news & events

Sixth Agricultural Ontology Service Workshop on "Ontologies: the more practical issues and experiences", July 25-28, 2005, Vila Real, Portugal.

Dedicated page on applying ontologies at FAO.

We present a a new webpage devoted to ongoing projects for the conversion of many of FAO's on-line services into ontologies. Links to on-line publications about ontologies. Special mention is made of the innovative work involving the evolution of the AGROVOC thesaurus into a full-fledged ontology. The result will be an enhanced collection of terms, related terms, and relationships between individual terms. Each project described offers an overview, detailed coverage of the work undertaken, a demo, and the possibility to download the source file. To view the work being done, click here or on the menu item "Ontologies at FAO" in the right-hand margin of this webpage.

September 2004

Proceedings of the Fifth Agricultural Ontology Service (AOS) Workshop available on-line.

These proceeding are the result of the Fifth Agricultural Ontology Service workshop held in Beijing, China from 27 - 29 April 2004. The workshop, jointly organized by the Scientech Documentation and Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (SDIC/CAAS), China and the Library and Documentation Systems Division of FAO, built on the previous workshops held in Rome, Oxford, Florida and Copenhagen. It provided an opportunity for information management specialists in Asia to strengthen partnerships with FAO and other participating organizations, in building the AOS. Click here to view the full proceedings.

July 2004

Report on the Fifth Agricultural Ontology Service (AOS) Workshop available on-line.

The Fifth AOS workshop was organized jointly by Scientech Documentation and Information Center of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (SDIC/CAAS), China and the Library and Documentation Systems Division of FAO. The theme of the workshop was to create awareness among Asian countries about the current initiative of FAO in the development of semantic standards and to initiate discussion on how to ensure participation from various agricultural communities. Click here to view the report.

June 2004

Presentations made at the Fifth Agricultural Ontology Service (AOS) Workshop available on-line.

The Fifth Agricultural Ontology Service Workshop concluded successfully after three days of presentations and discussions. Click here to view or download the presentations.

"From Thesauri to Ontologies: a case study"

A paper prepared at the AGRIS/CARIS secretariat by an information management specialist and ontology expert, entitled "From thesauri to ontologies: A short case study in the food safety area" demonstrates the premise that 'ontologies are more powerful than thesauri', using a simple example from the Food Safety area.

This brief but illuminating paper uses the example of RDFS and OWL to fully illustrate the concept. It elaborates, by using a single example, the main thesis behind the article (this webpage, at date 30/03/2004) published in the Journal for Digital Information on "Reengineering Thesauri for New Applications: the AGROVOC example". See full paper at: From thesauri to ontologies

April 2004

Invitation to the Fifth Agricultural Ontology Service (AOS) Workshop, 27 - 29 April 2004, Beijing, China

The Agricultural Ontology Service (AOS) workshops bring together metadata and ontology experts and researchers interested in the AOS project. The fifth AOS Workshop builds on the successes of previous workshops held in Rome, Oxford, Florida, and Copenhagen. The fifth AOS workshop will provide an opportunity for information management specialists in Asia to learn about the AOS and to strengthen partnerships in building the AOS.

The workshop will focus on:
• Sharing new developments in the field of metadata and ontology,
• Finding out how to leverage these developments in practice in agricultural information management.

Click here to get more information about the workshop.

"Reengineering Thesauri for New Applications: the AGROVOC example"

A paper entitled "Reengineering Thesauri for New Applications: the AGROVOC example", written by the AGRIS/CARIS team (Boris Lauser, Anita Liang, Frehiwot Fisseha, Johannes Keizer, and Stephen Katz), in collaboration with D. Soergel from the University of Maryland, USA, was published earlier this month in the Journal of Digital Information (JODI).

The paper illustrates how existing classification schemes and thesauri lack both well defined semantics and structual consistency. The goal is to lighten the ever increasing burden of users in searching the exponential information sources on the web, by finding AND processing the information. The mechanism of ontologies is increasingly recognized as one of the most powerful tools available today for the processing of information. Full paper at: From Thesauri to Ontologies

May 2003

The 6th NKOS Workshop at the ACM-IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL), Houston, Texas, USA

The emergence of digital libraries, the widespread use of the web to publish documents and the migration of information resources to the web, resulted in unprecedented need for resource description and discovery. Traditional knowledge organization systems (KOS) such as thesauri, categorization schemes and taxonomies have done their fair share in organizing information and enhancing search mechanisms to aid users both in searching and browsing information in web environments. There exists, nevertheless, a need to reengineer traditional KOSs to make them an effective tool to address the emerging requirements of information management in a web environment.

The 6th Networked Knowledge Organization Systems/Sources (NKOS) Workshop which took place in Houston, Texas, as part of JCDL 2003 on May 31, 2003, focused on the transformation of traditional knowledge organization systems to new forms of knowledge representation such as ontologies, topic maps, and semantic Web components, where relationships between and among concepts are richer and more extensive and in which the requirements of computer processing are met. The theme “Reengineering AGROVOC to Ontologies- Steps towards better semantic structure” were presented at this workshop.

The presentation briefly discusses similarities and differences between thesauri and ontologies; the need to reengineer AGROVOC to an ontology; the envisaged benefits; problems with semantic representation in AGROVOC and some ideas to transform AGROVOC into an ontology.

May 2003

SEMKOS (Semantic Web Meets Knowledge Organization for Large-Scale Information Integration )

Semantic Web Meets Knowledge Organization for Large-Scale Information Integration (SEMKOS) is an application for an Integrated Project within the European Union’s 6th Framework Programme. The project aims to demonstrate the viability of the Semantic Web by focussing on two principal objectives. One is to develop the technologies, methodologies, and standards to create and integrate domain-specific ontologies from the diverse and multitudinous knowledge organization schemes (e.g., thesauri, taxonomies) that are accessible via the Web. The other is to demonstrate how these ontologies provide the semantic underpinnings of applications such as meaningful Web search and knowledge management in important domains such as food safety. For more information visit the SEMKOS Web site.

March 2003

Report on the Nordic Agricultural Ontology Service (AOS) Workshop available on-line.

The AGRIS/CARIS and Documentation group of FAO together with the NOVA (Nordic Forestry, Veterinary and Agricultural) Libraries organised the Nordic-AOS workshop. The theme of the workshop was to create awareness among Nordic countries about the current initiative of FAO in the development of semantic standards and to initiate discussion on how to ensure participation from various agricultural communities. The workshop provided a forum to discuss various issues related to the improvement of AGROVOC and steps that lead to the development of better semantic standards such as domain specific knowledge organisation tools and technologies to improve information management. Click here to view the report.

March 2003

Key presentation at the AgNIC meeting in Washington.

AGRIS, the Agricultural Ontology Service Project, and the FAO Information Management Resource Kit. Click here to view the storyboard.

March 2003

Keynote speech and presentations made at the Nordic Agricultural Ontology Service (AOS) Workshop available on-line.

The Nordic Agricultural Ontology Service Workshop concluded successfully after a day of intense discussions and presentations. Click here to view or download key papers presented.

February 2003

Nordic Agricultural Ontology Service (AOS) Workshop, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Copenhagen, Denmark

The NOVA (Nordic Forestry, Veterinary and Agricultural) Libraries together with Food and Agricultural Organizations (FAO) of the United Nations would like to invite you to attend the Nordic Agricultural Ontology Service (AOS) Workshop. The workshop will be held on Friday February 28, 2003 at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, the Danish Veterinary and Agricultural Library in Copenhagen, Denmark. For further information on the workshop, and updated list of participants, click here.

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