Service creators will be looking for human-readable specifications 

People who might create services from repository-based information
will be looking for simple human-readable information on the policies,
formats and metadata used by repositories. This is as important as
creating machine-readable interfaces.

Minimal metadata for sharing? 

For all practical purposes, the ability to express metadata as the
Dublin Core metadata elements is a sufficient baseline for sharing
repository items across subject and institutional domains.

Broad principles not tight prescriptions 

The changes in technology, the diversity of cataloguing practice,
the diversity of ownership and legal considerations and the
possibilities for metadata to be created remotely all mean that
acceptable and achievable recommendations for consistency between
repositories are likely to be broad principles with examples of good
practice rather than prescriptive rules or precise recommendations.

Metadata will increasingly be created remotely at the point of need 

Far from becoming irrelevant, metadata for repository items will
become more important but it will increasingly be created and assigned
remotely. This will be by automated procedures such as indexing and
text analysis and also by users and readers, through the use of
tagging mechanisms. These developments will have implications for
consistency between repositories and between items.

A series of 20 key interviews to assess the feasibility of approaches to improve consistency 

In particular we want to ask these key interviewees the questions to which you would like to hear the answers. So if you have an interesting or useful question (or more than one), particularly concerning the creation of user-facing services using repository content, then please use the comment facility to suggest it. Or even better put it here as a new idea (go to the home page and choose New Idea, then choose category "consistency") and then others can comment on it.

And we need to know who to ask. Who will be the most useful people to get these answers from - whose views would you be intrigued to hear on this topic? Again use the comments facility, or better still put a name here as a new idea (go to the home page and choose New Idea, then choose category "consistency") and then others can comment on it.

There are feasible and worthwhile approaches to improve the consistency with which repositories share the materials they hold 

Part of our work to examine the feasibility of approaches to improve the consistency with which repositories share the materials they hold (this idea), the metadata and descriptions of repository policies

There are feasible and worthwhile approaches to improve the consistency with which repositories share their policies 

Part of our work to examine the feasibility of approaches to improve the consistency with which repositories share descriptions of repository policies (e.g. on IPR) - this idea -, metadata and the materials themselves.

There are feasible and worthwhile approaches which will improve the consistency with which repositories share metadata 

As part of our work to "examine the feasibility of approaches to improve the consistency with which repositories share material", we are looking at this in regard to 3 areas: metadata (this idea), the materials themselves and descriptions of repository policies (e.g. on IPR) [materials and policies appear as separate ideas].