A content standard for computational models

Computational models are created to simulate a set of processes observed in the natural world in order to gain an understanding of these processes and to predict the outcome of natural processes given a specific set of input parameters. Conceptual and theoretical modeling constructs are expressed as sets of algorithms and implemented as software packages. The modeling software packages, if adequately described for human understanding and machine processing, can become objects in digital library collections where they can be found and used in applications without the direct involvement of the creator. This amounts to the publishing of modeling software with accompanying metadata in the same way that other publications are treated in library collections. This paper addresses the requirements for a content standard to describe such computational models. This work is part of the Alexandria Digital Earth Prototype (ADEPT) project at the University of California, Santa Barbara, an NSF Digital Library II project (Alexandria Digital Library Project, 2001). The intent is to add modeling software packages as collection objects in the ADEPT collections to support research, education, and learning activities and to enable the matching of appropriate datasets in the digital library collections to modeling software.