[Clipart] Proposal for interim file categorisation and indices

[David Illsley]

I've read at least a lot of what's been said on the issue of metadata, 
keywords, categories etc. and in order to allow movement forward I have 
a small proposal for the next step.

Realities:
	Existing file-systems do not easily support file-based access to one 
file from multiple directory structures
	(so) existing package structure is human browsable though does not 
express all metadata within the structure
	Desktop systems are moving towards metadata based search as a primary 
means of accessing files, somewhat nullifying this issue in the longer 
term.
	The packages from OCAL are for both end use and re-packaging
	Don't want to be tied to a single application for clipart browsing 
(for many reasons) and would like to retain file browsers as one option

Proposal (Medium term):
	Existing structure retained as is simple and easy to understand
	'indices' directory added to base of package
	sub-directories created for indices (& tools)  developed to make file 
access simpler
		e.g. a 'symlink' one which contains a file (index.txt) with 1 line 
per file, tab delimited with the first column an svg file in the 
package followed in further columns to other paths the svg files could 
be found at. Possibly also a tool which parses the file and creates 
appropriate links.	These index files (e.g. index.txt) would be added by 
the owner of the index in a 48 hour window between generation of a 
package and its publication. (or automated if it's easy enough e.g. by 
pulling metadata from the DMS). The index files could then be used by 
the clipart browsing software that people have developed

Benefits:
	Allows development of multiple indexing technologies
	Retains simple file-access to the packages

Disadvantages:
	Requires periodic batch processing (at least in the currently proposed 
form)
	Does not define a solution but a framework for experimentation
	Doesn't really scale well to a very large repository (but that's a 
while off and I'm thinking in terms of realistic small steps)

I don't know if this is of any use but I thought it might move the 
debate along a little
David
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