The application of workflow management to digital heritage resources

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Highlights

  • Noticeable proliferation in Digital Library Systems (DLSs) and their specialized form represented in Digital Heritage Resources (DHRs).

  • DHRs usually manage a complex and varied mix of digital heritage objects of different types and formats.

  • This paper therefore presents the design and development of a novel Workflow Management System (WfMS) built to integrate with DHRs specifically, and DLSs in general.

  • An experimental WfMS aimed to test the validity of workflow management integration with DHRs.

  • A novel DHR implementation framework called DISPLAYS (Digital Library Services for Playing with Antiquity and Shared Heritage), is presented as a test bed for the proposed WfMS.

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed a noticeable proliferation in Digital Library Systems (DLSs) and their specialized form represented in Digital Heritage Resources (DHRs). DHRs usually manage a complex and varied mix of digital heritage objects of different types and formats. They tend to be complex in nature and usually involve complex, simultaneous and intersecting workflows. As a result, DHRs impose implementation challenges on any solutions that aim to manage their workflows. Thus, despite the proliferation of DHRs, it is a noteworthy trend that there is a general lack of workflow management solutions that can be utilized in such systems. As a research area that is rarely covered, this paper therefore presents the design and development of a novel Workflow Management System (WfMS) built to integrate with DHRs specifically, and DLSs in general. In this context, an experimental WfMS aimed to test the validity of workflow management integration with DHRs. The devised WfMS was built as a workflow management solution that can adequately address the specific hurdles imposed by DHR implementations. Additionally, a novel DHR implementation framework called DISPLAYS (Digital Library Services for Playing with Antiquity and Shared Heritage) is presented as a test bed for the proposed WfMS.

Introduction

The advent of Digital Library Systems (DLSs) plus their specialized form focusing on digital heritage objects, known as Digital Heritage Resources (DHRs), has been made possible by modern advancements in software and hardware innovations including networking, multimedia, and databases (Bennett, 2009, Martin White, 2013, Wei Zhang, 2009). These innovations allowed for wider possibilities in terms of digital content management, distribution and sharing. Such advancements were accompanied by a noticeable proliferation in digital data formats and standards to serve the needs of data preservation, exchange, retrieval and presentation across different platforms. A platform can be a desktop application, the Internet, or a mobile application for instance.

DHRs often find it necessary to expand their digital object collections by means of sharing and exchanging data with other DHRs. Digital museums, for example, are in continuous need of enhancing and expanding their digital heritage data collections to make them wider and more diverse (Xiaowu Chen, 2004). However, the sharing process is not straightforward due to a number of practical and technical obstacles. These obstacles include challenges arising from different data formats, disparate systems, and incompatibility (Wei Zhang, 2009).

The complexity of sharing diverse and isolated digital records for museums for example, stems mainly from the different storage, management and indexing conventions used (Günter Waibel, 2010, Victor de Boer, 2012). The sharing process is further convoluted by the rich and diverse digital data storage formats that include text, images, videos, audio, and 3D models. Additionally, varying standards are used in DHRs including XML, relational databases, and flat files. Furthermore, direct data exchange is further complicated by the fact that DHRs use their own database and collection management systems. This diversity necessities the provision of tools that can act as mediums for data exchange, archiving and presentation (Abdullah Albarakati, 2008, Wei Zhang, 2009). Such tools are meant to be shared between the bodies attempting to share their collections and are usually represented in the form of distributed DHRs.

Adding to the complexity of DHRs are the intersecting processes that are usually associated with simultaneous user sessions and intensive data-oriented operations (Zeeshan Patoli, 2007). This, plus the factors mentioned above, combines to necessitate the development of a system for effective management of the complex services and components of DHRs.

This paper therefore, examines the concept of utilizing Workflow Management Systems (WfMSs) in distributed DHRs. The developed solution was designed to integrate with existing digital heritage infrastructure while operating as an encapsulated workflow management middle layer so as not to interfere with its components. The main objective is to create a solution whereby digital museums are able to exchange their data seamlessly while being managed by a WfMS. In this respect, appropriate data exporting and exposition tools are needed to pave the way for effective data sharing and distribution. Such tools should also be complemented with appropriate presentation mediums to display the aggregated data in a common interface.

The work presented in this paper therefore also outlines the structure of a novel DHR implementation called Reanimating Cultural Heritage (RCH) (Basu, 2007, Wei Zhang, 2009). RCH was developed from scratch based on a proprietary DLS implementation framework called Digital Library Services for Playing with Antiquity and Shared Heritage (DISPLAYS)1 (Wei Zhang, 2009, Zeeshan Patoli, 2007). RCH was created as a proof-of-concept DHR used to validate the proposed approach of integrating WfMSs with existing DHRs. This integration aimed to improve their performance and efficiency including speed, scalability, expandability, reuse, modularity, and service orientation.

