Report on an FAO Ontology and Terminology System Dagobert Soergel [email protected] www.dsoergel.com June 6, 2004
	Table of Contents

Part 1 consists of five major recommendations for the management of FAO Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS).

Part 2 addresses the elements of the statement of work

Notes

Note on terminology

Throughout this report the term Knowledge Organization System (KOS) is used to refer to ontologies, taxonomies, classifications, glossaries, thesauri, dictionaries, etc. The form KOS is used for both singular and plural.

Note on date

Preliminary versions of this report with the major recommendations were delivered to FAO earlier

Note on appendices

The appendices fall into four categories

(1) Appendices prepared specifically for this report.

(2) Papers specifically prepared in the context of preparing this report and containing information integral to it.

(3) Previous documents by the report author that are useful in the context of the report

(4) FAO documents included for convenient reference. The appendices are not numbered in the sequence in which they are cited in the report.

Note on typography

Vocabulary terms are shown in Courier if necessary to distinguish them from surrounding text. Otherwise they are shown in Times Roman for ease of reading.

Relationship types are shown thus <causes>. Italics are also used in customary ways, that is for emphasis and to avoid quotation marks.

Table of Contents

Part 1. Major recommendations

Major recommendations. Overview

1 Recommendation 1. Build an inventory of KOS uses and KOS, now and future
2 Recommendation 2. Integrate information management for all FAO KOS
3 Recommendation 3. Incrementally build a rich ontology of the FAO domain
4 Recommendation 4. Create a crosswalk between major KOS in the FAO domain
5 Recommendation 5. Use powerful KOS management software

Major recommendations. Detail

1 Recommendation 1. Build an inventory of KOS uses and KOS, now and future

1.1 Rationale
1.2 Implementation ideas
1.3 Template for KOS use cases
1.4 Template for KOS projects

2 Recommendation 2 Integrate information management for all FAO KOS

2.1 General rationale (also for Recommendation 3)
2.2 Present situation
2.3 Detailed consideration of alternatives
2.4 Notes on implementation

2.4.1 Integration of ORACLE databases
2.4.2 Harmonization of term formats
2.4.3 Arrangements for Web access

2.5 Further development

3 Recommendation 3. Incrementally build a rich ontology of the FAO domain
4 Recommendation 4. Create a crosswalk between major KOS in the FAO domain
5 Recommendation 4. Use powerful KOS management software

Part 2. Elements of the statement of work

A. Analysis of the semantic problems and ambiguities between AGROVOC, FAO Term and the FAO Glossary
B. Identification of areas where there are terminology gaps and proposal to fill the gaps
C. Specific analysis on problems in the structure of AGROVOC

C1 Structural problems in AGROVOC
C2 Analysis of relationships in AGROVOC for the rules-as-you-go approach

D. Proposal of a structure for a common semantic model
E. Proposal for a methodology to map concepts from AGROVOC, FAO Term, the FAO Glossary, and the NAL Thesaurus

E1 Standardize term format
E2 Match on terms and synonyms
E3 Determine degree of confidence in automatic matching
E4 Apply automated methods to refining relationships
E5 Create draft hierarchical structure
E6 Edit the hierarchy, check mappings, and introduce new mappings. Edit the relationships as feasible
E7 Variation: Skeleton hierarchy, enrichment, editing

F. Proposal for an integrated high-level conceptual structure for existing terminology resources
G. Identification of potential external vocabulary sources that could be of interest to FAO's areas of work
H Proposal for procedures for a distributed management environment for the concept and terminology service taking into account the current and future use and application of each terminology resource

H1 System for integrated access to various independently maintained KOS
H2 A Web-accessible collaborative integrated multi-KOS database
H3 Complementarity of the two approaches

I. Evaluation of the business case document for a concept and terminology service regarding feasibility and potential obstacles
J. Recommendations for the transformation of FAOTerm, AGROVOC and the FAO Glossary to a concept and terminology service
K. A mock-up with an example showing the effects of integration of FAO Term, AGROVOC and the FAO Glossary
L. A prototype to show the use of the new service

Appendices

Appendix 1. Sample entries integrating information from AGROVOC, FAO Term and FAO Glossary
Appendix 2. Listing of general and specialized KOS in the food and agriculture domain identified on the Web
Appendix 3. KOS use cases and KOS projects inventory
Appendix 4. Thesaurus/ontology functions - Reference list
Appendix 5. Entity-Relationship schema for a moderately detailed Interlinked Food Description (IFD) database with emphasis on thesaurus structure
Appendix 6. Detailed list of requirements for KOS management software
Appendix 7. List of data fields in AGROVOC, FAO Term, and FAO Glossary
Appendix 8. Algorithm to convert terms to within-sentence case
Appendix 9. Mock-ups for an online thesaurus display
Appendix 10. A SQL data schema for a thesaurus and ontology system under Oracle
Appendix 11. SemWeb: integrated access to distributed ontological resources
Appendix 12. The JoDI paper
Appendix 13. Building a rich ontology from AGROVOC
Appendix 14. The FAO Subject Tree and the AGRIS Category Scheme
Appendix 15. FAO Term Work Flow
Appendix 16. Analysis and Critique of the CABI Thesaurus