About the PostgreSQL DB cpt_db and shared features

[Thierry F.]

Dear Developers,

The DIGIT department from the Royal Library of Belgium (www.kbr.be/en) is interested to make use in a sustainable way of the software DLN:CaptureContext v.1 Beta.

Nevertheless, DIGIT dept. has two requirements for the metadata stored in the PostgreSQL DB cpt_db :

•    Does DLN:CC support to work with a DB cpt_db hosted on a PostgreSQL server, rather than locally ? If so, is there a way to do so (DB client / server relationship on a local network) ?

•    Does DLN:CC support to read & write on a common DB shared among several DLN:CC workstations (multi-clients with one shared DB hosted on a PostgreSQL server) ?

Does the Cultural Heritage Imaging intend to offer those features for a forthcoming stable release ?

 

Thanks and regards for your dedicated work,

Thierry F.

[mark]

Hi Thierry,

Thanks for your interest in the DLN.

We have made many changes to the DLN since the 2018 Beta release. Many of these changes were based on community suggestions. We are on track to release a new Beta of the expanded tool in the Spring. The full 1.0 DLN will be released by Summer this year. We would be happy to speak with you about your project ideas and send you the new Beta software when it becomes available.

The current DLN release uses a standalone strategy. There are two reasons: The first is that this decision allowed us to concentrate on solving other fundamental issues; principally the solution of a broad range of technical problems and the simplification of the interface. The second reason  is to encourage widespread DLN adoption by keeping the operational requirements simple, for individual scholars, small organizations, cultural communities, under-served people, and those operating in areas without robust bandwidth. CHI wants to encourage the decentralization of cultural heritage documentation. The DLN allows people all over the world to prove the quality of their documentary work (or lack thereof). This is key to the decentralization of the sources of cultural knowledge.

The Postgres database allows some communication between databases on different computers using Backup/Restore functions. We understand this is awkward.

The new DLN version supports XML import and export. This is convenient for exchanging database metadata. For example, if CHI joins another organization working on a project and we share equipment on a capture project, we can export our equipment kit in XML and the other organization can import it into their database for documenting the capture setups. This XML feature adds some additional ability to exchange information for small operations.

There has always been an intention to produce a networked version, which is on the CHI list for future work. This “enterprise” tool would be redesigned for larger organizations with many, distributed digitization operations running at the same time. We have submitted a grant proposal to the National Endowment for the Humanities that includes planning funding for this enterprise version. The fate of the proposal will be known in August. We would like to hear ideas from larger organizations, like the Royal Library of Belgium, to make this effort responsive to the requirements of people working in our CH community. As always, we are happy to discuss collaborations.

Here is a little more information about the new DLN:

Among a new interface and many new features, the DLN now permits the metadata description of the processing operations applied to computational photography images that produce advanced work products, along with the description of the work products themselves.

The new DLN also contains functions to automatically produce Submission Information Packets (SIPs) for archiving original images and / or work products (3D models, RTIs, Multispectral, documentary image sets, Orthomosaics…). The SIPs come in METS and Bagit wrapper formats. These formats contain manifests of the SIPs contents. The SIPs contain the archival images, work products derived from the images, the DLN metadata, relevant documents, etc. The DLN metadata comes in the form of XML and CIDOC/CRM mapped RDF. Other formats are under consideration.

In addition, if all the OAIS compliant SIPs are sent to a Fedora 5 style repository, where RDF functions are available, significant self-organization of the contents will be enabled using the RDF metadata.

The idea is to make the scientific imaging process as simple as possible, from the beginning all the way through the pipeline to the archival deposit. Now that this is possible, all of these functions can be adapted for a large-scale, networked organization. All that is needed are the financial resources and perhaps an expansion of our existing professional development team. But of course, this is true for all of our collective dreams for the future of cultural heritage.

––Mark

 

[Thierry F.]

Dear Mark,

 Thank you for well thought valuable reply, I found out you are actually the CHI’s president and co-founder, so a genuine answer indeed !

 Your kind offer to discuss collaborations has been broadcast here, and we do hope that the proposal for the expanded DLN distributed enterprise features shall be funded.

 Thierry F.