Some recent developments of MathNet

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Some recent developments of Math-Net

• Wolfgang Dalitz, Wolfram Sperber
• ZIB Berlin

IuK-Herbsttagung 2001 Blaubeuren October 7, 2001
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Content

• Some words about Math-Net
• The intention and the concept of the Math-Net
  Page
• Generating and Editing of Math-Net Pagesthe
  Math-Net Page Maker
• A demonstration of the Math-Net Page Maker
• the functionalities of the Math-Net Page
• Metadata

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Math-Net in General

• Math-Net is an international effort to
  establish a global electronic information
  for mathematics
• Math-Net intends to provide an information
  offering
• covering all mathematical fields and aspects
• Math-Net wants to provide an efficient access to
  high
• quality mathematical information
• Math-Net bases on electronic information and
  resources
• made electronically available by the
  participating parties

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Math-Net Basics (I)
6/2000 Declaration of the Math-Net Charter
http//www.math-net.org/charter
approved by the
Executive Comittee of the
International Mathematical Union
on May 16, 2000
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Math-Net Basics (II)

• Math-Net is intented to organize and enhance the
  free flow of information within mathematics
  worldwide.
• The objective of Math-Net is to provide efficient
  access to high quality mathematical information
  "at the fingertips" of the user.
• The use of Math-Net is free.
• Math-Net aims at making information and services
  freely available - whenever possible.

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Math-Net Basics (III)

• Math-Net is organized under the aegis of the
  International Mathematical Union (IMU).
• Math-Net is steered by the IMU Committee on
  Electronic Information and Communication
  (CEIC) via
• - a user-driven and not-for-profit activity,
• - open for all willing to provide mathematical
  information electronically.

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Math-Net Basics (IV)

• Math-Net is based on structured mathematical
  information offered electronically by
  participating institutions,
• the Math-Net Members.
• Math-Net combines the available resources into
  services, provided by groups of volunteers,
  the Math-Net Service Providers.

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Math-Net Charter Organization
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Most important activities for Math-Net at the
moment

• Math-Net Pages for institutions
  (Pagemaker/Navigator)
• Preprints (MPRESS)
• Personal Homepages (PERSONA MATHEMATICA)

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Math-Net Page - Concept and Tool (I)

• the concept
• idea A standardized portal for the core
  information of Math-Net Members and the
  Math-Net Services
• three parts
• controled vocabulary
• structure
• layout

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Math-Net Members in Germany
Wilfrid Hodges
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Remarks (I)

• the idea of Math-Net Pages was born in the
  Math-Net project (1997-1999) in Germany
• simple idea
• nearly all mathematical institutions in Germany
  (70) have a Math-Net Page (moreover some
  institutions in Austria, Canada, Danmark,
  France, UK, US and Turkey)
• a tool for generating such a Math-Net Page
  exists
• the Math-Net Pages are accessible by the
  Math-Net Navigator

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Remarks (II)

• the Math-Net Page of the first generation were
  essentially HTML-documents (with only some
  few metadata)
• the links to the Math-Net Services were not
  explicit
• some categories for core information of the
  institution were missing
• internationalization of Math-Net
• long discussion about the Math-Net Page and a
  reformulation of the Math-Net Page

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The results (I) A Math-Net Page with standard
labels
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The result (II) A Math-Net Page with
alternative labels
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Definition of groups and categories of the
Math-Net Page Description and Standard Labels
General
Research About us
Research Groups Organization
Preprints/Publications
Information for Prospective Students Projects
Community Outreach
Information for Visitors People
Teaching
Faculty/Staff
Academic Programs/ Curricula Students
Class Schedules
Long-term Visitors/Associates
Course Information and Materials News
Information
Services Schedule of Events
Software and Computing Services
Communications
Libraries Positions
Journals
Bibliographic Databases
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Math-Net Page - Requirements

