1. NISO/DCMI Webinar:
NISO/DCMI Webinar: Metadata for Public
Sector Administration
October 30, 2013
Speakers:
Makx Dekkers, AMI Consult
Stijn Goedertier, PwC Technology Consulting
http://www.niso.org/news/events/2013/dcmi/publicsector

2. 1. CONTEXT
1. Context
2. Asset Description Metadata Schema
3. Practical experience
4. Questions and discussion

3. ISA undertakes initiatives to
foster interoperability of
information exchanges by
public administrations
Make it simple to find and
obtain interoperability
solutions, including data
models and reference
data
Interoperability Solutions for European
Public Administrations Programme

4. Metadata: definition
Metadata is data that defines and describes
other data (ISO/IEC 11179-1), including concepts
and digital resources.
• Descriptive metadata
• Structural metadata
• Administrative metadata
Source: NISO, Understanding Metadata, 2004
http://www.niso.org/publications/press/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf
This session:
data models and reference data

5. Creating optimal conditions for
re-use.The public sector is often reinventing
the wheel

6. Creating optimal conditions for
re-use.“Standards are like toothbrushes, a
good idea but no one wants to use
anyone else's” - Anita Golderba

7. Existing metadata is not always well
documented
http://www.epsos .eu peppol spocs e-codex stork
What is the epSOS Master Value
Set Catalogue really?
Where can I obtain it?

8. Documenting metadata is not yet a
common practice
6 out
of 11
respondents indicate that documenting data models and
reference data is NOT a common practice for public
administrations in their countries.
55%27%
18%
No, this is not a common practice.
Yes, this is a common practice but not enforced;
Yes, this practice is enforced by law; it is an official requirement;
Source: 2012 metadata management survey
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/43179

9. Metadata is scattered around on a
plethora of websites
Digitaliser.dk(Denmark)
RIHA (Estonia)
XRepository(Germany)
InternationalCommissionon Civil Status
Listpoint
GS1OASIS
W3C
The OpenGroup
EU PublicationsOffice
UN/CEFACT
ETSI
DCMI
NISO
Where should I look first?
How can I get an overview of
what exists from a single point
of access?

10. 12 countries maintain a metadata
repository
AT No Repository
CZ ISDP
EE RIHA
CY No repository
FI yhteentoimivuus.fi and ONKI
BE No repository
DK Digitaliser.dk and arbejdsgangsbanken.dk
ES MPTAP
MT No repository
SE
The Swedish Centre for Terminology
Flat terminology repository
LT No Repository
DE XRepository
EU Joinup
FR MDC
UK
GovTalk
Code List Management Service
NL Stelselcatalogus
LV IVIS portal
RespondentcountriesOthercountries
respondent countries have a semantic
asset repository
6
6 countries that have not participated in the survey
have semantic asset repository
Source: 2012 metadata management survey
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/43179

11. Metadata is a strategic asset that
should be reused where possible
• Metadata governance
– Decision mechanisms
– Procurement rules
– de jure standardisation
– Legislation
• Metadata management
– Create, Update, Delete
– Harmonisation
– Publication, Search, Retrieval
Benefits of reuse
 Cost savings
 Coherent architecture
 Interoperability
This session

12. ★ Applicability
eGov interoperability, re-use, compatibility,...
★ Maturity
Development status, quality, stability, ...
★ Openness
Creation and change process, availability, ...
★ IPR
Documented, FRAND or royalty free.
★ Market support
Implementations, users, ...
★ Potential
Impact, risks, maintenance, ...
Creating optimal conditions for
re-use.
Source: Common Assessment Method of Standards and Specifications (CAMSS)
When can metadata be reused?

13. 2. ADMS
1. Context
2. Asset Description Metadata Schema
3. Practical experience
4. Questions and discussion

14. Terminology
• Semantic interoperability: the ability of information and
communication technology (ICT) systems and the business
processes they support to exchange data and to enable the
sharing of information and knowledge: Semantic
Interoperability enables systems to combine received
information with other information resources and to
process it in a meaningful manner (European
Interoperability Framework 2.0). It aims at the mental
representations that human beings have of the meaning of
any given data.
• Semantic interoperability asset: highly reusable metadata
(e.g. xml schemata, generic data models) and reference
data (e.g. code lists, taxonomies, dictionaries, vocabularies)
which are used for eGovernment system development.

