Corporation for National Research Initiatives
To develop and demonstrate an open-source software platform that facilitates interoperability among disparate information systems
The Center for National Research Initiatives (CNRI) is the lead developer of the "Handle System," an open-source, publicly licensed, and popular technology specification for identifying and tracking digital objects. Used by over a thousand different organizations in more than 50 countries, the system deploys identifiers called "handles," that can be used to identify and track everything from scholarly publications to datasets to songs to movies. Unlike URLs, which specify the location where a particular instance of a set of digital information can be found, handles are independent of where the digital object is hosted, allowing users of system to locate a digital object wherever it may be located. Funds from this grant support the continued development and expansion of the Handle System, with a focus on expanding the system so that it works seamlessly across multiple digital object registries disparate data types not previously considered and to demonstrate the system's effectiveness through the development of use cases.