[DDI-users] DDIing (was: Lets make DDI more user-friendly)

[Reto Hadorn]

The DDI does not have to be any more user friendly than any other FORMAT. 
User friendliness is to be looked for on the level or the applications 
generating DDI-XML. The Nesstar Publisher is certainly a good example of 
such applications. There are other around. There could be some Webb address 
with a short presentation of those tools and links ot the purveyors.

What makes it difficult to DDI supporters is that
- we are so software independent with that XML-format that we have just a 
few applications able to use it in a sensible manner; actually, we are tied 
to those few applications (Nesstar Publisher and cousins).
- the publicity for and the documentation of the existing tools is perhaps 
still unsufficient
- there is information around about "How I made it" (a lot of presentations 
at IASSIST conferences) but not available on line in a pedagogical form 
really usable for beginners.

You have to think of a workflow for entering and managing metadata, which 
is appropriate to your situation, and then choose (or make) the tools, 
define the rules. At SIDOS we set on relational databases for metadata 
capture and management. User-friendliness depends then on the design of 
forms and organisation of the entry process. One the information 
structured, the production of DDI-XML files can use several different ways:
- Producing the whole file from within the databases,
- Producing basic DDI files extracting SPSS info with Nesstar Publisher, 
making a program, wich picks the appropriate information in the databases 
holding the metadata.
- etc.

Most of the services, which made the initial online publications using 
DDI-XML already had databases for their metadata at the time they made 
those publications. Sometimes, adaptations had to be made, and 
complementary work was sometimes made with rather crude means. But 
something already was there. It cannot be as easy for those starting from 
scratch.

So, an additional ressource would be an online documentation of the 
work-flow and tools used at several places, wich already did publish 
successfully.
- Structure of metadata as available
- Instruments as available
- Extended work-flow for publication with DDI
- Complementary tools used.
The work-flow is as important as the tools.

So, we could leave the DDI be what it is, a format.

Regards

Reto Hadorn






At 21.04.2003, you wrote:
>Good day all!
>
>I have to admit that when we started out creating our DDI codebooks - I was
>about as lost as anyone could be...  I tried the XML editors and found them
>very tedious and so on..  What we did was start out by developing a template
>of our codebook - so deciding what tags we thought would be most useful for
>our users.  Since then we have expanded on the number of tags.  Our shop is
>a SAS shop - so my goal was to use what knowledge and skills were at my
>disposal and stick with SAS.  I've had some success with this and continue
>to develop these tools.
>
>I think there are so many different ways of developing DDI codebooks that
>each of us has to examine the skills, time and our software preferences and
>based on these decide which avenue is best.  Making DDI friendlier will
>ultimately depend on these choices.  Training and on-line tutorials are
>great - but will they not restrict new users to learn one method or
>software?  Maybe this is good - I'm not sure???  Tutorials on the background
>of DDI - maybe the structure of XML - how do you get from XML to a viewable
>document would be the way to go - including the different methods people use
>(Nesstar, XSL, SAS, etc...) would be helpful.  Personally I work best from
>examples - so plenty of examples would be very helpful.
>
>My two cents worth....
>
>Michelle
>
>  ___________________________________
>A. Michelle Edwards, Ph.D.
>Academic Services, CCS
>Vehicle Services Bldg, University of Guelph
>Guelph, Ontario
>  N1G 2W1
>
>PH: (519) 824-4120 Ext. 54539
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>Email: edwardsm@uoguelph.ca
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