Zepheira » Eric Miller

Zepheira to present at ALA Linked Data Symposium

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:48:23 +0000

Eric Miller from Zepheira will be giving the opening presentation at ALA Mid-Winter Conference Midwinter Symposium: “Libraries, Linked Data and the Semantic Web: Positioning Our Catalogs to Participate in the 21st Century Global Information Marketplace” from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 20, 2012 in Chicago.

Presented by the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, this symposium introduces the Semantic Web and the basics of linked data. Eric will describe state of the art tools in current use by libraries and share some practical experience in linking library data to the greater linked data cloud.

Zepheira keynote presentation at VALA 2012

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:49:43 +0000

Eric Miller from Zepheira will be giving a keynote presentation at the VALA – Libraries, Technology and the Future 2012 Conference on February 8, 2012. The VALA 2012 Conference will be held February 6-9 in Melbourne, Australia.

The VALA2012 theme, eM-powering eFutures, promotes the understanding and use of communication technology in libraries and the related museums, archives and galleries services.

Exhibit 3.0 Part 1 – An Open Source Software Platform for Publishing Linked Data

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 19:48:53 +0000

Part one of a two-part series on Exhibit 3.0 was recently published on Semanticweb.com. The article, co-authored by MacKenzie Smith, Research Director at MIT Libraries and Eric Miller, President of Zepheira, is titled Exhibit 3.0 Part 1 – An Open Source Software Platform for Publishing Linked Data.

The MIT Simile project, a joint project between MIT Libraries, MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab and the World Wide Web Consortium, has spent the last decade developing and experimenting with new open source software tools for Web-based data publishing. This led to the release of Exhibit, a JavaScript browser widget for searching, browsing, navigating and visualizing data. Exhibit lets Web site authors create dynamic publications of their data collections without resorting to complex programming, database or server technologies.

In the article, Eric and MacKenzie discuss the next phase of the project which provides a new architecture for Exhibit that increases scalability and addresses other limitations identified by its users. This Exhibit 3.0 project is made possible by generous support from the Library of Congress. It is a partnership among MIT Libraries, MIT CSAIL and Zepheira, including personnel who are SIMILE project alumnus.

Part 2 of this article will be released in late September/early October.

Eric Miller to give invited Linked Data talk at 2011 American Library Association Annual Conference

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:02:41 +0000

The Library of Congress’ Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) has invited Eric Miller to speak on Linked Data and Libraries at the annual American Library Association ALA Conference in New Orleans, LA. on Sunday June 26. The Program for Cooperative Cataloging and its membership focus on timely and quality collaborative creation of bibliographic and authority records.

Eric’s presentation will provide an overview of Linked Data, highlight several relevant, practical examples of this work currently underway in the library, museum and digital preservation communities. This talk will further discuss several practical areas where libraries and cooperative cataloging practices can further be accelerated by Linked Data principals. By exposing bibliographic and authority records as ‘Web control points’, libraries are well positioned to enable greater collaboration in both traditional and non-traditional communities as well as providing new means for users to navigate, discover and access quality information in a Web of data.

Zepheira and Partners to speak at 2011 Semantic Technology Conference

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 23:29:21 +0000

Zepheira team members and partners will be speaking at the 2011 Semantic Technology Conference to be held in San Francisco June 5-9.

Talks will highlight practical applications of linked data technologies in collaboration with the Library of Congress and MIT:

Closing Keynote: Semantic Technology at the Library of Congress: Laura Campbell, Associate Librarian for Strategic Initiatives and Chief Information Officer for the Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is utilizing linked data and semantic technologies in several current projects including Project Recollection and it’s Digital Preservation Initiative. Laura Campbell, CIO of the LoC, will describe these efforts and the reasons for choosing to enable them with semantics.

Presentation: Exhibit3: Publishing Framework for Large Scale Data-Rich Interactive Web Pages: MacKenzie Smith, Research Director at MIT Libraries and Eric Miller, President of Zepheira

In January 2011, MIT and Zepheira began work on Exhibit 3.0, a new project funded by the Library of Congress to redevelop the popular Exhibit tool from the MIT Simile Project. Exhibit was originally developed as an ambitious collaboration of the MIT Libraries, the MIT CSAIL, and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to explore applications of the Semantic Web to problems of information management across both large-scale digital libraries and small-scale personal collections. This presentation will discuss the new architecture and features, highlight work done to date, demonstrate some of Exhibit 3.0 capabilities and gather input from the audience on how to build interest and involvement from the community in this work.

