Today, a Working Group initiated by the ISA Programme has released three e-Government Core Vocabularies on Joinup for comments by the general public. These Core Vocabularies aim to reduce the problem of incompatible vocabularies used for public sector information exchange.
Core Vocabularies are simplified, reusable, and extensible data models that capture the fundamental characteristics of an entity in a context-neutral way. They are the starting point for developing interoperable IT systems. The proposed Core Vocabularies are likely to become the foundation of new, context-specific vocabularies to be used for exchanging public sector information. They can also be used as pivotal vocabularies to map and align other vocaublaries. Adherance to Core Vocabularies guarantee Public Administrations to attain a minimum level of cross-border and cross-sector interoperability.
The current Core Vocabularies specification was elaborated in a three-month period by a multi disciplinary Working Group consisting of three Task Forces – one for each Vocabulary – totaling 67 experts from 21 countries, (18 Member States, USA, South-Africa, and Croatia), and several EU Institutions. The specification includes the following vocabularies:
The Public Comment period for the Core Vocabularies specification is now open until 16 March 2012 (inclusive).
How to participate in the public review?
Members of the public are invited to:
- Download the Core Vocabularies specification from the Joinup platform; and
- Submit their comments using he Core Business, Core Location and/or Core Person public review forum topic (registration required). Please indicate in your comment as precisely as possible to which part of the specification your comment applies.
What happens with your feedback?
- All comments will be registered in an issues list that will be discussed by the Working Group in March.
- Resolutions of those issues will be shared on Joinup, and will lead to a version 1.0 of the specification. This version will be submitted to the European Commission for endorsement by the EU member states.
What will be the next steps?
After the public commenting period, the Working Group will finalise all three specifications and promote their use in national metadata frameworks. In addition to this, the WG will continue the development of additional vocabularies that link with the ones currently in public review. The e-Government Core Vocabularies specifications serve as input to existing standards bodies' work.
Related News:
- ADMS public review has officially ended on 6 February
- The ADMS and Core Vocabularies projects are now available on Joinup
- New draft ADMS specification released for community review
- Member State Working Group to continue ADMS specification
- ADMS: case study on the publication of e-Government metadata
- ADMS: Community publishes first draft