Component Metadata Infrastructure Best Practices for CLARIN

Last year, 2016, saw the release of both version 1.2 of the Component Metadata (CMD) Infrastructure (CMDI) [CLARIN ERIC 2017] and a first complete technical specification [CMDI Task Force 2016].This new version provides new possibilities, which are gradually opened up by the ecosystem of tools and registries in CMDI. One of the key properties of CMDI is its flexibility, which makes it possible to create metadata records closely tailored to the requirements of resources and tools/services. However, design and implementation choices made at various levels in the CMD lifecycle might influence how well or easily a CMD record is processed and its associated resources made available in the CLARIN infrastructure. Knowledge on this has traditionally been scattered around in various documents, web pages and even completely hidden from sight in experts’ minds. To make this knowledge explicit, the CMDI and Metadata Curation Task Forces have teamed up to create a Best Practice guide. This guide, together with the technical CMDI 1.2 specification, will be a valuable knowledge base and will help any (technical) CMDI user to bring her CMD records to their full potential use within CLARIN. In May 2017, the writing of this guide is still an ongoing effort and this paper gives a first overview and insight in its contents. Notice that this paper is not a replacement for the guide itself, which should be finished in 2017, but aims to draw attention to it and foster discussion and feedback. The next sections give a description of the scope, an outline and a glimpse into the content of the guide