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mEDRAP. Attanasio, G. Marangoni, P. Mazzucchi, N. Mezzetti, G. Scipione

A semeiotic view of DOI applications

General approach and concrete experiences

Washington, 22 June 2007

Handle System Workshop

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Summary

What do we mean as “semeiotic approach” Relations between DOI and other identifiers:

The actionable ISBN (aka book-land DOI) How a semeiotic approach influences the Multiple resolution

development Menu based vs interim page The MR value chain

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What do we mean as “semeiotic approach”

Users are familiar with systems, which are characterised – apart technicalities – by signs

Such signs are used both by machines and by people

For instance, we can tell people: “The DOI is an opaque string: please, do not infer anything from

that” But we cannot avoid that people read strings giving the meaning

they like (and instruct machine to read strings in unexpected ways) Having a semeiotic approach simply means to try

to consider signs as an opportunity instead of a problem

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We may be not familiar with the semeiotic vocabulary

Sign = Signifier (e.g. the ISBN number per se) + signified (what is intended to mean)

Signification = the process of decoding signs passing from the signifier to the signified, thus creating meaning

Code = system of signs Denotation = the first order of signification: the primary intention

of signification Connotation = second order of signification, introduced by the

actuation of meanings deeply rooted in one social environment e.g.: one ISBN is a product identifier for a certain book (denotation) some people frequently signify the ISBN saying: “since there is an

ISBN, that product is a real book and not grey literature” (connotation)

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But we are familiar with many semeiotic phenomena

www.medra.org = 130.186.85.120 Using the first was a fantastic semeiotic idea

o That also generated interesting connotations, i.e. second signified coming from the same signifier (e.g. when we speak about “dot-coms”)

However, the URL syntax become less semeiotic-effective when you use URLs such as: www.publishing-watch.org/documents/PMW-o-20040810-06%20European%20 Boo

k%20Publishing%20Revised%20Final%2010%20August%202004.pdf

That’s for: Publishing Market Watch – Sectoral Report 2: Book Publishing, by Turku University and Rightscom, Turku (Fi), August 2004,

The use of the DOI may have also a semeiotic value: http://dx.doi.org/10.1234/whateversuffix or simply doi:10.1234/whateversuffix Think how grateful editors will be when preparing a citation for a

printed edition! And readers as well!

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First application of the concept:Actionable ISBN or Bookland DOI

All people in the book trade are familiar with this set of signs The ISBN number on the top The barcode (only for machine) The GS1 number on the bottom

They are “signifiers” that carry some “signified”, which become "meaning" within contexts of use The publishing prefix of an ISBN does not mean that that book is currently

under the control of that publisher, just may suggest it... Any number is opaque, in some extent, but is interpreted by humans that

accept some risk of misunderstanding

There is a need to maintain the ISBN as “primary identifier” of text monographs (books), exploiting all “denotations” and “connotations” associated to the ISBN signs

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Actionable ISBN project: the syntax

Syntax combining DOI and ISBN (a brilliant idea by Julian Sowa of Nielsen BookData)

E.g.: doi:10.978.8807/701689

10. 978. 8807 / 701689

DOI prefix suffixNumber

identifying that string as a DOI in

the Handle System

Number reserved (together with 979) by

CNRI to the ISBN community

ISBN publisher prefix

ISBN book identifier

(including check digit, without hyphenation)

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Benefits

All users (publishers, agencies, bibliographic DBs, web-based systems, libraries, etc.) only need one number-string (the ISBN’s) to manage a corresponding DOI

Consequences Development of new applications for the book supply-chain is made

easier Machine can be easy instructed to obtain DOIs from ISBNs in

automatic way Final users with a book in hand may easy type a valid address for that

book

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Value of ISBN actionabilityAn example: look at Google BookSearch

Users can reach services to buy the book

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How such links are made?

