ABC

Date/Time

• The Battle of Hastings
• The 20th Century
• Next Year
• 21-10-99
• 00:07:14;09 - 00:12:36;21

Place

• 24 Whynot St, West End
• 0, 0, 100, 100
• Mars
• latitude, longitude
• the bottom left hand corner i.e. a section of a digital or physical object

5. Diagrammatic Representations of the Scenario based on the ABC Model

Figure 2 below is a diagramatic representation of the scenario (described in Section 3) based on the event-aware model and the ABC vocabulary described in Section 4 above. It explicitly identifies all of the events, acts, relationships and resources which occur within the scenario.

Figure 2: ABC Model Representation of the "Live At Lincoln" Scenario

The performance actually consists of 4 parts or sub-events, event1_1, event1_2, event1_3 and event1_4.

Event1_4 represents the ProgramNotesProduction Event. It needs to be separately defined to ensure that the Agent/Role pair of Martin Bookspan/Note Producer is associated with the "ProgramNotes" output resource.

event1_1, event1_2 and event1_3 are the sequence of performance sub-parts which are expressions of separate concepts or works. Figure 4 below explicitly illustrates the history of events, concepts (aka works) and performances (aka expressions) which make up the three parts of the performance.

Figure 4: ABC Model Representation of the Performance Sub-parts

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6. UML Representation of the Basic Event Model

Notes:

1. Inputs are derived from Resources but have an extra attribute patient. If patient is true, then the input resource is actually being operated upon during the event. If patient is false then the input resource is simply a helper application e.g. a reference or tool. This is important to avoid ambiguity during the complex-to-simple transformation when there are multiple inputs to an event.
2. Outputs are derived from Resources but have an extra attribute target. If target is true, then the output resource is assigned the Role/Agent property/value pairs during the complex-to-simple transformation. If target is false then this output resource is not assigned any of the Role/Agent property/value pairs during the complex-to-simple transformation. This is important to avoid ambiguity during the complex-to-simple transformation if there are multiple outputs from an event.

Figure 5: UML Representation of the Basic Event Model

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7. XML Schema Representation of an Event Model

8. Examples/Instantiations of the Event XML Schema

<Event id="E1" Type="Calendar" eventName="Arrival of Spring">
   <Context><Date>3/20/00</Date><Time>24:00</Time></Context>
</Event>

<Event id="E2" Type="Creation" eventName="Sam's Birth">
   <Context><Date>8/7/97</Date><Time>05:00</Time></Context>
   <Act>
     <Agent><Name>Mary Jane Smith</Name></Agent>
     <Role>Mother</Role>
   </Act>
   <Act>
      <Agent><Name>Sally Jones</Name></Agent>
      <Agent><Name>Helen Brown</Name></Agent>      
      <Role>Mid-wife</Role>
   </Act>
   <Output id="B1234-97">
         <Type>Person</Type>
         <Name>Sam</Name>
   </Output>
</Event>

<Event id="E3" Type="Creation" eventName="Composition of Symphony No. 9">
   <Context><Date>1824</Date></Context>
   <Act>
     <Agent><Name>Beethoven</Name></Agent>
     <Role>Composer</Role>
   </Act>
   <Output id="comp13578">
        <Type>Musical Score</Type>
        <Title>Symphony No. 9</Title>
   </Output>
</Event>

<Event id="E4" Type="Notification" eventName="Security violation 102">
   <Context><Date>4/4/00</Date><Time>10:10</Time></Context>

   <Act>
     <Agent>
         <Name>EM Mechanism</Name>
         <Type>Software</Type>
     </Agent>
     <Role>Exception Trigger</Role>
   </Act>

   <Act>
     <Agent>
         <Name>Carl Lagoze</Name>
         <Type>Person</Type>
     </Agent>
     <Role>Violator</Role>
   </Act>

   <Output id="em2345-00">
        <Type>Error Message</Type>
        <Content>Exception:lagoze violated policy</Content>
   </Output>

</Event>

<Event id="E5" Type="Transformation" eventName="Image Migration">

   <Context><Date>4/4/00</Date><Time>16:00</Time></Context>

   <Act>
     <Agent>
         <Name>SystemPS</Name>
         <Type>Software</Type>
     </Agent>
     <Role>Image Converter</Role>
   </Act>

