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DOI News
June 2005
DOI News is a public news release. Information contained within
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In this issue:
  1. DOIs for Science Data -- latest developments
  2. MarketLinks: "Bringing the DOI into the book publishing mainstream"
  3. digilibri: DOIs for image content
  4. Annual IDF Members' meeting: "Value added"
  5. IDF participates in Internet governance forum
  6. Handle System available for Grid applications
From 1st May 2005, the International DOI Foundation welcomes our newest Registration Agency, the German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB), the world's largest library of science and technology. TIB has been a member of the IDF since 2003 and now moves to Registration Agency status with an initial 200,000 datasets already registered and an expected 1million by the end of the year; and the aim of widening the coverage in 2006, to become the registrant for any scientific content that is a result of community funded research.
The IDF also welcomes a new General member, Names 4 Life, who intend to use DOIs in a semantic resolution service for the life sciences. Scientific users will also be interested in the related news item 6 below, "Handle System available for Grid applications".
For further information see:
At the recent Book Expo America, R.R. Bowker introduced its DOI registration and application services under the name Marketlinks. Working with Content Directions Inc, Bowker's DOI-based applications focus on extending book publishers' online marketing strategies. The DOI becomes a new core element of the 133-year old "Books in Print" publisher and ISBN agency's role as bibliographic publisher and marketing and transaction services provider. Publishers already provide ongoing streams of metadata to the Bowker "Books in Print" database: an optional DOI prefix will now become an automatic opt-in within the process of ISBN registration. Commenting on the announcement, the research service EPS characterised the development as "bringing the DOI into the book publishing mainstream.... Despite earlier evidence of DOI effectiveness, the book industry has shown characteristic caution in adopting it as a linking standard. Now, integrated with the industry's core identification system, an inflection point should be near".
For further information see:
The DOI Registration Agency mEDRA has announced a partnership program with digilibri GbR (Germany) for the provision of DOI services in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Digilibri, a new digital content asset management company, will serve as the licensing, marketing and service partner for publishers, online services, news agencies, photographers, illustrators, authors, editors, libraries, and galleries in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Technical service and further developments will be provided by mEDRA. Digilibri is pioneering the development of metadata and identifier assignment to digital images and other forms of content.
For further information see:
The Annual IDF Members' Meeting was held on 14th June in Bologna, Italy. As usual, about half the participants were non-members, some attending for the first time, and the meeting focused mainly on applications and updates on progress. This years theme was the value added by the DOI, with a focus on two areas: a strategy review to determine the best structure for the IDF in its next phase of growth, moving from a member-supporting structure to an "operating federation" of Registration Agencies; and the consolidation of the full DOI implementation (using multiple resolution and a managed metadata component) through standardization and related matter such as a patent policy. Underlying these developments is the value which the DOI brings to applications, now reflected in a new DOI factsheet "Value Added by the DOI System".
Presentations also included selected uses of DOI including the TIB DOI Registration agency for scientific primary data (see above); The Publications Office of the EC (OPOCE); OECD use of DOIs with the aim of each table or graph in an OECD publication containing a DOI leading to an Excel file of data underlying the tables & graphs. A panel session discussed a number of further potential types of applications and was followed by a discussion on the need for, and use of, persistent identifiers in licensing.
IDF Director Norman Paskin participated in an invitation-only seminar, as input for the World Summit on the Information Society, on Internet governance, and presented "Two practical examples of issues in Internet governance" which underlie the DOI effort: Naming Objects, and Specifying What is Named. In a separate summarising contribution, K.N. Cukier of the Economist noted that "Allowing for alternative addressing and navigation across the network, alongside a sanctioned 'legacy' DNS, will be a balanced way to achieve diversity, experimentation and progress, while also ensuring stability and reliability."
For further information see:
The Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), developer of the Handle System technology used to provide DOI resolution, released on 29 April a Handle System Public License (HSPL v6.1) and Service Agreement in coordination with the GRID Globus Alliance. Handle technology is made available under this public license as part of the Globus Toolkit release 4.0, an open source software toolkit used for building grids (advanced resource-sharing computing). The IDF welcomed this announcement which continues CNRI's aim of encouraging wider use of the Handle System and builds on the current position enjoyed by IDF RAs as users of licensed Handle technology.
For further information see:
 
The DOI is a system for interoperably identifying and exchanging intellectual property in the digital environment. A DOI assigned to content enhances a content producer's ability to trade electronically. It provides a framework for managing content in any form at any level of granularity, for linking customers with content suppliers, for facilitating electronic commerce, and enabling automated copyright management for all types of media. The International DOI Foundation, a non-profit organization, manages development, policy and licensing of the DOI to registration agencies and technology providers and advises on usage and development of related services and technologies. The DOI system uses open standards with a standard syntax (ANSI/NISO Z39.84) and is currently used by leading international technology and content organizations.
This is a service announcement for the International Digital Object Identifier Foundation and has been prepared to increase your awareness about important developments to enable digital copyright management of intellectual property. For more information, please send your request to contact@doi.org.
 
Prepared 28 June 2005 [Updated 17 October 2005]

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