15. ADMS Working Group: charter
The ADMS Working Group was established in October 2011 to develop
the Asset Description Metadata Schema (ADMS), a vocabulary to
describe interoperability assets to make it possible for ICT developers
to explore and search for interoperability assets.
The objective of ADMS was to:
• describe semantic assets in a common way so that they can be
seamlessly cross-queried and discovered by ICT developers from a
single access point, such as Joinup, the collaborative portal of the
European Commission’s ISA programme;
• search, identify, retrieve and compare semantic assets to be reused,
thereby avoiding duplication and expensive design work;
• keep existing system for documenting and storing semantic assets;
• improve indexing and visibility of assets;
• link semantic assets to one another in cross-border and cross-sector
settings.
Source: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/asset/adms/description

16. Solution: make it easier to find and
obtain interoperability assets
EXPLORE
FIND
IDENTIFY
SELECT
OBTAIN
FEDERATION
Withcommonmetadata
schema
Publicadministrations
Businesses
Standardisationbodies
Academia
repository
repository
repository
repository
repository
repository
ASSET
DESCRIPTION
METADATA
SCHEMA
ADMS
ASSET
DESCRIPTION
METADATA
SCHEMA
ADMS
ASSET
DESCRIPTION
METADATA
SCHEMA
ADMS
ASSET
DESCRIPTION
METADATA
SCHEMA
ADMS
ASSET
DESCRIPTION
METADATA
SCHEMA
ADMS
ASSET
DESCRIPTION
METADATA
SCHEMA
ADMS

17. Development approach
• Building on earlier (unfinished) work that was
done in 2010 and early 2011
• Targeting both XML and RDF environments –
intended to provide a technology-neutral
description
• Using development methodology adapted
from W3C methodology

18. Process and methodology
• Process involving the widest range of stakeholders and
domain experts with the aim to achieve consensus on a
vocabulary for interoperability
• Methodology for specification, including:
– To define clearly the problem that the vocabulary will solve;
– To make the overall structure of the vocabulary clear, indicating
how existing vocabulary terms, and any new ones, work
together;
– To follow technical necessity and gain credibility, by following
community convention when naming new terms;
– To follow best practice when publishing the vocabulary.
• https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/43160

19. Participant profiles
• Official representatives of 15 EU Member
States, several EU institutions and
international organisations
• External experts from 27 countries, including
US and Australia
• Government agencies, standards bodies,
academia, research institutes, private sector

20. Use case
• Enable e-Government system developers
– to explore the semantic assets that are available in
a particular subject area and to explore the
relationships between semantic assets;
– to find semantic assets that correspond to the
user's stated search criteria;
– to identify a semantic asset;
– to select a semantic asset that is appropriate to
the user's needs;
– to obtain access to the semantic asset described.

21. Requirements
• In order to support the aggregation of
metadata for federated search, ADMS must
specify:
– The minimal subset (the ADMS Core) of metadata
that must be exposed to federation partners and
that are needed for the most frequent search
cases;
– A subset of recommended metadata extensions;
– How to deal with multilingual properties;
– How to expose or exchange the metadata.

22. Domain model (simplified)
Asset Repository
Asset: specification
Asset:
code list
Asset: specification
Asset: Dataset
Asset
Distribution
PDF
Asset
Distribution
XML
Asset
Distribution
XML Schema
Asset
Distribution
RDF Schema
Asset
Distribution
DOC
Asset
Distribution
ODF
Asset
Distribution
CSV
Asset: Metadata
schema

23. Domain model (UML diagram)

24. The Asset Repository class

25. The Asset class

26. Examples of Assets

27. The Asset Distribution class

28. Examples of Asset Distributions

29. Controlled vocabularies
The ADMS specification defines a number of
controlled vocabularies, e.g.:
ADMS recommends the use of existing subject
vocabularies, e.g. the European Commission’s ECLAS
Thesaurus, EuroVoc, GEMET, AGROVOC, ZBW’s STW
Thesaurus for Economics , the Library of Congress’ Subject
Headings (LCSH) and Thesaurus for Graphic Materials
(TGM).
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/svn/adms/ADMS_v1.00/ADMS_SKOS_v1.00.html

30. Conformance

31. Benefits
The use of ADMS to describe interoperability
assets (code lists, vocabularies, metadata
schemas, specifications) enables:
• Sharing descriptions of those assets
• Aggregating descriptions in portals and
catalogues
• Better visibility and re-use leading to better
interoperability across collections

