DCAT and new paradigms for Data Discovery

29 Jun 2017
Groups audience: 

Dear All,
Recent activities aimed at improving W3C's Data Catalog
Vocabulary (
href="https://www.w3.org/TR/vocab-dcat/">DCAT) and its
application bring into focus critical questions about how data on
the web are being described, discovered and accessed. These issues
bear on what the RDA Data Discovery Paradigms Interest Group,
DDPIG, is doing.

OGC’s a
href="http://sdi4apps.eu/2016/06/ogc-announces-dcatgeospatial-metadata-ad-hoc-ogc-tc-dublin-2016-june-22th/">d
hoc on DCAT is looking for ways to integrate metadata from
different data portals (open data portals and geo-portals in
particular) to improve discoverability across different domains,
metadata standards and access protocols. Independently, W3C's
Dataset Exchange Working Group (
href="https://www.w3.org/2017/dxwg/wiki/Main_Page">DXWG)
will soon begin work on revising DCAT.
As pointed out by Andrea Perego in his comments on the DDPIG's
best practices document, W3C has a set of recommendations for
publishing
href="https://www.w3.org/TR/dwbp/">data on the web, with a
second set of recommendations specifically for publishing
moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://www.w3.org/TR/sdw-bp/">spatial
data on the web. The recommendations on metadata are:
https://www.w3.org/TR/dwbp/#metadata and
https://www.w3.org/TR/sdw-bp/#bp-metadata.

Clearly, the ways in which data are being published and sought
for are varied and evolving. Repositories, especially in Europe,
are using RDF, SPARQL and OWL Standards to publish linked open
data. Use of schema.org markup and/or DCAT is increasing as a way
to make data discoverable and metadata harvestable. In short, the
domain of discourse for DDPIG's Use Cases, Best Practices, Search
Relevancy and Metadata Enhancement Task Forces need to encompass
more than just the traditional interfaces to data portals and
repositories.

BTW, the RDA is planning to work with W3C on the revision of
DCAT, led by the Metadata IG, so anyone wishing to contribute
should contact Keith Jeffery.
Best wishes,
SiriJodha

--
Siri-Jodha Singh KHALSA, Ph.D., SMIEEE
National Snow and Ice Data Center
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0449 Phone: 1-303-492-1445 GV: 1-303-736-9976
http://cires.colorado.edu/~khalsa
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9217-5550

  • Siri Jodha Khalsa's picture

    Author: Siri Jodha Khalsa

    Date: 29 Jun, 2017

    Interestingly, this came to my inbox just today:
    "the societal forces of which geospatial data is a part ...
    continue to change how data can and should be accessed, used, and
    shared."  article in Directions online mag, "Successful Geospatial
    Data Searching Strategies":
    http://www.directionsmag.com/entry/successful-geospatial-data-searching-strategies/503772

    On 6/29/17 11:17 AM, Siri Jodha Khalsa
    wrote:

    cite="mid:***@***.***">

    Dear All,
    Recent activities aimed at improving W3C's Data Catalog
    Vocabulary (
    href="https://www.w3.org/TR/vocab-dcat/">DCAT) and its
    application bring into focus critical questions about how data
    on the web are being described, discovered and accessed. These
    issues bear on what the RDA Data Discovery Paradigms Interest
    Group, DDPIG, is doing.

    OGC’s a
    href="http://sdi4apps.eu/2016/06/ogc-announces-dcatgeospatial-metadata-ad-hoc-ogc-tc-dublin-2016-june-22th/">d
    hoc on DCAT is looking for ways to integrate metadata from
    different data portals (open data portals and geo-portals in
    particular) to improve discoverability across different domains,
    metadata standards and access protocols. Independently, W3C's
    Dataset Exchange Working Group (
    href="https://www.w3.org/2017/dxwg/wiki/Main_Page">DXWG)
    will soon begin work on revising DCAT.
    As pointed out by Andrea Perego in his comments on the DDPIG's
    best practices document, W3C has a set of recommendations for
    publishing
    href="https://www.w3.org/TR/dwbp/">data on the web, with a
    second set of recommendations specifically for publishing
    moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://www.w3.org/TR/sdw-bp/">spatial
    data on the web. The recommendations on metadata are:
    class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
    href="https://www.w3.org/TR/dwbp/#metadata"
    moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.w3.org/TR/dwbp/#metadata
    and
    href="https://www.w3.org/TR/sdw-bp/#bp-metadata"
    moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.w3.org/TR/sdw-bp/#bp-metadata.