Links include the ISBN as a parameter in queries to dynamic webpages. The following is the list of the URLs: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1740593405 http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?

r=1&ean=1740593405 http://www.booksense.com/product/info.jsp?isbn=1740593405 http://www.hoepli.it/libro.asp?ib=1740593405 http://www.internetbookshop.it/ser/serdsp.asp?isbn=1740593405 http://www.libreriauniversitaria.it/BUS/1740593405

In fact ISBN, per se, is not actionable This implies that

Who creates the link has to know the syntax of the queries The publishers of the cited objects have no rule on that (may just,

sometime, opt-out)

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Value of using directly actionable ISBNs

Using the Actionable ISBNs and multiple resolution, publishers may include any (and all) the links they like, without need to ask any third party to do anything

Two key features: All publishers regardless their size may add links according their

needs Links may be used within any web page

We are piloting this using within the VTO (Volltextsuche online) project in Germany, but it is usable: by any publishers registering “bookland DOIs” by any webpage, simply using a DOI syntax

Multiple resolution is essential for this application

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Multiple resolution and semeiotic

There are different types of MR (see the Chuck Koscher’s presentation later) We are moving within the domain of “multiple choice” MR, not considering at

this stage “contextual” MR

1. Menu based MR

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Multiple resolution and semeiotic

There are different types of MR (see the Chuck Koscher’s presentation later) We are moving within the domain of “multiple choice” MR, not considering at

this stage “contextual” MR

2. Interim page MR

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How to select one?

The first is much better when you consider “look and feel” criteria and usability Higher usability: one click less to reach the targeted resource More elegant: users never leave the webpage unless they actually

wish to move to another resource Not surprising, larger efforts, in the DOI community, was devoted

to the first

So: we decided to select the second

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Reasons for such a contradictory decision

There is a value chain in the use of Multiple Resolution

Registrant

DO

I-RA

We page editor

Final user

A B C

The registration agency should consider All the needs along the value chain The semiotic codes used by the different players

e.g. one publisher

assigning DOIs to books

e.g. one newspaper

website citing that book

Note that the user is a reader of B and not of

A

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Consequences

A cannot say to B: “please, cite my book using this new code” This is necessary with menu based MR, where the webpage must

be created with additional, not usual, scripts A must say to B: “please, cite my book using this value within the

code you are familiar with” All the webpage editors need to cite is a URL (a DOI incorporated in

a proxy service) There is not only a matter of simplifying the work for generating

pages with very beautiful menu based multiple resolution It is also a matter that you have to convince people to learn

another code And that code has already some connotation: e.g. “it is referred to

journal articles: why to use for books or others” While an actionable ISBN brings more appropriate connotations, as

well

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A second problem: what should the MR contain?

MR interim page (and menu as well) are based on: Taxonomy of target resources Labels to be shown to users

Also in this case: much better to start from what users are more familiar with So we started from ONIX relevant code list The final objective is to include such taxonomy within the ONIX for

DOI registration schema But having ONIX-like codes immediately have some semeiotic value

Once again: we should be aware that we bring in the pilot denotations and connotations associated to ONIX

Moreover: separating the list of target resource types and labels facilitate multilingualism (a problem we immediately have between Italy and Germany)

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What we show in our interim page

Very sort explanation to

final user

Few metadata (planned: author,

title, publisher and © year)

One button to view complete

metadata

The actual multiple

resolution

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Finally: one unexpected semeiotic lesson in our experience

When we decided to implement interim pages, we would like to have more elegant one

We decided to produce pop up windows because (denotation) They are more similar to menu You can have the previous page visible on the back

However, pop up windows have now negative connotation within the web environment

So that, many browsers block them in default configuration

We have just decided to turn back to normal pages!

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Thank you for your attention

Questions and information piero.attanasio@medra.org

Technical aspects gabriella.scipione@cineca.it nicola.mezzetti@medra.org

Genuine semeiotic experts giulia.marangoni@medra.org paola.mazzucchi@medra.org