   <Act>
     <Agent>
         <Name>Karen Fryer</Name>
         <Type>Person</Type>
     </Agent>
     <Role>Image Archivist</Role>
   </Act>

   <Input id="file://...Img1.5.tiff" patient="true">
        <Type>image</Type>
        <Version>TIFF 5.0</Format>
   </Input>

   <Input id="http://...transTIFF">
        <Type>Transformation function</Type>
   </Input>

   <Output id="file://..Img1.6.tiff">
        <Type>image</Type>
        <Version>TIFF 6.0</Format>
   </Output>

</Event>

<Event id="E6" Type="Performance" eventName="Live At the Lincoln Centre">

   <Context>
     <Date>7/4/98</Date><Time>20:00</Time>
     <Place>Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts</Place>
   </Context>

   <Act id ="Act1">
     <Agent>
         <Name>Kurt Masur</Name>
         <Type>Person</Type>
     </Agent>
     <Role>Conductor</Role>
   </Act>

   <Act id="Act2">
     <Agent>
         <Name>New York Philharmonic</Name>
         <Type>Group of Persons</Type>
     </Agent>
     <Role>Orchestra</Role>
   </Act>

   <Act id="Act3">
     <Agent>
         <Name>PBS</Name>
         <Type>Organisation</Type>
     </Agent>
     <Role>Producer</Role>
   </Act>

   <Act id="Act4">
     <Agent>
         <Name>Brian Large</Name>
         <Type>Person</Type>
     </Agent>
     <Role>Director</Role>
   </Act>

    ......

   <subEvents>

     <sequence>

       <Event id="E6_1" type="Performance" eventName="The Rite of Spring">
         <Extent>35 mins</Extent>
         <input id="comp23456 ">
            <Type>Musical Score</Type>
            <Title>The Rite of Spring</Title>
         </input>
       </Event>

       <!-- See Example 3 Above for the Composition Event Details -->

       <Event id="E6_2" type="Performance" eventName="Symphony No. 9">
         <Extent>65 mins</Extent>
         <input id="comp13578">
            <Type>Musical Score</Type>
            <Title>Symphony No. 9</Title>
         </input>
       </Event>

       <Event id="E6_3" type="Performance" eventName="Concerto for Violin">
         <Extent>25 mins</Extent>
         <input id="comp523">
            <Type>Musical Score</Type>
            <Title>Concerto for Violin</Title>
         </input>
         <Act id="Act10">
            <Agent>
               <Name>Robert McDuffie</Name>
               <Type>Person</Type>
            </Agent>
            <Role>Solo Violinist</Role>
         </Act>
       </Event>

     </sequence>

     <Event id="E6_4" type="Creation" eventName="ProgramNotesProduction">
         <Act id="Act8">
            <Agent>
               <Name>Martin Bookspan</Name>
               <Type>Person</Type>
            </Agent>
            <Role>Notes Producer</Role>
         </Act>
         <Output id="notes34456">
            <Type>Program Notes</Type>
            <Language>English</Language>
         </Output>
     </Event>

   </subEvents>

   <Output id="video8215">
        <Type>video</Type>
        <Duration>130 mins</Duration>
        <Format>VHS</Format>
   </Output>

</Event>

9. Mapping between Schemas

1. Transformation from the ABC event-aware model to the resource-centric model;
2. Mapping of the ABC semantic elements to the specific domain's semantic elements.

Sections 9.1 and 9.2 below describe the processes involved in these two steps.

9.1 The Transformation Process

During the transformation process from an event-aware model to a simple resource model, the following steps occur:

1. The Date, Time and Place properties within the Event's Context node can be connected directly to the target output resource;
2. The Role property of each Act associated with an event, becomes a property arc attached to the target output resource and its value is the Act's Agent Name e.g. the Orchestra property has value "New York Philharmonic"
3. A property arc is generated from the event type (e.g. Performance -> isPerformanceOf) and this property is attached to the target output resource. The value of this property is the patient input resource of the event ("comp523"..

