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Is an address still an address if you don't know what you're addressing and why?
Towards ontologies for addressable geographical objects
The 2nd UK Ontology Network WorkshopEdinburgh University 11th April 2013
Professor Robert Barr OBE Manchester Geomatics and University of Liverpool
manchester.geomatics THEORY INTO PRACTICE
Overview
• Why addressing matters• Why addressing is difficult• Ontology• Examples• Research Agenda• Conclusions
Why addressing matters?• The ‘address’ is the most frequently used item of
geographic information
• Address geocoding is the most common transformation from ‘indirect’ geographic referencing to ‘direct’ (coordinate based) referencing
• Addressing applies across a wide range of domains
Why addressing is difficult
• The meaning of an address depends on:– The semantic structure – that is the text of the
address
– The function of the object being addressed• For example, mail delivery point or cadastral
parcel
Why addressing is difficult
– The purpose for which the object is being addressed• For example, delivery, legal definition or
navigation, utility connection
– The form of the object being addressed• For example House, Flat, Church,, Factory
Semantic Structure• Building Name• Number• Street• Locality• Post Town• County• Postcode• Country
• streetAddress• postOfficeBoxNumber• postalCode• addressRegion• addressLocality• addressCountry
Source: schema.org/PostalAddress
What are we addressing?• Delivery point
• Letter• Parcel• Large Item – e.g. shed
• Dwelling• Taxable hereditament• Property – legal
– In uniform ownership or tenure• Property physical
– Parcel– Building
• Utility connection point• Utility billing address
• Legal sub-parcel– Wayleave
• ‘Point of Interest’• Street furniture• Advertising location• Infrastructure
– Bridge– Tunnel
• Emergency services– Fire Ambulance Police
Motoring organisations
• Etc Etc …
Why are we addressing it?• To deliver a letter• To deliver a parcel• To deliver a large load
• To buy or lease the addressed object
• To tax the addressed object
• To deliver a service to the object– Gas– Electricity – Water– Sewage removal– Telecommunications
• To determine where the occupants of the object can vote
• To collect information about the object
• To collect information about the occupants of the object or to inform them
• To navigate to the object
• To ascertain whether the object is at risk
– E.g. flood, or wayleave
• Etc Etc …
Ontology
“An explicit formal specification of how to represent the objects, concepts and other entities that are assumed to exist in some area of interest and the relationships that hold among them.”
( DOI Foundation, 2003).
Ontology
• Ontologies are important:– They define geographic concepts– Move from fuzzy natural language definitions– … to formal definitions that can be standardised– They are a vital step on the way to a Linked Data– They make it easier to re-use data in new
situations
Limitations of Ontology• A shared view?
– A useful ontology requires the widest possible consensus and use
– Ontology creation tools and editors make it easier to re-invent an ontology than to re-use existing ones
– While it is theoretically possible to extend an ontology from one domain to another, in practice this is rarely done
– Semantically orientated
Why it matters now
The government’s White Paper ‘Open Data – Unleashing the Potential’ identifies address data sets as critical parts of the infrastructure for handling data. In particular it states that:
Why it matters now
“…the Postcode Address File (PAF) [ is ] produced by the Royal Mail. It is an important input into many private sector products and services and its value now goes far beyond its original purpose as a tool to enable delivery of the mail. It is also a critical part of the National Address Gazetteer (NAG), which is the definitive single address register and is part of considerations to develop plans for a rolling census.”
