Quinkan Matchbox: experiences
and lessons
Liddy Nevile
Tsukuba Japan
Melbourne Australia

Summary• Australian Research Council Projects• Quinkan Country• Matchbox system development• Metadata research• Matchbox project research

ARC Projects• ARC pure research• ARC applied research/industry research– Telecentra Project (1999-2000)– Quinkan Matchbox Project (2001-2004)

Matchbox Development
Develop a ready-to-use, integrated, multimedia cataloguing,
maintenance and search facility:• Document the process• Develop suitable security and discovery/filter applications• Produce prototype, inter-operable QDC metadata using Resource
Description Framework (RDF) format• Re-conceptualise the traditional model of cataloguing,
maintenance and searching established by subject gateways in the1990’s to provide a rich cultural catalogue and collection process.

Matchbox Research• Develop a Qualified Dublin Core (QDC) compliant schema forindigenous cultural resources• Develop a customised cultural data management system• Recognise different cultural perspectives and different
knowledge systems• Enable distributed users to classify and discover their cultural
resources on the Internet• Investigate new ways of recording cultural knowledge• Provide the Quinkan Trustees with a system, and• Create intellectual property in the content of Quinkan Matchboxwith ownership by and for the Quinkan Trustees (or agents)

Quinkan Country

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Quinkan Country

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Images from the Laura Booklet published by the Ang-gnarra Corporation

Quinkan Culture
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Images from the Laura Booklet published by the Ang-gnarra Corporation

Quinkan Region• People were here more than 36,000 years ago• The community has been ravaged in the last 200yearsand so has the culture• 60 people remain• 290 km from the nearest city
• but the 100,000 Rock Art paintings are in excellent
condition.

Matchbox Requirements

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Who are the users?
• Academics with disciplined knowledge because they will contribute resources• Tourists with experiences - because they areinterpreting Quinkan Culture• Elders and Community members - because itis their Culture• and more….

How do they think...
???????

Structureand rules
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Thirhsernlijtgnvjnv
jfbakfbak
dnskskfbf???????

Diverse Users• Explicit disciplines– Formal vocabularies, structures andrules• Implicit disciplines– Intuitive procedures, vocabularies andstructures ….

What are the resources?
All types of things• paintings, people, places, reports, photos,…
• from Elders, archaeologists, …
• about subjects of all kinds• in all sorts of forms…

What functions do we need?
• Discover resources or services• Graze resources and services• Add a resource or catalogue record• Annotate a resource or record• Import/export resources and records• Use a service eg get permit to go to XX

A really good system is• immediately comprehensible and yet‘grows’ with use;
• acts on behalf of the user, and• is suitable for / adapts to the user’s
purposes
Andy di Sessa (Boxer)

The Matchbox System

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Quinkan Matchbox - the system• Pittwater is underlying system with thefunctionality• Matchbox is the application layer• AnnoSource provides the annotation layerMatchbox
Pittwater

AnnoSource
XYZ

Pittwater Architecture• Digital repository• Open source software and PHP and JAVA etc.
• XML documents for metadata schema, templates,etc• XSLT for style sheets, transformations of schema,etc.
• Lucene for search, taxonomies etc..
• Annotea and Amaya for annotations

Pittwater Functions• Content creation and rendering• Cataloguing and discovery• Catalogue import and export

Web page design

For automatic rendering from the database,page templates need to be designed andstored in XML.

Content Creation• User accesses online dataentry form
• And uploads text, images,video, etc• And creates metadata
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Content Creation• Content stored as assets• Described with metadata• Associated with templates• Used for discovery and content
rendering
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Matchbox Publication
Options
Lowbandwidth
Touch screen
facility

Good-bandwidth
Touch screen
version ‘online’
via web

Matchbox

Web versionof site forsubject expert

Standard Web
version of site

Import/ Export metadata• Develop cross-walk• Create XSLT• Import/export
records

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Metadata Exchange
E.g. Picture Australia
database of images ofFNQ locations

E.g. QLD EPA
Regional
Database

Schematransformation
application

Matchbox databaseand catalogue system

Searching and Browsing
Once the catalogue has been populated, entries
can be used for searches or for browsing– Note that most users search when they know what
they want but browse when they are still unsure - andso most do both when looking for something withwhich they are not familiar.
– Matchbox uses the catalogue hierarchy for ‘inversebrowsing’.

