Research Programs
CORDRA
The Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative, managed by the Office of the Secretary of Defense Under Secretary of Defense for Readiness (DUSD/R), is sponsoring an effort to specify the Content Object Repository Discovery and Registration/Resolution Architecture (CORDRA). This effort will bring together existing standards and specifications in content management and network computing with the goal of greatly enhancing the reuse and interoperability of distributed learning content compatible with the sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM). One of the components selected for the project is CNRI's Handle System technology, for use generating and resolving identifiers. This system was developed as part of CNRI's DARPA-funded Digital Object Architecture research, much of which is highly relevant to the CORDRA project. Specifically, CNRI has designed, built, and deployed a registration system for the ADL CORDRA project, known as the ADL Registry or ADL-R. This facility will enable the discovery and reuse of learning content held in repositories distributed across the DoD.A generic version of ADL-R is under development by CNRI and the initial version, best used to clone ADL-R, is now available as the Digital Object Registry (DOR). Future versions of DOR, scheduled for the fall of 2008, will have added configuration options and will be useable in any community of practice. Future versions will also introduce the ability to federate individual registries across communities of practice.
D-Lib® and D-Lib® Magazine
D-Lib is a forum for researchers and developers of advanced digital libraries. D-Lib Magazine provides stories, commentary, and briefings, together with a collection of resources for digital library research.
Defense Virtual Information Architecture
The Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC), the Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA), and CNRI are working to extend and transfer CNRI's Digital Object Architecture work into a pilot digital library implementation, the Defense Virtual Information Architecture, adapted to DTIC's needs and using DTIC data.
Digital Object Architecture
Digital Object Architecture continues the architectural work of the DARPA-funded Computer Science Technical Reports (CS-TR) project. That project developed a framework for distributed digital object key components. This project includes two extensive testbeds, one with the Copyright Office and the second with the National Digital Library Program at the Library of Congress.
DOI® System
CNRI is working with the International DOI Foundation (IDF) to further develop the DOI System, a standard method for identifying content objects in the digital environment, using the CNRI Handle System as the underlying technology.
DO RegistryTM
CNRI Digital Object Registry (DOR) is a general-purpose digital object registry. Objects are registered through the submission of structured metadata and that metadata is indexed and made searchable. Those objects which are not already identified by a persistent identifier, in the form of a handle, are assigned one by the registry which can then be used to manage that identifier for most normal operations. The first of these registries, ADL-R, was developed for the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative. The current version of DOR is configurable in a number of ways, but is none-the-less recommended primarily for those who wish to clone the functions of ADL-R for their community. Future versions of DOR, scheduled for the fall of 2008, will have added configuration options and will be useable in any community of practice. Future version will also introduce the ability to federate individual registries across communities of practice.
DO RepositoryTM
CNRI Digital Object (DO) Repository is a new version of CNRI's Digital Object Store repository software. It is currently available for a specific use case, which is the management of metadata information in the DO Registry. Future versions will be able to serve as general purpose repositories.
Digital Object StoreTM
Digital Object Store, CNRI's Repository Software, is based on the digital object architecture and provides distributed digital object services via an open architecture in the network environment.
The Handle System®
The Handle System is a distributed computer system which names digital objects and stores the names and the information that is needed to locate and access these objects via the Internet. CNRI's HANDLE.NET software offers users an easy means of utilizing the Handle System. Visit HANDLE.NET® for a variety of information services related to the Handle System, including technical information, client and server software download instructions, and demonstrations of handle use.
Knowbot Programs
Knowbot Programs are mobile agents intended for use in widely distributed systems like the Internet. CNRI is developing an infrastructure for Knowbot Programs. An implementation in Java™ is being developed that has digitally signed knowbots and uses the Handle System for identifying service stations and entities that sign mobile agents.
MEMS and Nanotechnology Exchange®
The MEMS and Nanotechnology Exchange is the nation's leading provider of high-quality foundry and consulting services. In its role as a trusted intermediary, the MEMS and Nanotechnology Exchange acts as a broker between customers and a network of fabrications facilities. That network of state-of-the-art foundries collectively offers the most comprehensive and diverse set of implementation solutions for MEMS, micro- and nano-technologies, to be found anywhere in the world.
Repository Architecture
CNRI's Repository System is part of the digital object architecture. It provides a general purpose system for the deposit, storage, and dissemination of digital objects.