ABC Event-aware Model <Event id="E1" Type="Performance" eventName="Live At the Lincoln Centre"> <Context> <Date>7/4/98</Date> <Time>20:00</Time> <Place>Lincoln Centre</Place> </Context> <Act id="Act1"> <Agent> <Name>New York Philharmonic</Name> <Type>Group of Persons</Type> </Agent> <Role>Orchestra</Role> </Act> <input id="comp523"> <Type>Musical Score</Type> <Title>Concerto for Violin</Title> </input> <Output id="video8215"> <Type>video</Type> <Format>VHS</Format> </Output> </Event>

Simple Resource-centric Model <Resource id="video8215"> <Type>video</Type> <Format>VHS</Format> <Date>7/4/98</Date> <Time>20:00</Time> <Place>Lincoln Centre</Place> <Orchestra>New York Philharmonic</Orchestra> <isPerformanceOf>comp523</isPerformanceOf> </Resource>

9.2 The Semantic Mapping Process

10. Problems and Open Issues with the Event-aware Model

10.1 Diagrammatic Representations for the ABC Model

A number of modelling methods exist which we can use to formally describe ABC models using graphical representations e.g. E-R diagrams, UML, state-transition diagrams, interaction diagrams, activity diagrams, RDF diagrams.

But none of them seems to do all of the things which we need - which is to describe both documents and events and the relationships between them. They are either document-centric (ER, RDF) or process-centric (STD, UML) - while we need both.

State transition diagrams are primarily concerned with the possible states within a single object and the processes associated with each of those states i.e. the behaviour of a single object. Although this is of interest, ABC is more concerned with the processes/events which occur between different objects.

The problems of mixing these 2 approaches were also evident in Godfrey's slides. Different approaches use different conventions. We need to differentiate between the following relationships between entities and how to represent them using the lines and arrows linking them:

• has property ;
• input or output to an event i.e. arrows could represent direction of process flow;
• chronological layout of events e.g. lines and arrows indicate sequential and/or parallel occurrences.

Do we need to be able to specify constraints such as optional/mandatory relationships or repetitive attributes in the data model representation?

Do we want to be able to show more complex process flows between events such as conditional statements or repetitive loops?

Events can be repetitive, causal, conditional - how do you specify these relationships and constraints via the modelling diagrams. How do you specify that two events can only occur in parallel or concurrently and not sequentially?

10.2 Visual Metadata Modelling Tools

Assuming we can define rules for graphically representing ABC models then we could develop graphical metadata generation tools which provide a GUI and toolbar which enable users to visually design a metadata schema and generate descriptions by linking graphical representations of objects and events and attaching attributes to them.

Ideally, if simpler views of the metadata are required then they can be specified graphically by circling those entities to be combined/conflated into a simpler flat structure.

10.3 Inheritance of Attributes and Attribute Values

Certain documents (e.g. complex multimedia resources) can have very complex metadata descriptions. If such a document undergoes an event e.g. is reformatted from mpeg1 to mpeg2, then an important issue is whether the attributes are inherited or carried across from the input document to the output document? What is the default behaviour? How do we override the default? Attributes may be added, deleted or modified - similarly the attribute values can be reset to default values or maintained across the event.

How do we specify in the model diagram which attributes or attribute values will be inherited by the event's output document?

One approach would be for the event metadata to record the differences in the metadata between the output and the input documents. Although this approach minimizes metadata redundancy (since the output attributes and values can be calculated on the fly by applying the difference to the input) in many cases, the differences are not known - only the input document metadata and the output document metadata is known.

Another approach is to use the IFLA model and assume that different manifestations from the same expression or work automatically inherit certain attributes and values (e.g. those associated with the intellectual content).

10.4 Complex to Simple Transformations - Flattening Structures

However, if an event consists of multiple contributing acts each with their own agent, role, input, output and context - then it is by no means simple to collapse these sub-events into one encapsulating event and to resolve the agent, role, context, input, output for the encapsulating event unambiguously.

The following situations require mechanisms to ensure that the complex to simple mappings can be handled unambiguously:

• Multiple agents and multiple outputs - to which output do you attach the role property and agent value during the transformation? The target output(s) associated with each event need to be specified. Target outputs will be assigned all of the role/agent pairs from the generating event. A "target" attribute is provided to enable this specification. If there are multiple outputs then they may need to be attached to separate sub-events to ensure the correct delegation of role/agent pairs.
• Multiple inputs can cause ambiguities during the complex-to-simple transformation because the relationships between inputs and outputs is unclear. Some inputs are extraneous to the event e.g. tools or references while other inputs are actually operated upon to produce the output. A "patient" attribute is provided to enable the specific distinction between "patient" inputs and "helper" inputs.

