NISO/DCMI Webinar:NISO/DCMI Webinar: Metadata for Public

Sector Administration

October 30, 2013

Speakers: Makx Dekkers, AMI Consult

Stijn Goedertier, PwC Technology Consulting

http://www.niso.org/news/events/2013/dcmi/publicsector

1. CONTEXT

1. Context2. Asset Description Metadata Schema3. Practical experience4. Questions and discussion

ISA undertakes initiatives to foster interoperability of information exchanges by public administrations

Make it simple to find and obtain interoperability solutions, including data models and reference data

Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations Programme

Metadata: definition

Metadata is data that defines and describes other data (ISO/IEC 11179-1), including concepts and digital resources.

• Descriptive metadata• Structural metadata• Administrative metadata

Source: NISO, Understanding Metadata, 2004 http://www.niso.org/publications/press/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf

This session: data models and reference data

Creating optimal conditions for re-use.The public sector is often reinventing

the wheel

Creating optimal conditions for re-use.

“Standards are like toothbrushes, a good idea but no one wants to use anyone else's” - Anita Golderba

Existing metadata is not always well documented

http://www.epsos .eu peppol spocs e-codex stork

What is the epSOS Master Value Set Catalogue really?

Where can I obtain it?

Documenting metadata is not yet a common practice

6 out of 11

respondents indicate that documenting data models and reference data is NOT a common practice for public administrations in their countries.

55%27%

18%

No, this is not a common practice.

Yes, this is a common practice but not enforced;

Yes, this practice is enforced by law; it is an official requirement;

Source: 2012 metadata management survey https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/43179

Metadata is scattered around on a plethora of websites

Digitaliser.dk (Denmark) RIHA (Estonia)

XRepository (Germany)

International Commission on Civil Status

Listpoint

GS1 OASIS W3C

The Open Group EU Publications Office

UN/CEFACT ETSI

DCMI

NISO

Where should I look first?How can I get an overview of

what exists from a single point of access?

12 countries maintain a metadata repository

AT No Repository

CZ ISDP

EE RIHA

CY No repository

FI yhteentoimivuus.fi and ONKI

BE No repository

DK Digitaliser.dk and arbejdsgangsbanken.dk

ES MPTAP

MT No repository

SE The Swedish Centre for Terminology Flat terminology repository

LT No Repository

DE XRepositoryEU JoinupFR MDC

UKGovTalkCode List Management Service

NL StelselcatalogusLV IVIS portal

Resp

onde

nt c

ount

ries

Oth

er c

ount

ries

respondent countries have a semantic asset repository6

6 countries that have not participated in the survey have semantic asset repository

Source: 2012 metadata management survey https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/43179

Metadata is a strategic asset that should be reused where possible

• Metadata governance– Decision mechanisms– Procurement rules– de jure standardisation– Legislation

• Metadata management– Create, Update, Delete– Harmonisation– Publication, Search, Retrieval

Benefits of reuse Cost savings Coherent architecture Interoperability

This session

★ ApplicabilityeGov interoperability, re-use, compatibility,...

★ MaturityDevelopment status, quality, stability, ...

★ OpennessCreation and change process, availability, ...

★ IPRDocumented, FRAND or royalty free.

★ Market supportImplementations, users, ...

★ PotentialImpact, risks, maintenance, ...

Creating optimal conditions for re-use.

Source: Common Assessment Method of Standards and Specifications (CAMSS)

When can metadata be reused?

2. ADMS

1. Context2. Asset Description Metadata Schema3. Practical experience4. Questions and discussion

Terminology• Semantic interoperability: the ability of information and

communication technology (ICT) systems and the business processes they support to exchange data and to enable the sharing of information and knowledge: Semantic Interoperability enables systems to combine received information with other information resources and to process it in a meaningful manner (European Interoperability Framework 2.0). It aims at the mental representations that human beings have of the meaning of any given data.