Speech and Language Processing Center
The Speech and Language Processing Center fosters research and development for technology in both spoken and written human language. Spoken language projects aim to enable humans to interact with computers using natural conversation, while text-based projects address issues of evaluation, component integration and handling multiple data sources. The Center is currently involved in (1) tackling fundamental research challenges in spoken dialogue systems, (2) implementing a spoken language testbed for novice developers, and (3) evaluating prototype multi-lingual systems.
Transient Network Architecture
Researchers from CNRI and the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the University of New Mexico are collaborating on Transient Network Architecture, based on the notion of a pervasive transient mobile network in which all communications occur between persistently identified entities. Such a network, which is mobile and ubiquitous in nature, allows entities to form and associate themselves with coordinated ad-hoc networks. These networks are provided the means to integrate almost seamlessly with each other. All entities that are part of this network are identified with handles and traffic routing and communication are also performed based on these identifiers. This translates into effectively replacing IP addresses with handles at the network level and opens the door to truly abstract persistent communications.
Earlier Projects and Other Areas of Interest
Application Gateway System
The Application Gateway System (AGS), a distributed server system consisting of multiple heterogeneous servers that appears as a single high performance system on the Internet.
Computer Science Technical Reports Project
The Computer Science Technical Reports (CS-TR) project, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, developed network access to archives of technical information in the domain of computer science, with the goal of evolving knowledge in the field of information storage, search, and retrieval. The Digital Object Architecture Project continues the architecture work of the CS-TR project.
Cross Industry Working Team
CNRI supported and participated in the Cross Industry Working Team (XIWT), a multi-industry coalition that was committed to defining the architecture and key technical requirements for a powerful, sustainable national information infrastructure (NII).
Distributed Integration Testbed
The Distributed Integration Testbed Project was a three year effort that included the D-Lib Test Suite, metrics and quantitative measures for digital libraries research, interoperability research, and experiments in electronic publishing including D-Lib Magazine.
Electronic Payments Forum
The EPF was initiated in November, 1995, to provide a mechanism for information exchange and to identify and examine issues regarding financial payment systems on the Internet. The EPF was organized under the auspices of CommerceNet, the Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC) and the Cross-Industry Working Team (XIWT), dedicated to the advancement of the Global Information Infrastructure (GII).
Gigabit Testbed Initiative
The Gigabit Testbed Initiative was a major effort by approximately forty organizations representing universities, telecommunication carriers, industry and national laboratories, and computer companies to create a set of very high-speed network testbeds and to explore their application to areas such as weather modeling, chemical dynamics, radiation oncology, and geophysics data exploration. This effort was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and by industry. See the Testbed Initiative Final Report (PDF Version: hdl:42634537/5036; HTML Version: hdl:4263537/5035).
Grail® Internet Browser
Grail, an Internet browser written in Python, is a web browser primarily for Unix that is easily extensible to support new protocols or file formats.
IOPS.ORG
IOPS.ORG promoted cooperation and information-sharing across and among Internet service providers in the public interest, including joint problem resolution, technology assessment, and global Internet scaling and integrity. It supported engineering analysis, system simulation and testing, and interaction with other groups and organizations.
MAGIC
MAGIC-II, a collaborative project involving seven major participants, developed a large-scale distributed information system based on a very general paradigm in which high-performance computing, storage, and communications were used to provide rapid access to real-time data sources and to large volumes of stored data, the existence and locations of which may not be known in advance. Applications that used this paradigm arose in a variety of situations including military operations, intelligence imagery analysis, and natural disasters.
National Digital Library Program at the Library of Congress
CNRI worked with the Library of Congress to provide technology for the National Digital Library Program.
Python and JPython
Python is a state-of-the-art portable, interpreted, object-oriented programming language that runs on most platforms. JPython is an implementation of Python that is seamlessly integrated with the Java platform, providing a powerful companion to Java where use of a higher level language is appropriate.
Stackworks
Stackworks is an activity which focuses on the organization and management of archival collections of information.
US Copyright Office CORDS
CNRI helped to develop (Copyright Office Registration, Recordation, & Deposit System), a limited production system of the US Copyright Office that provided electronic registration and deposit of digital objects for copyright.
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Updated: 23 July 2008