Download - Global agricultural Concept Scheme (GACS)
Global Agricultural Concept Scheme (GACS)
Johannes Keizer, Simon Liu, Martin ParrGlobal GODAN/CIARD Consultation on Open Agricultural Knowledge for Development
22-24 April 2014Rome, Italy
Global Agricultural Content Scheme(GACS)
• Who?
• Why?
• What?
• How?
• Johannes Keizer
• Simon Liu
• Martin Parr
Who?
Swine? Pig?
Porcine? Hog?
Sus scrofa domestica?
What words describe this picture?
• Acronyms - ABA vs. abscisic acid- DHBV vs. Duck hepatitis B virus- WHO vs. World Health Organization
• Plural / Singular- pigs vs. pig- renal calculi vs. renal calculus
• Spelling variants- Sugar beet vs. Sugarbeet- Buddleja vs. Buddleia
• Usage variants- Aubergines vs. Eggplants - Palta vs. Aguacate vs. Avocado
• Quasi-synonyms…
Synonyms
Turkey
Pieris
Homographs
● Heliothis zea
● Helicoverpa zea
● Tomato fruitworm
● Corn earworm
● Bollworm
Scientific vs. Common Names
• Share common understanding of the structure of information - Among people- Among systems/databases- Among people & systems/databases
• Provide consistency & reduce variability• Enable reuse of domain knowledge• Avoid re-inventing the wheel• Enable interoperability
Needs a Thesaurus
Existing Thesauri
We have some common beliefs
● We serve consumers of agricultural scientific knowledge
● We want to help them better navigate to and understand content
● We recognise the concept of global public goods and the value of open access & open data
● We have identified the need for a unified agricultural language system to support describing open data
Why GACS?
● G8 Conference on Open Data in Agriculture & Nutrition● In the age of open data we need common semantics to
describe data thus enabling linking different types of information & data
● We each manage an agricultural thesaurus: AGROVOC, NAL Thesaurus, CAB Thesaurus
● These three thesauri meet the needs of their parent organizations, but they have differences
We have some common challenges
Why GACS?
Why GACS?
We share some common knowledge
• Information description & structuring
• Spelling aid
• Natural language processing
• Information retrieval
• Information mapping & integration
• Automated indexing
GACS Uses
What?
Global Agriculture Concept Scheme GACS …
● A global unified agricultural language system● Address the differences and builds alignments between
AGROVOC, CABT and NALT● Public● Open (and moving to Open Data)● Collaborative (CABI, NAL, FAO)● Extensible (scope and partners)● An integrated offering● A working model (a bit more than a Proof of Concept?)
What?
GACS aspires to …
● Be owned and maintained by a consortium?● Bring economies of scale to partners and users● Avoid duplication of effort in new organisations moving
to open data environments● Improve efficiency of information and data management
in the long term● Improve the discoverability of information and data to
the benefit of farmers, researchers and policy makers
How?● Signed agreement between CABI, FAO, NAL to work together
to develop GACS, covering● Options for alignment● Technical Approach● Governance● Resources & Milestones
● Commission independent consultants to review existing thesauri and host organisation workflows and business needs
● Host and participate in workshops, working closely with policy makers
● This is what we hope to help start to answer here
How?Potential for alignment
.
Meeting Outcomes
Building common understanding
Fact finding for consultants Part 1 report
Communicate the need for GACS in an open data environment?
Support for GACS
Thank You
Questions?
● We are proposing an approach to address a need for a unified agricultural language system. Is this a real need? Will this workshop validate the need?Is this a useful approach? Is this an important development?
● At the moment there are three organisations involved and three thesauri. Which organisations are missing? Which vocabularies/thesauri are missing? Is it important that they are included in this ‘proof of concept’ stage. What would the nature of their participation be?
● Who would be the main users of GACS? Do we have enough ‘use cases’ to help people understand the utility of GACS?
● We will need to address the governance of GACS. What sort of models would work? What innovative solutions for governance would be possible?
● Have we missed anything? Are there alternatives?
Conclusions of the meeting?
● There is a need for GACS, this approach is important/essential, and although there may be other partners at this moment we want to scope out and implement a first phase.