Kheerand –
Many thanks for your comments.
I certainly agree that there is room for specialised research environments. However, for interoperability (recall RDA is about data access and interoperability) life is very complex if there are many architectures (or at least many heterogeneous specifications and implementations). Hence the idea of one reference architecture for this purpose – more specifically one specification of a conceptual (not necessarily realised physically) rich canonical metadata scheme as the conversion target from each local catalog. This has been known and discussed in the literature for >30 years. Implementation is of course difficult, hence currently progress is made commonly in domain-specific implementations with limited interoperability.
I also agree that if we can find agreed definitions of terms that would assist greatly in reducing confusion. I agree that implementations based on the (finally agreed) reference architecture are necessary to prove the architecture.
Thanks again for the comments
Best
Keith
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– Show quoted text -From: kheerand=***@***.***-groups.org [mailto:***@***.***-groups.org] On Behalf Of kheerand
Sent: 05 April 2017 08:40
To: Virtual Research Environment IG (VRE-IG)
Subject: Re: [vre_ig] Virtual Research Environments and Reference Architecture(s) for them
Hi all,
I am unfortunately not going to be in Barcelona but I hope my contributions here helps in the discussions in Barcelona.
Expanding and responding to Leo’s comments, I too am of the view that in the research space a single reference architecture is unlikely to have much utility. The diversity across research domains are so vast that we either end up having a reference architecture that is too abstract and vague to be of practical use, or we have a reference architecture that ends up very useful for some domains but not others. My suggestion is we should look at a set of reference architectures that are quite diverse yet well suited to non-overlapping research domains. I feel this way we will be able to have a set of reference architectures that collectively have a broad reach and has good utility.
Another thing that I would like to comment on is that I feel we haven’t got a clear understanding of what a VRE is for the purpose of creating Reference Architectures. From my reading, we seem to define VRE as defined by VRE4EIC, and then include Virtual Laboratories and Science Gateways as also being VREs. VRE (as defined by VRE4EIC), VL & Science Gateways, while closely related are also subtly different. I think we would be well served if we develop a clear definition of what we mean by a VRE and then compare and contrast VRE4EIC, VL and Science Gateways against this definition.
I would also like to see this IG not only develop Reference architectures but also develop a set of implementation patterns that are derived from current (successful) implementations of VREs, VLs & SGs that map back to the reference architectures. I believe this would then provide practical guidance to those who are developing VREs for research.
One final comment I’d like to make is that when we consider interoperability we should do so at two levels. Interoperability between e-RIs across domains, and interoperability between e-RIs within a domain. It is important for us to continue to recognise that specilised coupling of e-RI, e-I within a particular research domain is crucial to advancing that field of research and pushing the boundaries of knowledge. I would assert that this should be the primary concern and hence why current investment and effort has been focused around specific domains. However there is also many advantages of having interoperability across domains, and in many respects far more challenging to achieve in practice. So a reference architecture can be of great help.
Kind regards
Kheeran Dharmawardena
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