10.5 Specifying which Nodes are mandatory?

If two agents contribute to an act and both have the same role and context e.g. two illustrators, then must they have seperate act nodes or can they be arcs off the same act node?

11. An ABC Grammar

Metadata can be represented as a simple language for making statements about information -- about who, for example, created what (the book, song, or database), when and where, or about how much it might cost to buy that book from whom. Such statements can become very complex. Indeed, like natural language statements, they can even be ambiguous -- something one usually will want to minimize.

The metadata grammar presented here is "simple" inasmuch its words fall into a limited number of categories very much like those of natural language -- metadata nouns, verbs, adjectives, and gerunds. The participants in ABC felt that this shared vocabulary of grammatical elements would help us translate statements in one metadata dialect (language?) into the terms of other dialects. The number of common terms in this grammar may well grow over time [maybe later, clauses, adverbs, etc].

Metadata grammar can be important because it:

• will help translate from metadata language to human language
• will provide a form of quality control (by helping humans understand and debug the metadata statements)
• will control the quality of mappings through the presupposition of these categories -- nouns to nouns, etc.

Elements of the grammar

VERBS express actions or states of being. [Maybe refer to the active/passive distinction, though Mark mentioned some reasons why not to do this. But isn't this related to the INDECS distinction between agent and patient?]

ADJECTIVES modify nouns by specifying [something]. [Mark mentioned that these were particularly important for INDECS.]

GERUNDS are metadata verbs that are being used as nouns. In natural language, [add -ing, etc]. In this ABC metadata grammar, they express "events" (a central category) e.g. records -> recording. All entities are understood in terms of roles they play in events. Gerunds express the role model within the event.

Appendix A: Metadata Descriptions for the Example Scenario from Different Domains

A.1 AACR Record

A.2 Example of DC Record

Title = "Live at Lincoln Center"
Creator = "Igor Stravinsky"
Creator = "Ludwig Van Beethoven"
Creator = "Phillip Glass"
Description = "A VHS video of a concert at Lincoln Center. The Orchestra is
the New York Philharmonic."
Publisher = "PBS"
Contributor = "Kurt Masur"
Contributor = "Brian Large"
Contributor = "Lydia Bancroft"
Contributor = "Martin Bookspan"
Contributor = "Robert McDuffie"
Date = "1998-04-07"
Type = "Video"
Format = "VHS"
Language = "en"
Coverage = "New York"
Rights = "Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts"

A.3 Examples of Archival Records

In the New York Philharmonic Archives:

Series: Performance Recordings
Subseries: 1998 Subscription
Title: April 7, 1998
Format: 1” PAL video

Series: Programming
Subseries: Guest Conductors
Subseries: Kurt Masur
Title April 7, 1998
Description: Concert master correspondence regarding a program planned for April 7, 1998 in New York, includes draft and final program notes and published performance reviews.

In Lincoln Center Archives:

Series: House
Subseries: Main Stage
Subseries: Videos
Title: April 7, 1998 8PM
Description: New York Philharmonic conducted by Kurt Masur

An historical society or repository of personal papers might have the same recoding cataloged as:

Fonds/Collection Title: James Wadson Papers
Series: Special Occasions
Subseries: 50th anniversary
Folder Title: Momentos
Format: ½” videotaope, NTSC
Description: Concert at Lincoln Center attended by the Wadson’s on their 50th anniversary.

