Image courtesy of OGF

The OGF-Europe Community Outreach Seminar, 5 June 2008, within OGF23 in Barcelona, Spain, will explore Digital Repositories (DR) from diverse perspectives, bringing valuable insight into domain requirements, user case studies and best practices. Special emphasis will be placed on interoperability and standardisation.

Researchers increasingly depend on open access to information. DR enables access to the new knowledge base and encourages use of scientific content in a standardised, open way. Government agencies show signs of increased adoption, and the Humanities, in addition to Science, the early adopter, are starting to plug into such repositories. What is more, these new tools facilitate public appreciation and understanding of scientific and research advances.

Seminar highlights:

• State-of-the-art and future visions with perspectives from government, research and industry.
• User case studies from specific domains, such as Earth Science, Space Sciences, Natural Resource Science, and the Humanities.
• Key horizontal issues, such as data/metadata interoperability in specific domains, software architectures, data sharing policies and promotion of open standards for DR Infrastructures with case study examples and challenges.
• Existing open standards, their status and adoption in the business and e-science communities.
• DR support by "operational" budgets for its use as a reliable tool for everyday work.
• Commercial best practice.

Interactive round-tables will foster audience feedback and sharing of knowledge and experiences to bring useful and workable recommendations to the fore.