What follows is my sparse notes (increasingly so as the conference went on) from code4lib 2009.
Linked data preconf
rdf+xml == teh suxxor (lbjay). see ntriples with http://www.mindswap.org/2002/rdfconvert/. dchud: eliminate custom software. cache linked data so your links don't break. distribute and decentralize the data.
Keynote: Stefano Mazzochi
Reduction of marginal costs with each transition to a new technology. The marginal cost is the cost to create the product again.
- speech: synchronous, no lasting record
- cave drawings: can't take it with you, marginal cost is 1
- clay tablets: portable, heavy, marginal cost is 1
- fiber inscribing: portable, light, marginal cost is 1
- fiber printing: marginal cost < 1, but still > 0 (production, consumption, storage, organization)
- electronic publishing: asynchronous and synchronous, marginal cost ~ 0
Electronic publishing presents a degraded consumption experience. We lack the hundreds of years of experience of the paper publishing industry. Batteries are needed.
Libraries versus museums of books. Managing physical non-unique copies of books will be non-economical. With nearly infinite storage space, can we justify filtering? Is metadata still needed? From books of pages to journals of articles to networks of relational assertion (web of data). Questions to answer from freebase. A little reminiscent of EMERAC. David Huynh has been working on "sliding" -- moving from one dataset to another. Freebase currently tries to fit all sets, so doesn't display for a particular set well.
Acre is a javascript framework for writing freebase apps. Example app: http://genderizer.freebaseapps.com
Why libraries should embrace linked data
Stories from Libris, the National Library of Sweden. Started building a new user interface in December 2007. Design a library catalog within the context of the web, and ask what it could become. APIs suck, too much control in the hands of the producer (dependent on the producer's world view), but we have created some APIs anyway. Linked open data turns the web into an API (Corey Harper).
Jangle
Jangle core sends AtomPub to clients, speaks to connectors via JSON.
RESTafarian
Looked at the Sinatra Ruby framework. Java debugging with services depending on services depending on services. Ugh. You start developing for 20 years ahead of you and it ends up being totally overengineered. We got sucked into every standard. Sword, METS. I need a METS profile to copy a PDF from here to there?
Dashboard Initiative
Hard to build in delivery of numbers when you're working on delivery of services. Dashboard of a car gives overview of current flows. It's a simple way to provide library data flow to managers and administrators.
Open up your repository with a SWORD
What is a repository? OAI-PMH co-evolved with these repository systems.
Djatoka
JPEG2000
Lightning Talks
tinyurl.com/XCwebcast. Scriblio at Collingswood Public. enjoysthin.gs. zoia and foaf.
Biblios
No Galen Charlton, but Josh Ferraro gave a good overview. Chris Catalfo came next with a more "in the guts" view (including some couchdb goodness).
FRBR
All about relationships.
Solr
Erik Hatcher catches us up on developments in Solr.
Ian Davis
If you love your data, set it free.