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To: CIMI Participants
=46rom: John Perkins
 
Re: CIMI Consortium Startup and proposed work
 
        This is to bring you up to date on CIMI startup activities and to
get your input on the developing  workplan.   A summary of action=
 items
concludes the message.
 
1. Formalities =20
        We have just formalized the change of governance from the CIMI
Management Committee which was an MCN committee to The CIMI
Consortium Executive Committee. The executive committee is composed
of the CEOs of the four sponsoring organizations (MCN, AAHIP,RLG,=
 CHIN),
the project manager, and one member for every 5 participating
organizations.  A call for nominations for the open seat has been
distributed and is awaiting replies.   So far we have had only one
nomination., Paul Peters of CNI.  Nominations close February 11/94.=
=20
Election to be by vote of the membership.
 
2.  Workplan
        The executive committee has  proposed a general workplan.  I need
your input and comment in order to transform this to a concrete
workplan.
 
Mission=20
 
The proposed proposed mission is to: promote an open, standards-based
approach to the creation and interchange of information relating=
 to the
professional and business activities of museums and cultural heritage
organizations internationally.  This is being done in order to enrich
scholarship and enhance organizational performance. =20
 
Goals and Objectives
 
The CIMI consortium has strategic three-year goals to:=20
a)  develop museum participation in networked communications
and increase museum resources available on the Internet and other
digital networks; =20
 
b)  to develop and test International Standardized Profiles  (ISPs)
that will best assure system-independent interoperability and the
open interchangability of data between museum applications,
migration of data across generations of software and exchange of
information among museums;
 
c) collaborate on the development of  models, formats and
syntaxes to express the content  and meaningful organization of
museum information which is to be the content of interchanges.
 
d)  promote the value of an open, standards-based approach to the
automation and interchange of museum information within the
professional community.=20
 
Proposed Work
 
=46rom this point of departure, and making reference to the
recommendations in the CIMI Standards Framework, I'm proposing a
general program of work for the first year that will be of practical
relevance to you in the short term, will support our longer-term
objectives, and is achievable with the available funding.=20
 
 The work in support of each goal is:
 
1. Developing Museum Participation in Networked Communications:=20
The focus for this will be through:
 
 a) participating in the CNI  activities (especially the Museum
Synergy Sessions, Transformation of Scholarly Resources,
Mumanities and Arts, and Architecture and Standards working
groups).
b) where appropriate supporting MCN's other networking projects.
c) researching issues and implications for museum interchange
using Internet Resources.  =20
 
2. Develop and test standards profiles:   The focus will be on
developing CIMI Profiles  (a set of one or more standards and
where necessary the chosen classes, subsets, parameters and
options of those base standards) leading to implementation
agreements for accomplishing a particular function.  Specifically:
=20
a) Draft a Profile for the Z39.50 Ver 3 based information retrieval
and interchange of museum information at the collections level
and object level with associated images.
b) Conduct an experimental WAIS, WWW, or MOSAIC
implementation by CIMI members (using draft CIMI attribute sets
and record syntaxes) to provide direct experience with
implementation issues, functional requirements and future
research.
c) Participate in Z39.50 implementers group
 
3. Collaborate on content model and record syntax development:=20
 
a) Complete Scope of Collections content model and record
description with the Cultural History Information Task Group
(CHITG).  This model describes objects at the collection level
rather than the individual object level.=20
b) Collaborate with the Documentation Committee of the
International Council of Museums (CIDOC) on negotiating  museum
standards consistent with ISO/IEC JTC1 SC14 for forming and
naming data elements.
c) Collaborate with the Art Information Task Force (AITF) on
developing its SGML DTD for art object and images
d) Develop content models for a basic descriptive object record,
image(s) of objects, a national inventory record.
e) draft a museum attribute set for Z39.50
f) Research and test the feasibility of a museum implementation
of SGML Data Interchange Format (SDIF)  as a record syntax for
digital exchanges.=20
 
4.  Promotion and education:  promoting, monitoring and reporting
on standards issues internationally that impact museums by
publishing CIMI News as a bi-annual insert in MCN's quarterly
journal SPECTRA and electronically for network distribution,=20
attending meetings, and giving workshops.
 
and as an administrative goal:
 
5. promoting CIMI , prospecting for members,and raising funds to
support  subsequent years operations, research and development.
 
 
3. Schedule=20
 
I propose we discuss the workplan electronically leading to the
formative meeting immediately following the CNI Spring Meeting in
Washington, DC .  The CIMI meeting would commence at 2:00 pm  Wed.
April 6 and run until 5:00 pm on the 7th.   I have, as have some=
 of you,=20
been invited to attend  an AITF meeting in New York February 16 to
discuss CIMI/AITF collaboration and possible SGML work and a second
meeting March 3-4 at AHIP on Image and Information Standards.  I=
 hope
that we can use these meetings to help us refine the workplan.  In
addition, I'm scheduling a round-table meeting in Washington February
23 to explore Z39.50  for CIMI.  I invite any of you who have an=
 interest
to attend this meeting (details to follow by email).   =20
 
My hope is that we can use the April 6th meeting to define our
priorities and create a concrete plan of work for the first year.
 
4. Action Items
a) Send list of professional or technical standards bodies you
participate in.
b) Participating organizations send your nominations for open executive
committee seat. Nominations close Feb11/94.=20
c) Comments and suggestions re workplan asap
d) RSVP on meeting dates especially Z39.50 roundtable
/jp
 
 
 
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John Perkins
CIMI Project Manager
Consortium for the Computer Interchange of Museum Information
16 Schooner Dr.
Head of St. Margarets, NS B0J 1G0 Canada
voice: 902-826-2824
fax: 902-826-1337
[log in to unmask]
 
 
 
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