Grant Amount: US$ 30,000

Keywords: INTERNET, MULTIMEDIA, LIBRARY, CAPACITY BUILDING, CHINA

Geographic coverage: China

Objective

The objective of this project is to use grid technology to build multimedia knowledge repositories for universities in China.

Research context

Many universities and schools in China have their own computer servers to store multimedia content and other educational resources. The efficiency of these systems, however, is limited by a lack of integration and inability for users to revise and store materials. This project aims to develop a new system based on grid technology that will help institutions build integrated multimedia knowledge repositories and allow teachers and students to publish their work for sharing, modification and use in classes. The system and tools created by this project can be applied to fit a variety of institutional circumstances so that a universal application is possible.

Target beneficiaries

The project benefits teachers and students at universities and schools that use a computer server with information stored in different formats. The project also benefits designers of these knowledge repositories. The project’s scalability ensures that the end-users can use the basic services such as searching and browsing the flyweight resources even if high bandwidth infrastructure is not available.

Outputs

• Display modules of multi-type media (text, image, audio, video), embedded in a Grid Service Mark-Up Language (GSML) browser;
• Authoring tool for composing multi-type media;
• Standard searching service with a unified resource information exchange between knowledge repositories;
• Standard indexing service to distil metadata from resources and automatically enter them into the repositories;
• Standard service for users to publish their work into the repositories; and
• A running sample system based on the resources of Earthview Environmental Education Digital Library.

Research results and outcomes

At the time of writing, the project team had completed the analysis of requirements and the system design. The project noted that the most technically challenging aspect of the project was defining the common requirements of the resource sharing system and forming the infrastructure framework using grid technology. The project has finished the development and testing of several display modules that work with popular media formats. Future work remains for sample system deployment, field-testing, assessment and refinement. It is anticipated that the project will be successfully completed by the proposed deadline.

The results reported on to date can be summarized in three parts, system design, integration of metadata resources and development of a multi-media browser.

In the design of the resource sharing system, grid technology is used in combination with Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to integrate distributed heterogeneous environments with non-trivial qualities of services, export interfaces based on open standards and provide a uniform access point for end-users. The system has three layers: a lower model layer for heterogeneous databases, a control layer that handles objects from the lower layer and provides functionality to the upper layer, and an upper view layer, which is the user interface. The architecture provides for a traditional web-style portal and a new powerful, operable user-side client.

To describe the basic information of the resources, the author must supply metadata information. The most common metadata standards include: Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, Machine-Readable Cataloguing Standard and the Format for Bibliographic Records. The system uses Resource Description Framework (RDF) to achieve the interoperability between different standards. The RDF works like a market where resource providers using different standards can publish and exchange their own metadata.

A resource in the system can be in a variety of different media formats (text, image, audio, video). To access these, the project developed a corresponding display plug-in for the user-side GSML browser supporting most popular media formats. There is also an authoring tool in the resource sharing system. Using a visual editor, the GSML composer, authors can drag and drop plug-ins at any place they want and then modify the event route to obtain synchronization.

Looking ahead, work remains on system development, deployment, testing, assessment and refinements. The project foresees that once the most challenging aspects of the project development process are completed, the infrastructure framework can then be used to build many different kinds of resource sharing systems. Though the project is still underway, many Earthview Environment Education Digital Library users have shown strong interest in the project and have cited its strengths in organization, interactive facilities and interface presentation.

Project Duration

Start Date: February 2005
End Date: December 2006
Total Duration: 23 Months

Contact information

Dr. Li Hao, Director
Beijing Earthview Environment Education and Research Centre
Heng Xing Da Sha 20 C
Zhong Guan Cun East Road No.89
Beijing 100080, China
Telephone / Fax: +86 10 6263 2675
Email: earthview@263.net.cn

Website: http://www.earthview.org