• Requirements of the concept
• visible labels of the Math-Net Page should be
  flexible (typical notations for the groups and
  categories of the Math-Net Page labels could
  differ between regions)
• Math-Net Pages should be accepted worldwide
  What do we have to invest for a multilingual
  extension?
• tools allowing to
• - generate a Math-Net Page and
• - change an existing Math-Net Page
• in an intuitive way

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(New) Math-Net Page Maker

• a tool for generating and editing different modes
• Math-Net Pages for Departments
• Math-Net Pages for Research Institutes
• Math-Net Pages with standard labels
• Math-Net Pages with alternative labels
• Math-Net Pages with different character sets
• Math-Net Page Maker is a cgi-script (PERL was
  used as programming language)

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More

• The Math-Net Page Maker produces a deeply
  structured XML document, it consists of three
  parts
• the (X)HTML-part
• the Metadata-part
• (hidden fields)

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Creating a Math-Net Page (I)

• 1. Go to http//www.math-net.org/pagemaker
• 2. On the entry page, you have several choices
• You can generate a Math-Net Page
• for a department or a research institute
• You can generate this Math-Net Page
• with standard labels or with alternative labels
• You can edit an existing Math-Net Page

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Creating a Math-Net Page (II)

• You get a form on your screen and have to put in
  (a lot of) data
• data about the Information Coordinator
• data about the institution
• further data (e.g. country code, the character
  set which you use, ...)
• links to local information resources
• some of these fields are mandatory, (the tool
  checks that the mandatory fields are non-empty)

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Creating a Math-Net Page (IV)

• If you then click the Store button the created
  Math-Net Page will be stored at ZIB
• The Math-Net Page will be sent to the
  Information Coordinator per e-mail or can be
  downloaded.
• The Math-Net Page has to be installed locally
  there is a recommendation for the path and the
  name(s) of possibly various Math-Net Page(s).

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Changing an existing Math-Net Page

• You have to input the URL of the (already
  existing) Math-Net Page that you want to
  change.
• The data of the extisting Math-Net Page will be
  automatically inserted into the input form.
  From now on all data can be changed.
• The next steps are the same as in the Create
  mode.

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The metadata part (IWI Os)

• Which data?
• data about the information coordinator (DC,
  vCard)
• data about the institution (DC, vCard)
• groups and categories of Math-Net Pages (own)
• The metadata specification covering
• a Math-Net namespace
• definition of Resource classes (Math-Net Page,
  Preprints, ...
• a Math-Net type and Math-Net subject scheme for
  the groups and categories of the Math-Net
  Page)
• an Application Profile for all metadata used on
  the Math-Net Page

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A piece of the code ...
... ltrdfDescription about"http//www.zib.de"gt
ltdcsubjectgt ltmnstDescriptor
rdfvalue"about Us" rdfabout"
http//www.iwi-iuk.org/material/RDF/1.1/descriptor
/AboutUs"/gt lt/dcsubjectgt lt/rdfDescriptiongt
ltrdfDescription about"http//www.zib.de"gt ...
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the graph representation
the triple representation
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extended by the label
the triple representation
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A category as part of the Math-Net Page
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two categories
more complexity on the next pictures
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Further remarks
Each Math-Net Member should produce a
standardMath-Net Page (a Math-Net Page with
standardized labels)in English Further
Math-Net Pages with alternative English or
non-English labels can be added. You can create
further Math-Net Pages at any time.
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Test phase (I)

• The test phase for the current Math-Net Page
  Maker was started on 2001-03-09
• 20 test installations in Germany
• - international
• France
• Canada
• US
• Turkey

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International Announcement and Promotion of the
Math-Net Page
official announcement of the Math-Net Page and
the recommendation to mathematical institutions
to implement Math-Net Pages by IMU, national and
regional mathematical societies and other
institutions of the mathematical community (e.g.
in Germany KMathF) Task for Math-Net Member
Associations (IuK-Fachgruppein Germany, MathGate
in UK)
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http//www.math-net.org