[CF-metadata] standard_name.xml

Luis Bermudez bermudez at mbari.org
Fri Apr 7 11:52:51 MDT 2006 

Hi John,

On Apr 6, 2006, at 3:29 PM, John Caron wrote:

> Hi Luis:
>
> Luis Bermudez wrote:
>> Dear Roy and John,
>> There are a lot of issues when we want to perform mappings between  
>> vocabularies that are continuously evolving, for example GCMD, CF  
>> and BODC. OWL is a very good mechanism to express mappings, but  
>> the vocabularies are not originally in OWL. This is the reason  
>> that we have some tools at MMI to do an automatic conversion of  
>> this vocabularies to OWL.
>
> So are you harvesting the CF at  http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cms/eaton/ 
> cf-metadata/standard_name.xml   and converting to http:// 
> marinemetadata.org/2005/02/cf, or ?

Yes

>
>> That way we have them all harmonized (expressed in the same  
>> language/format) and we can resolve semantic heterogeneities in a  
>> better fashion.
>
> Can you explain what tools are needed to make these translation (or  
> point me to some URL)? Do you need an OWL reasoning engine or can  
> something simpler be used? Are there any working examples?

No, you don't need any reasoning engine to create the ontologies. I  
use  http://marinemetadata.org/examples/mmihostedwork/ontologieswork/ 
voc2owl.



>
> What does the OWL need to look like? Are the files at:
>
> http://marinemetadata.org/2005/02/cf
> http://marinemetadata.org/2005/02/gcmd
>
> examples of what is needed?

Yes; however. GCMD has problems they way is currently encoded, since  
some of the variables can appear in one ore more hierarchy tree (as  
explain by Roy in a previous email). We have to find how to deal with  
this issue.

>
>
>> I just make publicly available the plan of a  strategy we have in  
>> mind at MMI. It is here:
>> http://marinemetadata.org/examples/mmihostedwork/ontologieswork/ 
>> watchdogstrategy/strategyt I have made some tests and look at a  
>> more concrete framework to allow the representation and mapping of  
>> these terms by using SKOS : http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/.
>> John and Roy, maybe we can talk in more detail what are your ideas  
>> and make a plan to move this forward. I'll be glad to know if the  
>> MMI strategy sounds reasonable and if more people are interested  
>> in participating.
>
> I would be happy to fit my efforts into your larger efforts, if  
> possible. I will neeed to understand the requirements better,  
> before I know for sure.

I think we can start with CF and GCMD,  not worrying at the moment  
about their continuous changing.  Concrete actions:
- Agree on the properties that relate both of them. In the MMI  
workshop we used : narrowerThan, sameAs and broaderThan
- Have a updated version of CF and GCMD in an ontology.
- Think what is the best way to solve the GCMD- hierarchy problem
- Start doing the mappings. We can use VINE for that purpose http:// 
marinemetadata.org/examples/mmihostedwork/ontologieswork/vine
-publish the mappings.

-Then of course we would like to make this a little bit more  
operational, like having a real time representation of CF and GCMD  
keywords in an ontology as well as their mappings.

Best Regards.

Luis


>
> Thanks!
>
>
>
>> Best Regards,
>> Luis
>> On Apr 6, 2006, at 12:14 AM, Roy Lowry wrote:
>>> Hello John,
>>>
>>> Mapping CF Standard names to GCMD Parameter Valids to the public  
>>> domain 'variable' level shouldn't be a problem as the GCMD  
>>> vocabulary is clearly a discovery vocabulary.  The issues Bryan  
>>> is eluding to result from trying to map a usage vocabulary (one  
>>> containing terms that fully describe a data value) because vital  
>>> information for the mapping (e.g. whether a value is a mean or a  
>>> standard deviation) are held in CF fields other than the Standard  
>>> Name.
>>>
>>> Are you aware of the MMI vocabulary mapping workshop that was  
>>> held in Boulder last August?  CF was one of the vocabs used, but  
>>> the work really only scratched the surface looking at maybe half  
>>> a dozen terms.  There should still be an OWL version of CF on the  
>>> MMI site (as well as GCMD), but this will a snapshot that is now  
>>> well out of date.  There is however an open source tool to  
>>> convert the XML to OWL (voc2OWL) and a very neat mapping tool  
>>> (VINE).  The resulting map is an OWL file that can be used with  
>>> web services also provided by MMI to build a thesaurus server.  I  
>>> would strongly recommend their approach.
>>>
>>> The one issue with the GCMD parameter valids that was never  
>>> properly sorted at Boulder is that the mapping was done to GCMD  
>>> variable terms without their overlying term hierarchy, which took  
>>> no account of the fact that EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Animal  
>>> Taxonomy > Fish and EARTH SCIENCE >  Oceans > Marine Biology >  
>>> Fish are different.  I know Luis Bermudez of MMI was looking at  
>>> this issue, but don't know how far he got.
>>>
>>> Building an ontology mapping between CF and GCMD was on my agenda  
>>> for later this year to provide the capability to NDG for entering  
>>> a CF Standard Name into a discovery portal and finding DIFs  
>>> marked up using GCMD parameter valids.  But I'm more than happy  
>>> for someone else to make a start and would of course be happy to  
>>> help once the time slot I've allocated for later this year comes  
>>> around.
>>>
>>> Cheers, Roy.
>>>
>>>>>> John Caron <caron at unidata.ucar.edu  
>>>>>> <mailto:caron at unidata.ucar.edu>> 4/5/2006 8:51:15 pm >>>
>>>
>>> Is the standard name table in XML at:
>>>
>>>   http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cms/eaton/cf-metadata/standard_name.xml
>>> being kept resonably up-to-date?
>>> I'm thinking about using it to map to, eg DIF vocabulary. Has  
>>> anyone else done any mappings like that?
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>>>
>>>
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>> ---------------------------------------
>> Luis Bermudez Ph.D.
>> Software Engineer
>> MMI Liaison - http://marinemetadata.org
>> bermudez at mbari.org <mailto:bermudez at mbari.org>
>> Tel:  (831) 775-1929
>> Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

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