An art museum could have it cataloged as:

Artist: Put U On (1973- )
Title: Quiet evening, Living Room
Date: 2000
Medium: Work in sound, 4.5 hrs
Description: The third of five works in the 'Artist-Night' series. In an interview accompanying at the first public exhibition of the series at Cleveland Museum of Art, the artist described this piece as 'the unusual calm in the center of the noisy storm of life. The artists returns home, runs a bath upstairs, makes a light salad in the kitchen, reads well into the night.'
Credit: Purchased by the Womens Committee Avant Garde fund
Accession: 2000.87.3

A.4 CIDOC/CRM Representation of the Scenario

"Live at Lincoln Center Performance" (Iconographic Object)

is identified by PBS-LAL70498 (Object identifier)
has title "Live at Lincoln Center" 
has type VHS video
has dimension 130 mins
rights held by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
has current owner Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
was produced by Production of PBS-LAL70498 (Production event)
  has time-span
    begins at April 7, 1998 (Date)
    ends at April 7, 1998 (Date)
  took place at Lincoln Center of the Performing Arts (Place)
    has type performing arts center
    falls within New York
  carried out by PBS (Actor)
    in the role of Production company
  carried out by BBC(Actor)
    in the role of Broadcast channel
  carried out by Kurt Masur(Actor)
    in the role of Conductor
  carried out by New York Philharmonic(Actor)
    in the role of Orchestra
  carried out by Martin Bookspan(Actor)
    in the role of narrator
  carried out by Brian Large(Actor)
    in the role of TV director
  carried out by Lydia Bancroft(Actor)
    in the role of sound recordist
has number of parts three
is composed of
   Segment 1  (Iconographic Object)
   has dimension 35 mins
   depicts concept The Rite of Spring (Conceptual Object)
      was produced by Creation of Rite of Spring (Production event)
         has time-span
           begins at 1911 (Date)
           ends at 1911 (Date)
         carried out by Igor Stravinsky
           in the role of Composer
   Segment 2  (Iconographic Object)
   has dimension 65 mins
   depicts concept Symphony No 9 (Conceptual Object)
      was produced by Creation of Symphony No 9 (Production event)
         has time-span
           begins at 1824 (Date)
           ends at 1824 (Date)
         carried out by Beethoven
           in the role of Composer
   Segment 3  (Iconographic Object) 
   has dimension 25 mins
   depicts concept Concerto for Violin (Conceptual Object)
      was produced by Creation of Concerto for Violin (Production event)
         has time-span
           begins at 1992 (Date)
           ends at 1992 (Date)
         carried out by Phillip Glass
           in the role of Composer

        

A.5 MPEG-7 Description of the Scenario

This description of the VHS video outlined in the scenario is based on the most recent versions of MPEG-7 Multimedia Description Schemes XM 1.0 [1] and WD 1.0 [2].

The description, encoded in XML, consists of 4 parts: CreationMetaInformation, MediaInformation, UsageMetaInformation and SegmentDecomposition.

This example demonstrates the applicability of the event-aware model not only to events which occur between resources or events which happen to resources but also to events which occur within resources. Content description of spatio-temporal resources (e.g. audio, video, multimedia) can be represented by explicitly describing the events which occur within a resource. In these cases, the time and/or place of the event are specified relative to the local coordinate system of the resource e.g. a time code relative to the start of the video or the location in pixels of a frame region. For example:

• Event 1 - Start of 'Rite of Spring' ; 2min
• Event 2 - Start of 'Beethoven Symphony No. 9'; 38min
• Event 3 - Start of 'Concerto for Violin'; 104min

<MPEG-7 id=".....">

  <CreationMetaInformation>

    <Creation>
      <Title type='original'>Live at Lincoln Center</Title>
      <Creator>
	        <role>conductor</role>
		<GivenName>Kurt</GivenName>
                <FamilyName>Masur</FamilyName>
      </Creator>
      <Creator>
		<role>orchestra</role>
		<CharacterName>New York Philharmonic</CharacterName>
      </Creator>
      <Creator>
                <role>narrator</role>
                <Given Name>Martin</GivenName>
                <FamilyName>Bookspan</FamilyName>
      </Creator>
      <Creator>
                <role>TV director</role>
                <Given Name>Brian</GivenName>
                <FamilyName>Large</FamilyName>
      </Creator>
      <Creator>
                <role>sound recordist</role>
                <Given Name>Lydia</GivenName>
                <FamilyName>Bancroft</FamilyName>
      </Creator>
      <CreationDate>
                <day>7</day>
                <month>4</month>
                <year>1998</year>
      </CreationDate>
      <Location>
		<PlaceName>Lincoln Center</PlaceName>
	        <Country>USA</Country>
		<AdministrativeUnit>New York</AdministrativeUnit>
      </Location>
    </Creation>

