This project is developing several enhancements to the NSDL Metadata Registry, a production service currently available to NSDL partners with over a dozen controlled vocabularies registered, including the NSDL Education Level and Learning Resource Type vocabularies. The Registry supports the efforts of the NSDL Pathways portals and other projects to standardize and share their vocabularies, metadata schemas, and application profiles. New features under development are enabling: i) registration of application profiles; ii) provision of basic data exchange capability between registries; iii) distribution of fully open software and documentation; and (4) reciprocal and third party mapping registration. The intellectual merit of the project lies in the position of the NSDL Registry as the first full-scale, robust implementation of key second generation Semantic Web specifications, including both the Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) and best practices with respect to the publication of Semantic Web data. This work lays the foundation for a distributed registry system, envisioned by many as essential infrastructure for improved interoperability and cost-effective re-use of digital educational resources. The broader impacts of this project are found in its influence on the deployment of quality metadata in massively distributed, heterogeneous networked learning environments. International standardization bodies such as the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) are taking a particular interest in the NSDL Registry as a result of its potential to impact the future developments in metadata quality and distribution. As a result, while serving the immediate needs of the NSDL community and its technical architecture, the NSDL Registry is also helping to shape the international dialog around the future of Web-based metadata and its functions on the Semantic Web.