• Semantic interoperability asset: highly reusable metadata (e.g. xml schemata, generic data models) and reference data (e.g. code lists, taxonomies, dictionaries, vocabularies) which are used for eGovernment system development.

ADMS Working Group: charterThe ADMS Working Group was established in October 2011 to develop the Asset Description Metadata Schema (ADMS), a vocabulary to describe interoperability assets to make it possible for ICT developers to explore and search for interoperability assets. The objective of ADMS was to:• describe semantic assets in a common way so that they can be seamlessly

cross-queried and discovered by ICT developers from a single access point, such as Joinup, the collaborative portal of the European Commission’s ISA programme;

• search, identify, retrieve and compare semantic assets to be reused, thereby avoiding duplication and expensive design work;

• keep existing system for documenting and storing semantic assets;• improve indexing and visibility of assets;• link semantic assets to one another in cross-border and cross-sector settings.

Source: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/asset/adms/description

Solution: make it easier to find and obtain interoperability assets

EXPLOREFINDIDENTIFYSELECTOBTAIN

FEDERATION

With common metadata schema

Pu

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Bu

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Sta

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ASSET DESCRIPTION METADATA SCHEMA

ADMS

ASSET DESCRIPTION METADATA SCHEMA

ADMS

ASSET DESCRIPTION METADATA SCHEMA

ADMS

ASSET DESCRIPTION METADATA SCHEMA

ADMS

ASSET DESCRIPTION METADATA SCHEMA

ADMS

ASSET DESCRIPTION METADATA SCHEMA

ADMS

Development approach

• Building on earlier (unfinished) work that was done in 2010 and early 2011

• Targeting both XML and RDF environments – intended to provide a technology-neutral description

• Using development methodology adapted from W3C methodology

Process and methodology

• Process involving the widest range of stakeholders and domain experts with the aim to achieve consensus on a vocabulary for interoperability

• Methodology for specification, including:– To define clearly the problem that the vocabulary will solve;– To make the overall structure of the vocabulary clear, indicating

how existing vocabulary terms, and any new ones, work together;

– To follow technical necessity and gain credibility, by following community convention when naming new terms;

– To follow best practice when publishing the vocabulary.• https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/43160

Participant profiles

• Official representatives of 15 EU Member States, several EU institutions and international organisations

• External experts from 27 countries, including US and Australia

• Government agencies, standards bodies, academia, research institutes, private sector

Use case

• Enable e-Government system developers– to explore the semantic assets that are available in

a particular subject area and to explore the relationships between semantic assets;

– to find semantic assets that correspond to the user's stated search criteria;

– to identify a semantic asset;– to select a semantic asset that is appropriate to the

user's needs;– to obtain access to the semantic asset described.

Requirements

• In order to support the aggregation of metadata for federated search, ADMS must specify:– The minimal subset (the ADMS Core) of metadata

that must be exposed to federation partners and that are needed for the most frequent search cases;

– A subset of recommended metadata extensions;– How to deal with multilingual properties;– How to expose or exchange the metadata.

Domain model (simplified)

Asset Repository

Asset: specification

Asset: code list Asset: specification

Asset: Dataset

Asset Distribution

PDF

Asset Distribution

XML

Asset DistributionXML Schema

Asset DistributionRDF Schema

Asset Distribution

DOC

Asset Distribution

ODF

Asset Distribution

CSV

Asset: Metadata schema

Domain model (UML diagram)

The Asset Repository class

The Asset class

Examples of Assets

The Asset Distribution class

Examples of Asset Distributions

Controlled vocabularies

The ADMS specification defines a number of controlled vocabularies, e.g.:

ADMS recommends the use of existing subject vocabularies, e.g. the European Commission’s ECLAS Thesaurus, EuroVoc, GEMET, AGROVOC, ZBW’s STW Thesaurus for Economics , the Library of Congress’ Subject Headings (LCSH) and Thesaurus for Graphic Materials (TGM).

https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/svn/adms/ADMS_v1.00/ADMS_SKOS_v1.00.html