    <Classification>
               <LanguageCode>en</LanguageCode>
               <CountryCode>us</CountryCode>
               <Genre>Music Performance</Genre>
               <Subject>Live Orchestral Music Concert </Subject>
    </Classification>

    <CreationPurpose>
		<Purpose>broadcasting</Purpose>
		<FormalClassification>Live Music Performance</FormalClassification>
		<AgeClassification>all</AgeClassification>
    </CreationPurpose>

    <RelatedMaterial>
		<MediaType>html</MediaType>
		<MediaLocator>
	            <MediaURL>http://www.pbs/notes/bookspan_notes.html</MediaURL>
                </MediaLocator>

    </RelatedMaterial>

  </CreationMetaInformation>

  <MediaInformation>
    <MediaProfile>
       <MediaIdentification>
		<Identifier IdOrganization='PBS' IdName='Live at Lincoln Series '>
                     PBS.LAL070498
                </Identifier>
        </MediaIdentification>

        <MediaFormat>
		<System>NTSC</System>
		<Medium>VHS</Medium>
		<Color>color</Color>
	        <Sound>mono</Sound>
	        <Length><m>130</m></Length>
	        <AudioChannels>1</AudioChannels>
        </MediaFormat>

        <MediaCoding>
	        <FrameWidth>352</FrameWidth>
	        <FrameHeight>288</FrameHeight>
	        <FrameRate>25</FrameRate>
        </MediaCoding>

    </MediaProfile>
  </MediaInformation>

  <UsageMetaInformation>
    <Rights>
	<RightsId IdOrganization='Lincoln Center' IDName='LCPA_rights'>
			lcpa:19980407;20.00
	</RightsId>
    </Rights>

    <Publication>
		<PublicationType>Broadcast</PublicationType>
	        <PublicationChannel>PBS</PublicationChannel>
	        <PublicationPlace><Country>us</Country></PublicationPlace>
                <PublicationDate>
                  <day>7</day>
                  <month>4</month>
                  <year>1998</year>
                </PublicationDate>
    </Publication>
  </UsageMetaInformation>

  <SegmentDecomposition DecompositionDataType='temporal'>
      <VideoSegment id='video_seg#1'>
        <Time>
          <TimePoint><m>2</m></TimePoint>
          <Duration><m>35</m></Duration>
        </Time>
        <CreationMetaInformation>
          <Creation>
            <Title type='original'>The Rite of Spring</Title>
            <Creator>
	        <role>composer</role>
		<GivenName>Igor</GivenName>
                <FamilyName>Stravinsky</FamilyName>
            </Creator>
            <CreationDate>
                <year>1911</year>
            </CreationDate>
          </Creation>
        </CreationMetaInformation>
      </VideoSegment>
      <VideoSegment id='video_seg#2'>
        <Time>
          <TimePoint><m>38</m></TimePoint>
          <Duration><m>65</m></Duration>
        </Time>
        <CreationMetaInformation>
          <Creation>
            <Title type='original'>Beethoven Symphony No 9</Title>
            <Creator>
	        <role>composer</role>
                <FamilyName>Beethoven</FamilyName>
            </Creator>
            <CreationDate>
                <year>1824</year>
            </CreationDate>
          </Creation>
        </CreationMetaInformation>
      </VideoSegment>
      <VideoSegment id='video_seg#3'>
        <Time>
          <TimePoint><m>104</m></TimePoint>
          <Duration><m>25</m></Duration>
        </Time>
        <CreationMetaInformation>
          <Creation>
            <Title type='original'>Concerto for Violin</Title>
            <Creator>
	        <role>composer</role>
		<GivenName>Phillip</GivenName>
                <FamilyName>Glass</FamilyName>
            </Creator>
            <CreationDate>
                <year>1992</year>
            </CreationDate>
          </Creation>
        </CreationMetaInformation>
      </VideoSegment>
  </SegmentDecomposition>


</MPEG-7>

References

[1] MPEG-7 Multimedia Description Schemes XM (Version 1.0), ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11/N3112 December 1999, Maui

[2] MPEG-7 Multimedia Description Schemes WD (Version 1.0), ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11/N3113 December 1999, Maui