The purpose of the Open Music Resource Library is to make as easy as possible the sharing, searching, and use of raw musical materials such as loops, samples, and software synthesizer patches created by our members.

There is still some design work to do regarding the architecture of the OMRL, but I do have an overall framework planned out. Following is an overview, but I plan to have a complete design document prepared before too long.

There are three main parts to the OMRL: The RDF store, the web interface, and the web services interface.

• The RDF Store - This is where the metadata for all of the available files will be stored. Using an RDF (Resource Description Framework) store will make it easier to create detailed ontologies (sets of definitions) that can accurately describe the musical files available for download. You can learn more about RDF here. The idea to use RDF was originally proposed by Steve Harris, and he continues to be a big help in the on-going design of this library.
• Web Interface - Like any good web application, all of the files and their respective RDF metadata will be available via a basic web browser.
• Web Services Interface - The main purpose for implementing a web services interface is so client programs can be built into music applications. That way, you never need to leave your main music application in order to use the OMRL. This feature will depend on support from application developers, though. I also have this funky idea about using SOAP to manage mirrors and metadata updates.

Right now, the plan is to do the majority of the development in PHP, with the web services implemented with SOAP, and using 3store for the RDF triple-store. Things can still change, though.

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