Ontologies

Summary

“The currently available operational technologies mainly require detailed agreements and harmonised data specifications. It would be far better, if looser approaches, e.g. based on ontologies, could be used to bridge semantic differences. However, these technologies are not considered mature yet. It would be helpful to first identify which issues need to be resolved to move forward and then establish a plan to work on these issues.

This topic should be a high priority item in the research agenda, but on the premise that the intended use cases have been clarified first (to avoid unsatisfactory results due to differences in the understanding what ontologies are and what they should be used for).

Testbeds on such topics in the proposed persistent testbed are encouraged, too. As performance is one issue, such testbeds (or pilots) should always use operational contexts and aim at recommendations for use in operations.”

Classification

Category Data harmonisation and semantic interoperability
Identifier ISSUE-DI-003
Type of recommended activity
  • Further investigation about the subject
  • Research
Organisations addressed
  • DG Research
  • GIGAS (deliverable "Research Agenda")

Additional information

Context

While ontologies are generally considered as an enabler for a more flexible approach towards data interoperability (compared to common data specifications with fixed models), they are also considered as not yet ready for use in most operational contexts, e.g. in the context of large spatial datasets stored in spatial database systems. However, the term "ontology" is used in multiple ways, and at least for some purposes ontologies are planned for operational use in the future at least in GEOSS.

In research projects, ontologies have been used experimentally or have been considered for use for various purposes including:

  • discovery: using ontologies for more flexible searches / queries
  • transformation: between two different semantic views
  • description: as a tool for describing facts

In particular, discovery and transformation support are of key relevance for interoperability.
Rationale see Context
Dependencies
Further background information
  • Technology Watch Report - Data Interoperability [PDF]
  • Comparative analysis report (version 2) [PDF]
  • Comparative Analysis Report (version 2) - Annex Recommendations [PDF]
Main discussion points See above
Roadmap To be defined. This should be raised with the European Commission for consideration in future calls for research projects, too.
 

[Logo] FP7GIGAS is a Support Action partly funded under the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission. The project runs from June 2008 to May 2010.