Jan Voskuil (Taxonic) about Vocabulary as a Service in the public sector.

1. VOCABULARY AS A SERVICE
SKOS in the public sector
Jan Voskuil (Taxonic)
October 15th

2.  Libraries make their indexes (thesauri)
available in SKOS
 Opening up large sets of content items
 Benefits:
 Available as a service
 Linking terms across vocabularies
 Reuse (open standard)
 Basis for new techniques: Big Data,
Entity Extraction

3. 3
Areas where SKOS is used

4. 4
Areas where SKOS is used
Index terms, thesaurus

5. 5
Areas where SKOS is used
Index terms, thesaurus Dictionary, glossary

6. 6
Areas where SKOS is used
Index terms, thesaurus Dictionary, glossary
Value lists, taxonomy

7. 7
Areas where SKOS is used
Index terms, thesaurus Dictionary, glossary
Value lists, taxonomy Indexing model terms

8. 8
Combining uses: Thesaurus & Dictionary
Index terms, thesaurus Dictionary, glossary

9. 9
Combining uses: Thesaurus & Dictionary
Index terms, thesaurus Dictionary, glossary
> Dictionary and thesaurus may be the same thing!
> They can exist separately and be interconnected

10. 10
Combining uses: Dictionary & Value List
Dictionary, glossary
Value lists, taxonomy

11. 11
Combining uses: Dictionary & Value List
Dictionary, glossary
Value lists, taxonomy
> Each value list has a unique URI
> The glossary has a unique URI
> Each concept has a unique URI
> Glossary and value list may share
the same concepts

12. http://vocabulary.wolterskluwer.de

13. 13
prefLabel:
Unfallverhütung
Alternative labels
Broaders
Narrowers
Related terms
From DBPedia
From lod.gesis.org
From eurovoc.org
From Wolters
Kluwer
Other
thesauri on
the web

14. 14
Why is this important for public sector organizations?
T R A N S P A R A N C Y C O M P L E X I T Y

15. 15
Benefits for public sector
To the outside world:
• Transparency
• Interoperability
• Reuse
Internally:
• Knowledge management
• Sharing data across projects
• Insight in IT-systems
• Innovations

16. 16
Stimulating the update of SKOS
• Bureau Forum Standaardisatie
• Comply-or-explain list
• SKOS is on the list!
• Goal: stimulate uptake
– Awareness
– Tip the balance
– Fear of being an early adopter

17. 17
Where improvements are expected
• Conceptual Dictionary DJI
– Published in PDF (as part of the report “DJI in feiten en cijfers”)
– Compare: http://firebrary.nl
• Justice Thesaurus
– Published in PDF
– Reused through proprietary XML
• SBI-codes
– Published in PDF
– Compare: NACE-list (https://ec.europa.eu/esco/lod/model)
– SKOS helps Big Data analyses

18. 18
Central takeaways
• Glossaries, library thesauri and value lists as a service with SKOS;
• Public sector organizations can benefit greatly in doing so
• SKOS is now a mandatory standard in the Netherlands

19. Jan Voskuil Taxonic (co-founder, CEO)
Consultancy in Linked Data with a focus on SKOS
Certified Solution Partner for PoolParty
jan.voskuil@taxonic.com
http://taxonic.com