Synchronized Content and Metadata Management in a Federation of Distributed Repositories of Chemical Learning Objects

The paper deals with the synchronization mechanism among the servers of a federation of distributed repositories for the constant updating of the didactic-scientific material, its properties and its locations. A shared metadata database is the synchronization point of reference and it allows to improve performance in terms of searching and downloading. The proposed federation is meant to deal with a large variety of different contents though the discussed prototype implementation is concerned with scientific and educational subjects in particular. Additional elements of evaluation are the capability of enhancing collaboration and fault tolerance.