Accessibility
The Commonwealth and Staterequirements.

Australian legislation demands web sites areaccessible to all - satisfying the W3C Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines.

How is it relevant to Matchbox?

When sites are made with Cwth funding, there are
no excuses for lack of accessibility. Qld govt
requires compliance.

How is compliance achieved?

Compliance with standards is achieved by adopting
design and implementation techniques.

What are the costs / benefits?

Compliance makes content accessible on all devices
including phones, Palm Pilots, web screens and Brailledevices. Cost is in better planning, practices, correcttechniques - not significant.

Development Lessons• Many to do with the development team…
• Technical problems with XML– XML lacked structure and flexibility– --> new UML profile (Sarah’s work)– --> separate annotation system (Behzad’s work)• Development failings -->Metadata problems– Problems with testing metadata profile– Problems with doing project research

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The Metadata Profile(Work of Sophie Lissonnet)

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What are the resources?
All types of things to be classified by• type• discipline• location• full-text indexing• usage ??????????

What is theorganising

factor amongthem?

• Should we organisearound a place?

- a collection?

- people?

- interpretations?

- events?

- research?

- history?

- archaeology?

- traditional practices?

Can we support the Elders,and academics?

Can we provide for new stories?

Dublin Core Simple vs Qualified• Five years before CIMI investigated theuse of DC and found it wanting formuseum purposes• Would Qualified Dublin Core workbetter?

Metadata Goals• Global interoperability and local specificity• Supportive of many different sets of ‘localspecificity’• Global interoperability across sectors anddomains• Metadata to be used for more than justdiscovery

Digital Collective Model• The Quinkan Matchbox system is inspired by
the Digital Collective model which encourages
organisations and individuals alike to enter into
partnerships with communities, and contributephysical and digital materials and theirdescriptions to a locally managed system.
• Holland, M., & Smith, K. (1999). Broadening access to Native
American collections via the Internet, 2002

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Aggregate, Rationalise, Harmonise• Collect elements and analyse their useand variations• Rationalise similarities & differences• Harmonise remaining inconsistencies• Currie, M., Geilesky, M., Nevile, L., & Woodman, R. (2002).

Visualising interoperability: ARH, aggregation, rationalisation,
harmonisation.DC 2002

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CIMI Findings in 2000
• DC too focused on digital resources• Too ‘bibliographic’• Too reliant on the ‘dumb-down’ principle forinter-operability• [CIMI]. (2000). The CIMI experience: a commentary on working
with qualifiers for the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set, 2003,
fromhttp://www.cimi.org/public_docs/TBK_DCQ_Commentary_v5_070
0.rtf

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People descriptions• Museums very interested in people• Museums need qualifiers for roles– Archaeological team, local resident, park ranger,…

• Use of MARC List of Relators and Roles• [MARC-Roles]. (2003, 2003-08-22). MARC Value List for Relators andRoles, 2002, fromhttp://www.loc.gov/marc/sourcecode/relator/relatorlist.html

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Biographical information• In cultural domain, biographies matter• CDWA recognises extrinsic info like this• J Paul Getty Trust has list of 255,000
artists with biog and bibliog info….
• DC orientation towards business roles notuseful ….

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Type• Important difference between original vssurrogate resources, cultural vs natural,work vs images, …
• Quinkan Matchbox uses work and image
because Quinkan culture does not distinguishbetween natural and cultural• [VRA]. (2002). VRA Core Categories, Version 3.0, 2003,
from http://www.vraweb.org/vracore3.htm

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Date and Coverage• Australian archaeological periods unique• Precise dating is unexpected• Difference between ‘immigrant’ andIndigenous interest in dates• 5 seasons per year
• Some events are cyclical some dated

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Subject and Keywords• LCSH, eg, not appropriate• Aborigines classified anthropologically• LCSH terms are prejudicial• Australian terms are unique:– ‘Terra nullius’, ‘tent embassy’, ‘land rights’

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Language• ISO 639-2 does not include Australianlanguages• Spellings of Oz languages not fixed sometimes 60 different spellings• There is an Australian typology but notavailable ….

