Another cool Web tool from Canada as described in this e-mail announcement to the Digital Libraries Research mailing list on April 12, 02003.
We are pleased to announce that the Web site for the MetaMap is now on line, at the following address:
http://mapageweb.umontreal.ca/turner/meta/english/index.html
What is the MetaMap?
The MetaMap is a pedagogical tool in the form of a subway map, the goal of which is to help people understand metadata standards, sets, and initiatives related to information studies. With the exponential development of the World Wide Web, there are so many metadata initiatives, so many organisations involved, and so many new standards that it's hard to get our bearings in this new environment. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the names of most of these new standards are represented by acronyms. The MetaMap exists to help gather in one place information about these metadata initiatives, to try to show relationships among them, and to connect them with the various players involved in their creation and use.
The Web site of the MetaMap gives detailed information about why the project was undertaken. It offers access to various verions of the MetaMap (svg, gif, jpeg, pdf). There is also general information about metadata, a guide to using SVG to navigate within the map, and frequently asked questions about the MetaMap.
The MetaMap is constantly undergoing change, since elements are added regularly. We are grateful for everyone's input so we can keep the MetaMap up to date. If you have any suggestions or comments about the MetaMap, you can use the form available on the site to communicate these to us.
At the moment, the MetaMap is available in English and French. We are looking for partners to help produce versions in other languages. If you can help, please let us know and we will supply you with a kit explaining what is involved.
Both existing versions of the MetaMap are a click away from: http://mapageweb.umontreal.ca/turner/
Production team: James M Turner, professor at the l'École de bibliothéconomie et des sciences de l'information (Université de Montréal) and Véronique Moal, research assistant.
**********************************
Véronique MOAL
Assistante de recherche
EBSI - Université de Montréal
veronique.moal@umontreal.ca
http://www.esi.umontreal.ca/~moalv/
Source DIGLIB, 12 April 02003, SITE: Check out the MetaMap
Not clearly explained in this announcement, however, is that you have to download the free Adobe SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Viewer plugin in order to view and navigate the MetaMap. Curiously, when I checked this out and downloaded the plugin, the viewer reported in the status bar of Internet Explorer 6.0 "Unrecognized DOCTYPE declaration. Image might not display correctly." While the SVG Viewer plugin lets you zoom in and zoom out to specific image points, and restore the original image view, there's currently no ability in SVG Viewer 3.0 plugin to pan or move the image after you have zoomed-in.
When I tried the right-click plugin option to View SVG, I received the following error message:
<svg width="800" height="470" viewBox="0 0 800 470">
