ITR-Promoting Semantic Interoperability of Metadata for Directories of the Future

Georgia State University Research Foundation, Inc., Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

Directories provide a well-defined, general mechanism for describing enterprise resources within an organization and enabling their discovery by individuals and applications. LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) directory services enable data sharing by defining both the metadata (schema information) and an access protocol. While such directory enabled services can be provided within an organization, offering or accessing these services beyond the home organization requires significant coordination of directory architectures and standards for directory metadata. This research investigates an alternative to current approaches to enabling interoperability of directory metadata. The research is based on the proposition that monitoring, clustering, and appropriate visualization of cross-organizational metadata can help identify patterns of practice and evolving standards, and promote and facilitate the reuse of such metadata, which in turn can lead to automatic, dynamic evolution of standards. Solutions are developed for automated clustering of metadata at a level matching human expertise, employing such techniques as Self-Organizing Maps and Latent Semantic Analysis/Latent Semantic Indexing, optimized using genetic algorithms. The solutions are experimentally validated. Visualization of metadata is prototyped. The research is expected to contribute to enhancing interoperation, semantic resolution, standards evolution, and management of directory metadata that is fundamental for effective inter-organizational collaboration and access to data, applications and resources that are deployed on the World Wide Web. The results of the research will be disseminated through conference and journal publications, and through a project Web site.