Metadata Schema for Folktales in the Mekong River Basin

The aim of this study was to analyze the content, context, and structure of folktales from the Mekong River Basin, and to develop a metadata schema for data description and folktale storage. The research was conducted using the MAAT metadata lifecycle model, which comprises the following four steps: (1) conducting an information content analysis; (2) creating metadata requirements, (3) developing a metadata schema; and (4) carrying out a metadata service and evaluation. The folktale analysis, based on Anne Gilliland’s information object analysis, revealed the following: (1) the folktale content consists of types of tales, and the morals, beliefs, and parts they incorporate; (2) the folktale context consists of and names distributors, characters, scenes, magical objects, ethnic groups, languages, countries, relationships between tales, and their sources; (3) the folktale structure includes verbal, non-verbal, and mixed forms. The metadata schema development adopted the functional requirements for bibliographic records concepts and existing metadata standards, resulting in metadata with the following 18 elements: identifier, title, creator, contributor, description, relation, language, medium, sources, date, rights, keyword, character, moral, ethnic group, motif, place, and country. The metadata elements were described using the categories: name, definition, format, example, and note.

A multi-service data management platform for scientific oceanographic products

An efficient, secure and interoperable data platform solution has been developed in the TESSA project to provide fast navigation and access to the data stored in the data archive, as well as a standard-based metadata management support. The platform mainly targets scientific users and the situational sea awareness high-level services such as the decision support systems (DSS). These datasets are accessible through the following three main components: the Data Access Service (DAS), the Metadata Service and the Complex Data Analysis Module (CDAM). The DAS allows access to data stored in the archive by providing interfaces for different protocols and services for downloading, variables selection, data subsetting or map generation. Metadata Service is the heart of the information system of the TESSA products and completes the overall infrastructure for data and metadata management. This component enables data search and discovery and addresses interoperability by exploiting widely adopted standards for geospatial data. Finally, the CDAM represents the back-end of the TESSA DSS by performing on-demand complex data analysis tasks.