32. ADMS is a W3C Working Group Note
http://www.w3.org/TR/vocab-adms/

33. Relationship with standards
• ADMS re-uses terms from several existing
metadata standards:
– DCAT: keyword, landingPage (of adms:Asset),
accessURL, downloadURL (of adms:AssetDistribution)
– Dublin Core: title, description, publisher, issued etc.
– FOAF: name (of foaf:Agent)
– SKOS: altLabel (of Asset)
– Schema.org: startDate, endDate (of dct:PeriodOfTime)
– … and OWL, VCard, POWDER, XHTML
• It is in effect an Application Profile of Dublin Core
as defined by DCMI

34. ADMS and DCAT
• ADMS is also a profile of DCAT
• DCAT is an RDF vocabulary designed to facilitate
interoperability between data catalogs published on the
Web.
• A DCAT profile is a specification for data catalogs that adds
additional constraints to DCAT. A data catalog that conforms
to the profile also conforms to DCAT. Additional constraints
in a profile may include:
– A minimum set of required metadata fields
– Classes and properties for additional metadata fields not covered in
DCAT
– Controlled vocabularies or URI sets as acceptable values for properties
– Requirements for specific access mechanisms (RDF syntaxes,
protocols) to the catalog's RDF description

35. ADMS and ISO/IEC 11179 – Metadata
Registries
ADMS is a metadata vocabulary to describe
interoperability assets (data models and reference
data)
ISO/IEC 11179 addresses the semantics of data, the
representation of data, and the registration of the
descriptions of that data. It puts the focus on
harmonising individual data elements contained
within data models and reference data…
http://www.iso.org/iso/home/store/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=35343

36. 3. PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE
1. Context
2. Asset Description Metadata Schema
3. Practical experience
4. Questions and discussion

37. 6 known implementations
Google Refine RDF template for ADMS
ADMS-conform description of a vocabulary in PoolParty
Thesaurus Manager 3.1.0
ADMS export for Xrepository
ADMS-compliant RDF export for W3C Technical Reports
Repository enabling import and export of asset description
metadata conformant to the ADMS specification
Metadata Registry (MDR) of EU Publications Office: ADMS-
compliant RDF export for MDR Named Authority Lists
Source: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/asset/adms/description

38. Implementation of ADMS on Joinup
4 features:
• Import: harvesting or import of ADMS RDF
description metadata
• Content management: create, update, and delete
ADMS description metadata using Joinup forms
• Export: export of ADMS-conform description
metadata
• Search: facetted search of interoperability
solutions
Download Joinup: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/software/joinup/description

39. Implementation of ADMS using a
spreadsheet and Refine RDF (1)
Source: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/46811

40. Implementation of ADMS using a
spreadsheet and Refine RDF (2)
Source: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/46811

41. Implementation of ADMS using a
spreadsheet and Refine RDF (3)
Source: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/46811

42. Implementation of ADMS using a
spreadsheet and Refine RDF (4)
Source: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/46811

43. Find reusable interoperability
assets on Joinup
Source: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/catalogue/all
Refinethesearch
resultsviathefaceted
searchfilters.
Entera searchkeywordtofindinteroperability
assetsavailableondifferentwebsites.
Thesearchresultscontain
arelevantdescriptionof
theassetsandthelink
fromwheretheycan be
downloaded.
2
1
3
2000 interoperability assets
25 partner organisations
Faceted search for interoperability
solutions

44. Share your collection of re-
usable interoperability assets
with Joinup
TheJoinupTeamwill
helpyouidentifythe
bestwayto describe
yourassetswith
ADMS.
Describeyour assets
usingthe ADMSand
export them intoan RDF
file.
Proposea federated
repositoryonJoinup,and
uploadthe ADMSRDF file
orconfigurea harvestURL.
1Contact the Joinup team
2
Describe your assets using
ADMS
3
Import your descriptions on
Joinup
Source: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/cesar/description
Support federation partners to share
their collections on Joinup

45. Joinup Licensing Framework
The Joinup Licensing
Framework establishes a
system for:
1. Incoming rights: the ISA
Contributor Agreement
v1.1;
2. Outgoing rights: a licensing
model, the ISA Open
Metadata Licence v1.1.
What can be re-used?
Source: http://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/45058

