On the tech breakout call: Greg, Chris, Karthik, John

"Metadictionary" Prototype

Goal: to build a proof-of-concept  web-based software service that acts as a public registry of metadata  terms from all domains and from all parts of "metadata speech".

• Anyone can search and read term definitions (without registration).
• After authentication (after one-time account registration), anyone can add new terms.
• New terms may be similar to or propose alternate definitions for existing terms.
  • Every term has a unique concept identifier in addition to a (not nec. unique) natural language string.
• Anyone can refine their own terms at will when part of the "vernacular".
• No one can change a term once it is "canonical" or "archival".
•  New terms enter the vernacular (similar to Internet Draft) and auto-expire in 6 months unless renewed.
  • It is risky to use terms in the vernacular
  • Auto-expire terms are inactive but still visible in the archive.
    
    
• Platform : python, NLP tools
• Github: open source, Modified 3-clause BSD license
• Flask: browserable demo on local server (localhost)
• Heroku: playground for developers hosted free on the internet (limited resources)
  
  
• Starter vocabulary:  dublincore.org (15 terms and definitions)
• Term structure:  term (natural language string), unique concept id (string), definition (string)
  • important: expect term structure/schema to change often
  • optional later: up/down votes, example section, synonyms, antonyms, see also
  • concept ids from EZID?  
    • http://n2t.net/ezid/doc/apidoc.html
  • semantically significant subparts: ??? eg, "temperature" of X in units Y is number N
  • special category for interoperability: elements for time and place (lat,lon,elevation)
  • special connector terms: ??? "per" "by" ("squared" "cubed") "of" "in"
    
    
• Managing term evolution:
  • identifiers, versions, version numbers, stable reference, "replaces", "obsoletes"
• Term classes ???
  • Vernacular (unstable rapidly evolving)
  • Canonical (stable)
  • Archival (stable, obsoleted canonical and expired vernacular)
• Reputation-based voting -- support now or later?
• For Chris to read up on between today and June 3
  • Heroku, Flask, EZID API, Python NLP tools
• ??? = suggested topic for Chicago
  
  

Useful libraries: nltk, simplenlp, nl and langtools.
Good book for Chris to read through: http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Language-Processing-Python-ebook/dp/B0043D2E22/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369759546&sr=8-1&keywords=natural+language+python

Github usernames:
Karthik: karthikram
John: jkunze
Jim:
Greg:
Nassib:
Chris: cjpatton 

e.g. Flask app. Can be spun up locally or quickly deployed on heroku for easy sharing.
http://markx.herokuapp.com/