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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 [email protected]
Technical aspects [email protected] [email protected]
Genuine semeiotic experts [email protected] [email protected]