Conformance

Benefits

The use of ADMS to describe interoperability assets (code lists, vocabularies, metadata schemas, specifications) enables:• Sharing descriptions of those assets• Aggregating descriptions in portals and

catalogues• Better visibility and re-use leading to better

interoperability across collections

ADMS is a W3C Working Group Note

http://www.w3.org/TR/vocab-adms/

Relationship with standards

• ADMS re-uses terms from several existing metadata standards:– DCAT: keyword, landingPage (of adms:Asset), accessURL,

downloadURL (of adms:AssetDistribution)– Dublin Core: title, description, publisher, issued etc.– FOAF: name (of foaf:Agent)– SKOS: altLabel (of Asset)– Schema.org: startDate, endDate (of dct:PeriodOfTime)– … and OWL, VCard, POWDER, XHTML

• It is in effect an Application Profile of Dublin Core as defined by DCMI

ADMS and DCAT

• ADMS is also a profile of DCAT• DCAT is an RDF vocabulary designed to facilitate interoperability

between data catalogs published on the Web. • A DCAT profile is a specification for data catalogs that adds

additional constraints to DCAT. A data catalog that conforms to the profile also conforms to DCAT. Additional constraints in a profile may include:– A minimum set of required metadata fields– Classes and properties for additional metadata fields not covered in DCAT– Controlled vocabularies or URI sets as acceptable values for properties– Requirements for specific access mechanisms (RDF syntaxes, protocols) to

the catalog's RDF description

ADMS and ISO/IEC 11179 – Metadata Registries

ADMS is a metadata vocabulary to describe interoperability assets (data models and reference data)

ISO/IEC 11179 addresses the semantics of data, the representation of data, and the registration of the descriptions of that data. It puts the focus on harmonising individual data elements contained within data models and reference data…

http://www.iso.org/iso/home/store/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=35343

3. PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE

1. Context2. Asset Description Metadata Schema3. Practical experience4. Questions and discussion

6 known implementationsGoogle Refine RDF template for ADMS

ADMS-conform description of a vocabulary in PoolParty Thesaurus Manager 3.1.0

ADMS export for Xrepository

ADMS-compliant RDF export for W3C Technical Reports

Repository enabling import and export of asset description metadata conformant to the ADMS specification

Metadata Registry (MDR) of EU Publications Office: ADMS-compliant RDF export for MDR Named Authority Lists

Source: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/asset/adms/description

Implementation of ADMS on Joinup

4 features:• Import: harvesting or import of ADMS RDF

description metadata• Content management: create, update, and delete

ADMS description metadata using Joinup forms• Export: export of ADMS-conform description

metadata• Search: facetted search of interoperability

solutionsDownload Joinup: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/software/joinup/description

Implementation of ADMS using a spreadsheet and Refine RDF (1)

Source: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/46811

Implementation of ADMS using a spreadsheet and Refine RDF (2)

Source: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/46811

Implementation of ADMS using a spreadsheet and Refine RDF (3)

Source: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/46811

Implementation of ADMS using a spreadsheet and Refine RDF (4)

Source: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/46811

Find reusable interoperability assets on Joinup

Source: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/catalogue/all

Refine the search results via the faceted search filters.

Enter a search keyword to find interoperability assets available on different websites.

The search results contain a relevant description of the assets and the link from where they can be downloaded.

2

1

3

2000 interoperability assets

25 partner organisations

Faceted search for interoperability solutions

Share your collection of re-usable interoperability assets with Joinup

The Joinup Team will help you identify the best way to describe your assets with ADMS.

Describe your assets using the ADMS and export them into an RDF file.

Propose a federated repository on Joinup, and upload the ADMS RDF file or configure a harvest URL.

1Contact the Joinup team

2 Describe your assets using ADMS

3 Import your descriptions on Joinup

Source: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/cesar/description

Support federation partners to share their collections on Joinup

Joinup Licensing Framework

The Joinup Licensing Framework establishes a system for: 1. Incoming rights: the ISA

Contributor Agreement v1.1;

2. Outgoing rights: a licensing model, the ISA Open Metadata Licence v1.1.

What can be re-used?