    Clearly, the ways in which data are being published and sought
    for are varied and evolving. Repositories, especially in Europe,
    are using RDF, SPARQL and OWL Standards to publish linked open
    data. Use of schema.org markup and/or DCAT is increasing as a
    way to make data discoverable and metadata harvestable. In
    short, the domain of discourse for DDPIG's Use Cases, Best
    Practices, Search Relevancy and Metadata Enhancement Task Forces
    need to encompass more than just the traditional interfaces to
    data portals and repositories.

    BTW, the RDA is planning to work with W3C on the revision of
    DCAT, led by the Metadata IG, so anyone wishing to contribute
    should contact Keith Jeffery.
    Best wishes,
    SiriJodha

    --
    Siri-Jodha Singh KHALSA, Ph.D., SMIEEE
    National Snow and Ice Data Center
    University of Colorado
    Boulder, CO 80309-0449 Phone: 1-303-492-1445 GV: 1-303-736-9976
    http://cires.colorado.edu/~khalsa
    http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9217-5550

    --
    Siri-Jodha Singh KHALSA, Ph.D., SMIEEE
    National Snow and Ice Data Center
    University of Colorado
    Boulder, CO 80309-0449 Phone: 1-303-492-1445 GV: 1-303-736-9976
    http://cires.colorado.edu/~khalsa
    http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9217-5550

  • Andrea Perego's picture

    Author: Andrea Perego

    Date: 14 Dec, 2017

    Dear SiriJodha, dear colleagues,
    About work under-way in W3C for a revision to the Data Catalog (DCAT) vocabulary, I would like to inform you that the Dataset Exchange WG (DXWG), in charge of this task, has recently published a call for public comments on the first version of their Use Cases & Requirements document:
    http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-dxwg-wg/2017Dec/0101.html
    The collected use cases and requirements will be used to revise DCAT, but also to as a basis for the other deliverables - which include guidelines for the definition of application profiles.
    It is worth mentioning that, although the original version of DCAT was mainly addressing requirements from government data, with a domain-independent perspective, many of the newly collected use cases cover research data as well as domain-specific requirements (e.g., quite a few of them relate to geospatial data, based on the design and implementation experience around GeoDCAT-AP).
    Comments should be sent to the DXWG mailing list: ***@***.***
    Best,
    Andrea
    ----
    Andrea Perego, Ph.D.
    Scientific / Technical Project Officer
    European Commission DG JRC
    Directorate B - Growth and Innovation
    Unit B6 - Digital Economy
    Via E. Fermi, 2749 - TP 262
    21027 Ispra VA, Italy
    https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/
    ----
    The views expressed are purely those of the writer and may
    not in any circumstances be regarded as stating an official
    position of the European Commission.
    - Show quoted text -From: sjsk=***@***.***-groups.org [sjsk=***@***.***-groups.org] on behalf of sjskhalsa [***@***.***]
    Sent: 29 June 2017 11:25
    To: ***@***.***-groups.org
    Subject: [datadiscovery] DCAT and new paradigms for Data Discovery
    Dear All,
    Recent activities aimed at improving W3C's Data Catalog Vocabulary (DCAT) and its application bring into focus critical questions about how data on the web are being described, discovered and accessed. These issues bear on what the RDA Data Discovery Paradigms Interest Group, DDPIG, is doing.
    OGC’s ad hoc on DCAT is looking for ways to integrate metadata from different data portals (open data portals and geo-portals in particular) to improve discoverability across different domains, metadata standards and access protocols. Independently, W3C's Dataset Exchange Working Group (DXWG) will soon begin work on revising DCAT.
    As pointed out by Andrea Perego in his comments on the DDPIG's best practices document, W3C has a set of recommendations for publishing data on the web, with a second set of recommendations specifically for publishing spatial data on the web. The recommendations on metadata are: https://www.w3.org/TR/dwbp/#metadata and https://www.w3.org/TR/sdw-bp/#bp-metadata.
    Clearly, the ways in which data are being published and sought for are varied and evolving. Repositories, especially in Europe, are using RDF, SPARQL and OWL Standards to publish linked open data. Use of schema.org markup and/or DCAT is increasing as a way to make data discoverable and metadata harvestable. In short, the domain of discourse for DDPIG's Use Cases, Best Practices, Search Relevancy and Metadata Enhancement Task Forces need to encompass more than just the traditional interfaces to data portals and repositories.
    BTW, the RDA is planning to work with W3C on the revision of DCAT, led by the Metadata IG, so anyone wishing to contribute should contact Keith Jeffery.
    Best wishes,
    SiriJodha
    --
    Siri-Jodha Singh KHALSA, Ph.D., SMIEEE
    National Snow and Ice Data Center
    University of Colorado
    Boulder, CO 80309-0449 Phone: 1-303-492-1445 GV: 1-303-736-9976
    http://cires.colorado.edu/~khalsa
    http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9217-5550

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