with formal properties
- rights assignment
- conditions of use
- mechanism for usage reporting
- mechanism for author/publisher credit/payment
- document authenticity

## Depository Funding Models

- institutional subscription model
- free use through support from funding agencies
- sponsorship by commercial organization
- access fees for some and free access to others depending on ability to pay

## Standards and Models

- technology
- staffing
- technology, design, production
- editorial
- business
- licensing, intellectual property management
- sustainability
- partnerships
- archiving and preservation

## fin