News Archive
January 2005
Proposing elements, refinements and schemes for AgMES
The AgMES (Agricultural Metadata Element set) initiative aims to encompass issues of semantic standards in the domain of agriculture with respect to description, resource discovery, interoperability and data exchange for different types of information resources. AgMES will act as an umbrella under which new elements/refinements that are deemed necessary and are used for different resources (Document like Information Objects or DLIOs, projects, fishing gear presentations, images, technologies, practices, maps etc.) in all areas relevant to food production, nutrition and rural development. Semantic elements that are established here will be well documented, regularly maintained, and made available for re-use.
The following criteria are offered as guidelines for developing a proposal. The document should be completed and sent to the AgMES working group for consideration.
Element/Refinement Proposal Request[MSWord] [PDF]
Scheme addition Proposal Request [MSWord] [PDF]
September 2004
A pocket-size, promotional document is now available, which explains in simple terms what the AGRIS Application Profile is (namely, a "format to allow sharing of information across dispersed bibliographic systems" ), and how it works, complete with graphic.
There are examples of where the AGRIS AP has been implemented to date, and links to further, related information. Last, but by no means least for the prospective user, a complete AGRIS AP XML record is shown. Producing the XML file is a key notion behind the AGRIS AP, since it ensures interoperability both now and in the future.
June 2004
How to create an Application Profile?
This paper outlines the methodology we adopted for creating the XML based exchange format for the AGRIS System. At the same time, it tries to generalize into phases, the steps that were taken and provides information about the work that was undertaken to complete each phase.
November 2003
Browsing the AgMES elements
AgMES is the metadata standard developed by FAO for the description and discovery of agricultural information resources. This standard is an extension of Dublin Core and its utility rests in the fact that it promotes the use of metadata elements/schemes/refinements that are important for the description of information resources in the domain of Agriculture. Thus, AgMES as a namespace, defining the elements and refinements that are ONLY EXTENSIONS to those defined by DC and AGLS, must always co-exist concurrently with them. You can browse the endorsed elements, their refinements and schemes at: Elements.html. Comments are welcome.
To view elements only at a glance, see the tabular version of AgMES elements.
21 November 2003
October 2003
The "AgMES Information Kit" [zip file, 1Mb] is available for download.
This is an evolving collection of documents and presentations on metadata in general as well as the Agricultural Metadata Element Set (AgMES). The content of the kit is derived by collating all the official as well as explanatory documents and guides that have been produced for the AgMES Project. It is intended for anyone with an interest in learning more about AgMES and the its role in management of information. If you are interested in downloading a copy, please send an e-mail to the AGRIS Secretariat requesting access.
September 2003
AgMES elements are available from the CORES Registry [at: CORES]
The CORES Schema Registry provides a publication environment for the descriptions of metadata vocabularies and their constituent terms. Those descriptions include not only the standard declarations of terms provided by the creators of the vocabularies, but also descriptions of the usages of those terms as they are deployed by implementers in the context of a project or application. You can browse the AgMES elements using [AgMES elements]
July 2003
IPFSAPH uses AgMES compliant metadata
After consultation with the AgMES Metadata Working Group, the developers of the IPFSAPH (International Portal on Food Safety, Animal and Plant Health) portal utilized the AGMES metadata standards to describe the different resources in the portal. The use of these metadata standards should allow them to more easily and uniformly access and share data with the partnering national governments, and regional and international bodies involved in the portal and other parties who may be interested in obtaining information from the portal in the future. They have already used these tags when developing the XML data for the inclusion of the Codex standards and related texts currently in the portal. For more information visit Portal Concept Paper and more
February 2003
Agricultural Metadata Element Set (AGMES) Namespace Documentation
The final version of
Namespace Documentation for "Document-like Information Objects"
[Version: 1.1] has just been released.
February 2003
The "New Cataloguing Guidelines for AGRIS" - final version
We have published version 1.0 of "AGRIS: Guidelines for Description of Information Objects for the International Information System on Agricultural Sciences and Technology". This document contains specifications about the meta data that should be exchanged and disseminated through the AGRIS system. An XML DTD for encoding of these metadata is included. To see the file correctly, right-click and choose "Save Target as .....", download to your PC and open.
These new guidelines can be used by AGRIS partners to contribute to AGRIS. Any XML document submitted following these specifications can be published through the AGRIS database on the Web and CDs. The specifications and the DTD should be stable for the entire year 2003. During the year we will collect feedback for the further improvement of the specifications; we will also be publishing an XML Schema and RDF schema for encoding of the records.
October 2002
DTD to accompany the "New Cataloguing Guidelines for AGRIS" data inputting - call for comments
The new AGRIS Cataloguing Guidelines (AGRIS Application Profile) have been made available as a draft document (see announcement below) . We currently have proposals for a structured [AGRIS2], and an unstructured (flat-file) data file [AGRIS1]. We invite the AGRIS/CARIS participating centres to experiment with the two draft DTDs, and to provide us with their feedback and comments, as soon as possible, through the AGRIS Listserver, AGRIS-Info-L. (If you are not subscribed to AGRIS-Info-L, write an e-mail FAO-AGRIS-CARIS@fao.org and ask to be added to the mailserver). [NB: You will need to save the DTD files to your hard disk in order to visualize them correctly. Right-click on the filenames and choose "Save Target As .."]