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Metadata lessons• DC still too focused on resources but• QDC much easier to use than DC simple• In particular, need for descriptions of people,
places and events• DC good for extension and so localspecificity• Interoperability still being tested…
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‘Stretch’ Use cases• Example 1 - supporting interpretation• Example 2 - supporting interactivity• Example 3 - graphical cataloguing• Example 4 - annotations and annotationsof annotations

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Example One• Translation .. service

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Tommy George inspecting red rock ochre.
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"A lot of paintings are made in red."Example Two• When Aboriginal people meet, they greet eachother with lengthy descriptions of theiridentity and family connections.
• Tom adds his photo.
• Mary adds her photo.
• The relationship between them is in themetadata (dc:subject and dc:description)
but it is not operational.

English representations• Traditional English ‘family tree’– has-mother, has-father– -> has-grandmother,has-grandfather,
hasQuickTime™
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sibling,...

Example Three• Aboriginal descriptions of country…..

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Graphical cataloguing<rdf:RDF
xmlns:rdf='http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#'
xmlns:NS0='http://quinkan.org/index.html#'><rdf:Descriptionrdf:about='#red'><rdf:typerdf:resource='http://quinkan.org/index.html#colour'/></rdf:Description><rdf:Descriptionrdf:about='#A0'><rdf:typerdf:resource='http://quinkan.org/index.html#person'/><NS0:has-name rdf:resource='#Tom myGeorge'/></rdf:Description><rdf:Descriptionrdf:about='#AADXEVJJKH'>
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<rdf:typerdf:resource='http://quinkan.org/index.html#Getty-colour'/></rdf:Description><rdf:Descriptionrdf:about='#TommyGeorge'><rdf:typerdf:resource='http://quinkan.org/index.html#name'/></rdf:Description><rdf:Descriptionrdf:about='#r23g67b98i'><rdf:typerdf:resource='http://quinkan.org/index.html#Q-colour-code'/><NS0:is-same-as rdf:resource='#098734827'/><NS0:is-same-as rdf:resource='#AA D XEVJJKH'/></rdf:Description><rdf:Descriptionrdf:about='#098734827'><rdf:typerdf:resource='http://quinkan.org/index.html#CIMIcolour'/></rdf:Description>and lots more …..
<rdf:Descriptionrdf:about='#pfgjner25243'>Example Four
• User self-identifies as:– interested in cultural view– not keen to see images of recently deadancestors– needing screen reader (illiterate)• System matches resources to user’sneeds and preferences

Matching Users - Access4All• User accessibility needs profile:– Control, display, content• Resource accessibility characteristics:– DC Accessibility term
– http://dublincore.org/groups/accessibilityMatching Users with SWeb

Metadata evolution• If metadata is in the object, first photo does
not know about second photo• If metadata is available, metadata can link thetwo objects (photos).
• If metadata is available and structure is clear,applications can link content.
• If metadata is structured appropriately, apps.
can mix-and-match content easily.Metadata evolution• We are abstracting the semantics fromthe management ...
• so we can play with the semantics…
• We have a Web of content withdiscovery, content rendering to order …
• Now we are building a semantic Web.

Conclusion• We are beginning to feel that we are able tooffer tools that will work for people.
• We have a sense of communication between
ourselves and the system we are building.
• We believe this communication will be useful,understandable and the system will act as theCommunity’s agent.

Thank you
Presentation is available at
http://www.sunriseresearch.org/presentations/20050127/
Matchbox Application profile is available at
http://www.sunriseresearch.org/
presentations/20050127/map.html

ULIS-Tsukuba-2005

Liddy Nevile