• Introduction
• Technical analysis
• Issues and recommendations
• European SIF

Strategy for evolution

Summary

“In addition to ISSUE-DI-004 (infrastructure components), the maintenance processes for infrastructure components and the approaches to backwards compatibility need to be analysed in more detail across initiatives to identify if/how interoperability can be achieved not only at a specific point in time, but on a sustainable basis.

This work should inform the work on the infrastructure components and build upon existing experiences. In particular:

• the use of registers is essential;
  in a register no entry will ever disappear; for example, in registers according to ISO 19135, the status of an item may change to "retired" or "superseded", but no item will ever be deleted as it may be referenced (used) by someone; this applies to all items managed in infrastructure components;
• the granularity of the managed items in the infrastructure components needs more work
  for example, should UML models be managed with the granularity of standards/specifications, conformance classes, package, or class level?

Classification

Category	Data harmonisation and semantic interoperability
Identifier	ISSUE-DI-005
Type of recommended activity	Further investigation about the subject Active collaboration between initiatives
Organisations addressed	INSPIRE: Consolidation Team, Drafting Team Data Specifications, IOC Task Force GEOSS: ADC GMES: GMES Bureau, GMES Committee (foreseen under COM(2009)223), ESA ISO/TC 211: PMG, Ad-hoc group on configuration management and backwards compatibility OGC: OGC Architecture Board, OGC Naming Authority, OGC Document SC

Additional information

Context	see above
Rationale	see above
Dependencies	ISSUE-DI-004 Infrastructure components
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	ISO/TC 211 is starting a group to identify a strategy for configuration management and backwards compatibility (ISO/TC 211 Resolution 483) - mainly with respect towards the conceptual schemas in UML that are governed by ISO/TC 211. As these schemas are a likely candidate for any common foundation (see REC-DI-001), this is relevant for the initiatives and there should be participation to ensure that requirements from the initiatives, in particular INSPIRE as it is in the process of adopting the ISO/TC 211 base standards, are being addressed.”