Summary

The Repository Open Service Interface Definition (OSID) is an O.K.I. specification which defines the storing and retrieving of digital content, referred to as Assets. OSIDs are programmatic interfaces which comprise a Service Oriented Architecture for designing and building reusable and interoperable software.

Assets may contain metadata

Metadata

The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...

 and reside in Repositories

Repository (publishing)

A repository in publishing, and especially in academic publishing,is a real or virtual facility for the deposit of academic publications, such as academic journal articles....

 which support one or more Asset Types. Examples of Assets are documents, course materials, assessment items, image

Image

An image is an artifact, for example a two-dimensional picture, that has a similar appearance to some subject—usually a physical object or a person.-Characteristics:...

s, video

Video

Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...

, etc.

Multiple repositories can be managed or searched through the use of OSID adapter patterns where underneath a single Repository OSID can exist multiple Repository OSIDs forming a federation of repositories, where each implementation may be using a distinct incompatible technology and the OSID integrates

Enterprise application integration

Enterprise Application Integration is defined as the use of software and computer systems architectural principles to integrate a set of enterprise computer applications.- Overview :...

them.