Presented to the EuroICAN meeting at Oostende, Belgium. 26 November 2012

1. ICAN & Web 3.0
Adam Leadbetter
alead@bodc.ac.uk
British Oceanographic Data Centre

2. Overview
● A little Web history
● Online Controlled Vocabularies...
○ ... and some of their uses
● ICAN use case...
○ ... and its implementation

3. A little Web history
● Web 1.0 - The read-only web

4. A little Web history
● Web 1.0 - The read-only web
● Web 2.0 - Interaction, collaboration, social
○ Wiki sites
○ Twitter, Facebook
○ Docs / Drive

5. A little Web history
● Web 1.0 - The read-only web
● Web 2.0 - Interaction, collaboration, social
○ Wiki sites
○ Twitter, Facebook
○ Docs / Drive
● Web 3.0 - The semantic web
○ Unstructured web of documents...
○ ... becomes a structured web of data

6. A little Web history
● Web 1.0 - The read-only web
● Web 2.0 - Interaction, collaboration, social
○ Wiki sites
○ Twitter, Facebook
○ Docs / Drive
● Web 3.0 - The semantic web
○ Unstructured web of documents...
○ ... becomes a structured web of data
■ Sir Tim Berners-Lee, W3C, Weaving the Web
(1999)

7. The future of the web?

8. Online controlled vocabularies
● What are they?
○ A collection of concepts for populating a given
metadata field

9. Online controlled vocabularies
● What are they?
○ A collection of concepts for populating a given
metadata field
○ Ensure consistent spellings & syntax

10. Online controlled vocabularies
● What are they?
○ A collection of concepts for populating a given
metadata field
○ Ensure consistent spellings & syntax
○ Prevent metadata misunderstandings

11. Online controlled vocabularies
● What are they?
○ A collection of concepts for populating a given
metadata field
○ Ensure consistent spellings & syntax
○ Prevent metadata misunderstandings
○ Maintain a static relationship between metadata
fields and the real world

12. Online controlled vocabularies
● What are they?
○ A collection of concepts for populating a given
metadata field
○ Ensure consistent spellings & syntax
○ Prevent metadata misunderstandings
○ Maintain a static relationship between metadata
fields and the real world
○ Concepts from different controlled vocabularies may
be connected using simple mapping relationships

13. Online controlled vocabularies
● What are they?
○ A collection of concepts for populating a given
metadata field
○ Ensure consistent spellings & syntax
○ Prevent metadata misunderstandings
○ Maintain a static relationship between metadata
fields and the real world
○ Concepts from different controlled vocabularies may
be connected using simple mapping relationships
○ Web accessible - you can browse to them

14. Online controlled vocabularies
● What are their uses?
○ SeaDataNet

15. Online controlled vocabularies
● What are their uses?
○ SeaDataNet

16. Online controlled vocabularies
● What are their uses?
○ SeaDataNet
○ BCO-DMO

17. Online controlled vocabularies
● What are their uses?
○ BCO-DMO

18. Online controlled vocabularies
● What are their uses?
○ SeaDataNet
○ BCO-DMO
○ Climate and Forecast

19. Online controlled vocabularies
● What are their uses?
○ SeaDataNet
○ BCO-DMO
○ Climate and Forecast
■ Standard Name:
"surface_upward_mass_flux_of_carbon_dioxide_
expressed_as_carbon_due_to_emission_from_
crop_harvesting"
■ EEA pollutant: "Carbon dioxide"
■ GEMET source: "harvest"

20. ICAN "Semantic" Use Case
"Coastline"

21. ICAN "Semantic" Use Case
"Coastline"
ICAN Portal

22. ICAN "Semantic" Use Case
"Coastline"
ICAN Portal
NETMAR
SWS
NETMAR
Vocabularies

23. ICAN "Semantic" Use Case
"Coastline"
ICAN Portal
NETMAR
SWS
Local
Vocab
Washington
State Atlas
NETMAR
Vocabularies
California
State Atlas
Local
Vocab

24. ICAN "Semantic" Use Case
"Coastline"
"Hi res
shoreline"
Local
Vocab
ICAN Portal
NETMAR
SWS
Washington
State Atlas
NETMAR
Vocabularies
California
State Atlas
Local
Vocab

25. Implementation
● Standards based approach
○ W3C & OGC
■ W3C for vocabulary standards
■ OGC for catalogue services

26. Implementation
● Standards based approach
○ W3C & OGC
■ W3C for vocabulary standards
■ OGC for catalogue services
● Implemented on NETMAR technology
○ Semantic mediator
■ Links catalogue services...
■ ... with distributed definitions

27. Implementation

28. Implementation

29. Implementation
● Currently at demonstrator phase
○ Connected nodes are:
■ Oregon
■ MIDA (Ireland)

30. Implementation
● Currently at demonstrator phase
○ Connected nodes are:
■ Oregon
■ MIDA (Ireland)
● How to join in?
○ Cookbooks published through the ICAN website