August 2002
The new AGRIS Cataloguing Guidelines (AGRIS Application Profile) Discussion draft
The new AGRIS Cataloguing Guidelines are now available as a draft document entitled "AGRIS: Guidelines for Description of Information Objects for International Information System on Agricultural Sciences and Technology". This document proposes new standards for AGRIS metadata records, describing and defining the criteria for producing high quality metadata on AGRIS material. The result of this innovative approach will be a marked improvement in resource discovery on the Web. The standards, encoded in XML, are software-independent and can be used as a general exchange format.
The new standards will have enormous and positive repercussions on the AGRIS/CARIS network. The document itself will be discussed during the Second Consultation on Agricultural Information Management, which will be held at FAO Headquarters from 23 to 25 of September 2002. We invite the AGRIS/CARIS participating centres to study this draft document carefully, and to provide us with their feedback and comments, as soon as possible, through the AGRIS Listserver (AGRIS-Info-L If you are not subscribed to AGRIS-Info-L, write an e-mail FAO-AGRIS-CARIS@fao.org and ask to be added to the mailserver).
June 2002
Metadata applied practically:
| Title | Fisheries Metadata Element Set |
| Creator | FIGIS/FIRMS Board |
| Publisher | FIGIS |
| Subject | Fisheries; standards; data; metadata |
| Description | The Fisheries Metadata Element Set is a proposed standard for the encoding of structured documents within the domain of fisheries research and policy. |
| Date | July 2002 |
| Identifier | http://193.43.36.85/Dtd/beta/3.0c/ |
| Language | English |
| Rights | FAO of the UN |
| Audience | Agricultural Practitioners |
| Title | Global Forest Information Service (GFIS) |
| Creator | IUFRO SPDC |
| Publisher | IUFRO |
| Subject | Forestry; Interoperability; Metadata; |
| Description | Global Forest Information Service, GFIS, is a distributed network of databases which catalogue the information resources, using a common metadata standard based on Dublin Core to enhance access to and provision of quality forest-related information. |
| Date | 2000 |
| Identifier | http://www.iufro-gfis.net |
| Language | English |
| Rights | IUFRO |
| Audience | General |
The Fisheries Global Information Service (FIGIS), creators of the first applicability example above, produced a detailed Review of Agricultural Metadata Element Set (AGMES) Namespace Documentation version 1.1 Document Status : Draft 4, which can be consulted here.
March 2002
The AgStandards team has defined an element Creator as an "Entity
primarily responsible for creating, making available and making contribution
to the intellectual content of the resource". However, we are debating
whether the "Creator" label is accurate enough. We would encourage
any comments for/against relabelling of this term to "Agent" and defining
of the qualifiers as Roles. Comments
are welcome.
February 2002
Values for TargetAudience controlled list
The controlled list for 'targetAudience' element, in the draft AgMES
Namespace, is currently under review. Please find here a compilation
of possible values for audience controlled list. This is not a definite
proposal and nor is it an exhaustive list.
Comments
are welcome.
February 2002
AgMES Stance on Namespaces and Application Profiles
In the initial stage of the AgStandards venture, the concepts of namespace and application profile had somewhat overlapped. It is therefore important to state here that the stance taken by the future AgStandards Project will be that defined in this short note. Comments are welcome.
February 2002
First draft of Namespace document
Resource description has emerged as a challenge that impedes resource
discovery even though network technologies have lowered other challenges,
such as geographical barriers. This is because resource discovery
varies depending on the structure, type and content of the resource,
and with the interests of the information keepers.
Comments
are welcome.
February 2002
This DTD is a draft DTD based on the AGStandards and DC namespaces.
Based on this draft we are working to publish a DTD to serve as an
exchange format for the AGRIS network within the first week of March.
Comments
are welcome.
January 2002
Join the Mailing List - Notice to all interested!
The AgStandards Group warmly invites all interested individuals and organisations, who wish to discuss issues related to Agricultural Metadata and contribute their knowledge in building up the AgStandards, to join the AGStandards mailing list. The AGStandards mailing list is a moderated discussion forum.
To contact the moderator, please send email to: December 2001
agstandards-owner@yahoogroups.com
To subscribe to the list, please send email to:
agstandards-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Report of a Mission to FAO/GILW
This report lays down the results of a critical review of the AgStandards specification that was done in co-operation with FAO/GILW staff members. Outstanding issues needed to be resolved in order to lay down the specification as a W3C Schema for XML. This schema has been appended as an appendix. The report discusses the implications of the adoption of W3C schema syntax to express the AgStandards specification. A number of outstanding issues with regard to the implementation of AgStandards for WAICENT and in other contexts are summarised. Comments are welcome.
© FAO 2003 - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.