Distributed image services (working together)
| Pages | 65-72 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb040646 |
| Date | 01 March 1997 |
| Published date | 01 March 1997 |
| Author | John Eyre |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Distributed image
services (working
together)
by John Eyre, International Institute for
Electronic Library Research,
De Montfort University, Leicester
Web technology presents exciting
opportunities for the curators of collections of
digitised images, but collaboration is vital if this
potential is to be realised. DMU's ELISE II
project, aiming to demonstrate a service that
provides access to multiple image collections,
is especially supportive of
the
cooperative
development and uptake of standards for data
transfer (e.g. Z39.50) and for the
representation of structure and content (e.g.
Dublin Core metadata).
Introduction
Everyone is now familiar with the concept of
global access to distributed data. With the advent,
and amazing boom, in the availability and use of
the Internet and the World Wide Web, it seems
that there is no stopping the clamour for electronic
data.
Almost every TV programme, magazine, company
and college student has their own Web home page.
Billions of Web pages around the world hold data
of
all
kinds, from personal information to scientific
papers, from travel details to multi-user games.
Material can be years old or supplied in real-time,
such as up-to-the-minute news streams. Text,
images, video, sound, complex documents, even
live radio and film transmissions are available to
the discerning surfer.
It hasn't always been like this, and maybe it isn't
really offering what is required, in the best possi-
ble way. What it is doing is offering something
that was not available before, a way for the major-
ity of people to publish their own material,
cheaply, easily and without censorship. Individuals
can talk to each other across the world about
subjects that they are interested in, pass text and
images back and forth instantly, and all without
leaving their home. The rate of increase in its use
means that the Web must be providing a service
that is wanted.
Back in the dark ages, before the Web (pre '93
say),
the distribution of digital (and other forms of)
material was much more difficult, but everyone
understood their role. Authors created material,
publishers and printers packaged it and libraries
and bookshops provided access to it. If you wanted
a computer program, then you went through a
similar process, and it was difficult to get up-
grades. A digital encyclopaedia would come on
many floppy disks, or a CD, and it would be
'static'
in content and not easily networked.
Information providers quickly recognised the
potential for CD-ROMs with the capability of
holding hundreds of pages of text and images.
University libraries provided access to collections
of such CD-ROMs, produced by different vendors,
with different user interfaces. With no common
data storage method, search system or presentation
and no possibility of searching across these CDs at
the same time, their use is very limited.
Moving this kind of data to the Web reduces the
distribution and delivery problems, as the informa-
tion can be accessed by standard Web browsers,
supplied by other vendors. There is no problem in
distributing updates of the data, as the data is
accessed from one location where it is kept up-to-
date.
The limit of the size of a CD is now over-
come and the dataset can be as large as the Web
server system can handle.
Perfect? Well, not quite. Each Web site still looks
and operates differently from the next, even when
it provides a similar function. No two search
systems work the same, even though they use
the same technology. It's still difficult to find
what you want, even if you have an idea where to
look.
These Web sites have been developed to provide
information about, and access to, the local site, and
the data managed by that site. They cannot easily
(if at all) provide access or information about other
sites not under their control, at least not without
working together to agreed standards.
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