Source: http://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/45058

ADMS RDF Validation Framework

Verifies whether a file with RDF description metadata conforms to the ADMS specification and Joinup business rules:• Syntactical errors (e.g. ill-formatted dates);• Controlled vocabularies (e.g. no usage of the software

taxonomies);• Logical errors (e.g. duplicate language tags); and• Missing information (e.g. missing language tags, mandatory

properties and relationships).

Implemented in the form of SPARQL queries using Apache Fuseki as a triple store

Source: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/52727

ADMS RDF Validation FrameworkWhat can be re-used?

Source: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/52727

4. QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION

1. Context2. Asset Description Metadata Schema3. Practical experience4. Questions and discussion

About the webinarOne key challenge for e-Government programs around the world has been the lack of easily accessible information about the metadata schemas, controlled vocabularies, code lists, and other reference data that provide interoperability among a broad diversity of data sources.The Asset Description Metadata Schema was developed for exchanging information about such "interoperability assets". The schema was developed with support from the European Commission with the objective of facilitating interoperability across eGovernment programmes in Europe, but it is already proving its usefulness in a wider context, for example to describespecifications maintained by DCMI and W3C. One key implementation of ADMS is in a federation of semantic asset repositories on the Joinup server.Libraries that collect government information will benefit if such information is based on a set of commonly used schemas, vocabularies and code lists, making it easier to aggregate information from multiple sources. This webinar introduces the ADMS schema and discusses examples of its implementation.

About the speakersMakx Dekkers has been the editor in the development and consensus process for ADMS. He is an independent information professional who has been working in areas of information management, metadata and interoperability for more than three decades. After a career start in library and information networking and international cooperation, he became the Managing Director at DCMI in 2001, a position he held until 2011. Since then, he has been involved with projects concerning interoperability in the areas of Open Government Data and Public Sector information.makx@makxdekkers.com

Stijn Goedertier has been working since 2010 as a contractor for the Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administration (ISA) Programme of the European Commission. His interests include digital public services, administrative processes, and semantic interoperability. Since 2011, he has been closely involved in the development and promotion of the e-Government Core Vocabularies and Asset Description Metadata Schema (ADMS) together with public administrations and standardisation organisations in Europe. In that context, Stijn was also responsible for the design and operation of the federation of semantic asset repositories on Joinup. Stijn is also a manager at PwC Technology Consulting where he focuses on Information Management. He has a Master degree in Business Engineering and a PhD in Process Mining. stijn.goedertier@pwc.be

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Authors: Makx Dekkers, Stijn Goedertier

Disclaimers

1.The views expressed in this presentation are purely those of the authors and may not, in any circumstances, be interpreted as stating an official position of the European Commission.The European Commission does not guarantee the accuracy of the information included in this presentation, nor does it accept any responsibility for any use thereof.Reference herein to any specific products, specifications, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favouring by the European Commission.All care has been taken by the author to ensure that s/he has obtained, where necessary, permission to use any parts of manuscripts including illustrations, maps, and graphs, on which intellectual property rights already exist from the titular holder(s) of such rights or from her/his or their legal representative.

2.This presentation has been carefully compiled by PwC, but no representation is made or warranty given (either express or implied) as to the completeness or accuracy of the information it contains. PwC is not liable for the information in this presentation or any decision or consequence based on the use of it. PwC will not be liable for any damages arising from the use of the information contained in this presentation. The information contained in this presentation is of a general nature and is solely for guidance on matters of general interest. This presentation is not a substitute for professional advice on any particular matter. No reader should act on the basis of any matter contained in this publication without considering appropriate professional advice.

NISO/DCMI WebinarMetadata for Public Sector Administration

NISO/DCMI Webinar • October 30, 2013

Questions?All questions will be posted with presenter answers on the NISO website following the webinar:

http://www.niso.org/news/events/2013/dcmi/publicsector

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