On October 25, 2011, Microsoft Research Connections released an update to Zentity (opens in new tab), a repository platform designed to manage research objects—such as journal articles, reports, datasets, projects, and people—as well as the relationships among them. Zentity supports arbitrary data models, and provides semantically rich functionality that enables users to find and visually explore interesting relationships among elements by using the Microsoft Silverlight PivotViewer control and Microsoft Research Visual Explorer.
With the 2.1 release, Zentity now includes the Resource Manager web user interface that provides better content management capabilities via easier ways to query the database, review and update records, and create and edit relationships among items. The Resource Manager will work with custom data models and even enables users to save searches for later use. Zentity 2.1 also offers the option to install a localized Spanish-language version of the software.
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I would like to highlight and thank a few of our partners who have been working with a variety of institutions to customize their Zentity deployments.
Building Blocks (opens in new tab) has partnered with the UK Economic and Social Research Council (opens in new tab) (ESRC) to expose the ESRC’s catalog of research projects and their outputs. The ESRC catalog contains more than 100,000 research objects, including books and journal articles as well as research outcomes and impact reports. The PivotViewer control integrated into Zentity 2.1 provides a visually compelling yet simple way for end-users to browse, filter, and explore decades’ worth of ERSC grant data and to find relevant research reports.
In a case study on this project, Building Blocks wrote:
Zentity was seen as the ideal research repository solution as it can handle the complex data models, whilst also providing data access in many open formats. In addition the team designed a more intuitive and robust backend system to enable ESRC support teams to manage the submission of research outputs, reducing management overhead. The quality and consistency of the data was also improved by ensuring the internal workflows were more efficient and allowing integration with other academic data sources such as SHERPA/RoMEO.
Meanwhile, in Scotland, Company Net (opens in new tab) partnered with Queen Margaret University (opens in new tab) to create an online experience for the digital archive of content from the Homecoming Scotland 2009 (opens in new tab) events. A Scottish government initiative, Homecoming Scotland 2009 was a year-long celebration of Scottish culture and achievements. The archive site also uses the PivotViewer control to make it easy to pivot among the people, places, and events associated with the Homecoming Scotland 2009 celebrations.
And finally, working with a collection of researcher data and electronic theses and dissertations at the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University (opens in new tab) (UJTL) in Bogotá, Colombia, Microsoft Partner Softtek (opens in new tab) delivered a solution localized in Spanish and customized to the needs of the researchers and integrated into UJTL’s environment. In his Softtek blog, Antonio Macias writes:
Having partnered with Microsoft Research in the deployment of Zentity 2.0 has definitely been an enriching experience for us since, on one hand, we have demonstrated Softtek’s continuous commitment to deliver high-quality services while working jointly with a highly respected high-tech company like Microsoft. We have been exposed to emergent technologies that will shape our world in the next 5 or 10 years. Indeed this exposure will help us add a fresh perspective to the set of solutions that we already provide to our large base of customers.
Zentity 2.1 is a freely available via download (opens in new tab) from Microsoft Research. I hope that you’ll give it a try, and if you are looking for partners to help on a deployment project, that you’ll use the Microsoft Partner Network (opens in new tab).
—Alex Wade (opens in new tab), Director for Scholarly Communication, Microsoft Research Connections
Learn More
- Zentity (opens in new tab)
- Zentity 2.1 download (opens in new tab) (English)
- Zentity: An experience from the trenches (opens in new tab)
- Building Blocks ESRC case study (opens in new tab)
- Homecoming Scotland 2009 Archive (opens in new tab)
- Education and Scholarly Communication, Microsoft Research Connections (opens in new tab)