The General Descriptive Modeling Scheme (GDMS) is a project to create
a formal information structure that can be used to construct descriptive
models of real-world or imaginary phenomena to create contexts for collections
of digital resources. The underlying data structure is provided by an XML
DTD, which allows the model to be as hierarchical or as flat, as is appropriate,
and provides ways to cross reference data within or among models. Some examples
of applications of the GDMS are descriptions of collections that have a
complex structure (such as a set of architectural images or a set of resources
related to an archeological site), annotated bibliographies of digital resources,
virtual exhibitions and descriptions of historic or artistic events.
The content of a model begins with a single division or div element which
can contain any number of div elements, recursively. A division description
or divdesc can be included to give some meaning to the div; it contains
a set of general descriptive metadata fields, each of which is optional
and repeatable, that can be used in a wide variety of ways to make the div
element a meaningful context for groups of resources. Each resource is included
within a res element which also includes a set of Dublin core tags to describe
the resource. For more details about the use of the tag set see "Usage".
The project aims to create a tool set that includes the DTD itself, and
software that allows XML instances to be created, edited, searched and rendered
for display using XSL stylesheets. The tool set is built around a general
XML editor that allows a user to create and edit a single GDMS instance.
A variety of other modules are planned that provide a way to more efficiently
process and include different kinds of digital resources and to make it
easy to manipulate a model for particular uses. All software developed for
the project will be made freely available when it is ready.
A Virtual Exhibition
This example shows one way to mark up a virtual exhibition of the works
of a particular painter. The exhibition, on the website of the Smithsonian
American Art Museum, is a series of HTML pages that describe the works of
Abbott Handerson Thayer. It consists of two sections, an introduction that
has 3 short essays and a "Paintings" section that contains four
thematic collections of paintings, each of which has an introductory essay.
The
Smithsonian Online Exhibition
The UVa
GDMS Representation
