Perennial problem: locating data in the "deep Web." Ingenious solution: combine the Open Archives Initiative mission to promote interoperability standards with pervasive Apache server modules and add a nice infectious (but benevolent) virus. Thanks to funding by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the melding of these three concepts is helping make it
possible to find more treasures on the hidden Web. It's elegantly simple says Phil Long, Ph.D., of the Academic Computing Enterprise at MIT. First you make something for a host that is widely distributed in the population. Then you make it incredibly easy to transmit it symbiotically -- that is, in a way that does not detract from the host's general health, but adds capability. Nearly 64% of Web sites worldwide use the Apache server, which allows programmers to launch new features through easy-to-install modules. The modules to be launched to help tap hidden databases are driven by the Open Archives Initiative's Protocol for Metadata Harvesting, based on the open standards HTTP and XML. So the host is the Apache server, and the "viral" package to distribute is the high-performance federated digital search service implemented as an Apache module, mod_OAI. This has been added to Deep Web Research Subject Tracer™ Information Blog.
posted by Marcus Zillman |
4:05 AM