Presentation: Recollection: A Linked Data Platform of America’s Memory Trevor Owens, Digital Archivist at the Library of Congress and Eric Miller, President of Zepheira

The mission of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) is to develop a national strategy to collect, preserve and make available significant digital content, especially information that is created in digital form only, for current and future generations. In 2008, the NDIIPP partners shared content through a simple web page. In order to explore more useful tools and processes for sharing diverse content across partners’ collections, the Library began the Project Recollection Pilot in 2009 with Zepheira to develop a proof of concept that can be used to collect and explore information about digital collections. This presentation will discuss the architecture and features of the Recollection platform, highlight work done to date, discuss future directions of this work and gather input from the audience on how to build interest and involvement from the community.

For more information on times and locations of these sessions visit the 2011 Semantic Technology Conference Agenda at a Glance

Zepheira to serve on National Center for Biomedical Ontology Scientific Advisory Board

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 15:13:32 +0000

The National Center for Biomedical Ontology is an international consortium of world-class researchers committed to improving human health by developing technology and infrastructure that accelerates biomedical discovery. The goal of the National Center for Biomedical Ontology is to support biomedical researchers in their knowledge-intensive work, by providing online tools and a Web portal enabling them to access, review, and integrate disparate ontological resources in all aspects of biomedical investigation and clinical practice. A major focus of our work involves the use of biomedical ontologies to aid in the management and analysis of data derived from complex experiments.

Members of the Scientific Advisory Board to The National Center for Biomedical Ontology are Jill P. Mesirov from Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Olivier Bodenreider from National Library of Medicine, Rex Chisholm from Northwestern University Medical School, Charles P. Friedman from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Stanley Huff from Intermountain Healthcare, Eric Miller from Zepheira, Alan L. Rector from The University of Manchester and Bedirhan Üstün from World Health Organization.

MacArthur Foundation funds ‘Reference Extract’ Project

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 23:34:51 +0000

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has awarded $350,000 to fund researchers and developers from OCLC, the information schools of Syracuse University and the University of Washington and Zepheira LLC to continue work creating a more credible Web search experience based on the unique expertise, services and input from librarians worldwide.

The goal of the Reference Extract project is to make it easy to find credible information in the digital age. Researchers and developers are expected to have initial practical analysis and models of this “credibility engine” to share with the community in early 2011.

To learn more about the Reference Extract project, please visit the press release announcement.

MIT Libraries and Zepheira to present Exhibit 3.0 at CNI

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 13:29:10 +0000

MacKenzie Smith, Associate Director for Technology of MIT Libraries and Eric Miller, President of Zepheira will be providing a CNI Coalition of Networked Information briefing on Exhibit 3.0. Exhibit 3.0 is a new project funded by the Library of Congress is a collaboration among MIT Libraries, MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab and Zepheira to redevelop the popular Exhibit tool from the MIT Simile Project. Exhibit 3.0 will fix many shortcomings of Exhibit, making it far more scalable, modular, and feature rich than the original tool, and the work is being done as broadly inclusive open source software development. This briefing session will briefly demonstrate the current tool, discuss the new architecture and features, and get input from the audience on how to build interest and involvement from the community in this work.

Zepheira to speak at “Leadership Through Collaboration” workshop at Smithsonian

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:59:40 +0000

OCLC Research and the RLG Partnership planning committee have sponsored a two-day event Yours, Mine, Ours: Leadership Through Collaboration focused on strategies for effective collaboration. This event will be at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C, on September 20-21, 2010. Eric Miller from Zepheira will be speaking on the power of global collaborations providing a critical take on the creation and maintenance of standards. The focus of this talk with be the sphere of common values collaboration including standards and policies for copyright and data aggregation, the commons and open data movements, and the practical application of these values in accelerating a web of Linked Data.

Library of Congress holds Digital Preservation Partners Meeting

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:20:06 +0000

The Library of Congress will hold the annual Digital Preservation Partners Meeting July 20 – 22, 2010 in Arlington, VA. Themes include “Collaboratives”, “Information Environment” and “Expanding the Archive”. A half day workshop will be held on Recollection, a project with the U.S. Library of Congress and the National Digital Information Infrastructure Partner Program (NDIIPP) designed to enhance discoverable access for NDIIPP collections, making them easier to find, access, and share, and especially to integrate with other digital information sources. Zepheira has worked in partnership with the Library since 2009 to design and build the Recollection platform.