46. ADMS RDF Validation Framework
Verifies whether a file with RDF description
metadata conforms to the ADMS specification and
Joinup business rules:
• Syntactical errors (e.g. ill-formatted dates);
• Controlled vocabularies (e.g. no usage of the software
taxonomies);
• Logical errors (e.g. duplicate language tags); and
• Missing information (e.g. missing language tags,
mandatory properties and relationships).
Implemented in the form of SPARQL queries using Apache
Fuseki as a triple store
Source: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/52727

47. ADMS RDF Validation Framework
What can be re-used?
Source: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/52727

48. 4. QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION
1. Context
2. Asset Description Metadata Schema
3. Practical experience
4. Questions and discussion

49. About the webinar
One key challenge for e-Government programs around the world has been
the lack of easily accessible information about the metadata schemas,
controlled vocabularies, code lists, and other reference data that provide
interoperability among a broad diversity of data sources.
The Asset Description Metadata Schema was developed for exchanging
information about such "interoperability assets". The schema was developed
with support from the European Commission with the objective of facilitating
interoperability across eGovernment programmes in Europe, but it is
already proving its usefulness in a wider context, for example to describe
specifications maintained by DCMI and W3C. One key implementation of
ADMS is in a federation of semantic asset repositories on the Joinup server.
Libraries that collect government information will benefit if such information
is based on a set of commonly used schemas, vocabularies and code lists,
making it easier to aggregate information from multiple sources. This webinar
introduces the ADMS schema and discusses examples of its implementation.

50. About the speakers
Makx Dekkers has been the editor in the development and consensus process for ADMS. He
is an independent information professional who has been working in areas of information
management, metadata and interoperability for more than three decades. After a career start
in library and information networking and international cooperation, he became the
Managing Director at DCMI in 2001, a position he held until 2011. Since then, he has been
involved with projects concerning interoperability in the areas of Open Government Data and
Public Sector information.
makx@makxdekkers.com
Stijn Goedertier has been working since 2010 as a contractor for the Interoperability
Solutions for European Public Administration (ISA) Programme of the European Commission.
His interests include digital public services, administrative processes, and semantic
interoperability. Since 2011, he has been closely involved in the development and promotion
of the e-Government Core Vocabularies and Asset Description Metadata Schema (ADMS)
together with public administrations and standardisation organisations in Europe. In that
context, Stijn was also responsible for the design and operation of the federation of semantic
asset repositories on Joinup. Stijn is also a manager at PwC Technology Consulting where he
focuses on Information Management. He has a Master degree in Business Engineering and a
PhD in Process Mining.
stijn.goedertier@pwc.be

51. Join SEMIC group on LinkedIn
Follow @SEMICeu on Twitter
Join SEMIC community on Joinup
Get involvedVisit our initiatives
SOFTWARE
FORGES
COMMUNITY
ADMS.
SW
CORE
VOCABULARY
PUBLIC
SERVICE
PwC refers to the PwC network and/or one or more of its member firms, each of which is a
separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details.
Authors: Makx Dekkers, Stijn Goedertier
Disclaimers
1. The views expressed in this presentation are purely those of the authors and may not, in any circumstances, be interpreted as stating an official
position of the European Commission.
The European Commission does not guarantee the accuracy of the information included in this presentation, nor does it accept any responsibility for
any use thereof.
Reference herein to any specific products, specifications, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not
necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favouring by the European Commission.
All care has been taken by the author to ensure that s/he has obtained, where necessary, permission to use any parts of manuscripts including
illustrations, maps, and graphs, on which intellectual property rights already exist from the titular holder(s) of such rights or from her/his or their legal
representative.
2. This presentation has been carefully compiled by PwC, but no representation is made or warranty given (either express or implied) as to the
completeness or accuracy of the information it contains. PwC is not liable for the information in this presentation or any decision or consequence
based on the use of it. PwC will not be liable for any damages arising from the use of the information contained in this presentation. The information
contained in this presentation is of a general nature and is solely for guidance on matters of general interest. This presentation is not a substitute for
professional advice on any particular matter. No reader should act on the basis of any matter contained in this publication without considering
appropriate professional advice.

52. NISO/DCMI Webinar
Metadata for Public Sector Administration
NISO/DCMI Webinar • October 30, 2013
Questions?
All questions will be posted with presenter answers on
the NISO website following the webinar:
http://www.niso.org/news/events/2013/dcmi/publicsector

53. Thank you for joining us today.
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