The workflow management components and approach presented in this paper build on the authors’ work under (Abdullah Albarakati, 2008, Abdullah Albarakati, 2009, Michael Gkion, 2009, Wei Zhang, 2009, Zeeshan Patoli, 2007, Zeeshan Patoli, 2008, Zeeshan Patoli, 2009).

Section snippets

Goals and objectives

Despite the rapid growth that WfMSs have witnessed over the recent years in terms of their efficiency and availability, it is a noticeable trend that their utilization within DHRs is still minimal (Abdullah Albarakati, 2008, Abdullah Albarakati, 2009). This limited use can be attributed to a number of implementation challenges, including the unique nature of each DHR that requires carefully customized solutions to meet its needs (Wei Zhang, 2009, Zeeshan Patoli, 2007). Moreover, the hurdles

The adopted DHR framework

In its simplest form, a DLS can be thought of as a system that stores, manages and manipulates materials in digital format (Greenaway, 2006). Typically, DLSs offer a huge range of digital content including multimedia such as video, audio, images, plus text, 3D models, and digital documents (Armand Brahaj, 2013, Jie Lu, 2004). The need to handle complex and varied digital data objects make DLSs complex by nature where a number of heterogeneous fields intersect (Airi Salminen, 2014, Hannah

Architecture of the DHR components

RCH was developed based on a number of digital heritage Service Oriented (SO) components (Zeeshan Patoli, 2007). It was built based on the conceptual DLS services manifested by the DISPLAYS Framework, involving three interrelated components: the Archival, Presentation and Retrieval Components. While working independently to achieve their own functionality, all the RCH components work in coherence with each other on a pure SO approach (Wei Zhang, 2009, Zeeshan Patoli, 2007).

The RCH components

The workflow management component

RCH Archival, Presentation and Retrieval Components were hosted within a novel custom-made WfMS developed to suit the very nature DHRs. This innovative workflow management solution was devised to manage the convoluted components of the RCH prototype. The RCH WfMS also provided effective process management, tracking and monitoring capabilities.

The concept of the devised WfMS is based on the idea of building an embedded workflow management component that integrated with the existing RCH

Testing scenario

A typical test scenario examined as a part of the research presented in this paper involved testing the archival workflows within the RCH system. A typical scenario is the situation whereby the participating museums attempt to exchange their data for various purposes (such as collection expansion, or collaboration through shared web interfaces). The scenario that the RCH WfMS was tested with involved the operation of exchanging data between the participating museums. Since the museums involved

Results analysis

The work presented in this paper involved the integration of a novel WfMS with a typical DHR represented in the RCH system. RCH was built from scratch to validate the proposed WfMS approach. The main goal was to offer a number of workflow management and tracking advantages without disturbing the actual operation of RCH. The integration between RCH, the WfMS and the WfMS host (RCMS) depended heavily on intensive message passing. Message passing was used to perform the different functions needed

Results and discussion

The concept presented in this paper revolved around the idea of integrating a WfMS with a DHR represented in the RCH prototype. Such integration aimed at managing the main RCH components (archival, retrieval and presentation). It was taken into consideration to devise the RCH WfMS to fit within the SOA of RCH without having to drastically modify or redesign the existing components to accommodate the WfMS components. The devised WfMS was built as an encapsulated component that hosted and managed

Conclusions and future work

In summary, the adopted WfMS implementation model comprised a consistent and flexible programmatic model that provided a number of modular workflow management services. These services interacted with RCH components via message passing while being able to respond and adapt to the dynamic changes that RCH undergoes during its operation.

RCH was developed as a proof-of-concept DLS that was based on the loosely coupled DISPLAYS framework. Workflow management was achieved through an innovative

Dr Abdullah received a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science in 2004, MSc in Software Engineering and a PhD in Computer Science in 2012 from University of Sussex, United Kingdom. He is currently working as Assistant Professor at King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. He has published more than 15 peer reviewed research articles on Workflow System, Social Media, and Digital Heritage.

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    Dr Abdullah received a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science in 2004, MSc in Software Engineering and a PhD in Computer Science in 2012 from University of Sussex, United Kingdom. He is currently working as Assistant Professor at King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. He has published more than 15 peer reviewed research articles on Workflow System, Social Media, and Digital Heritage.

    Dr Martin White is a Reader in the Department of Informatics at the University of Sussex. He is the Head of the Interactive Systems Research Group. He has an HNC in Electronic Engineering from Bournemouth University, a BSc in Computer Systems Engineering and a PhD in Computer Science (3D Computer Graphics) both from the University of Sussex. His current research is focused on cultural informatics (digital heritage), motion sensing for non-animation applications, and web/mobile apps for Digital Economy applications. His publications include 177 articles (112 refereed in journals, conference and books).

    Dr Zeeshan Patoli received a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science in 2003, and a PhD in Computer Science in 2011 from University of Sussex, United Kingdom. He is currently working as Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of Sussex and Lecturer in University of Sindh. He has published more than 20 peer reviewed research articles on high performance computing, human motion capture systems, digital heritage and workflow systems.

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