Today we had the opportunity to present our applied research activities in the field of semantic interoperability in data spaces to the PLDN community. PLDN is the community of linked data experts in the Netherlands. In my presentation I positioned the importance of semantics, shared ontologies and a Vocabulary Hub in realizing semantic interopability in a data space.

The slides I used for my presentation can be downloaded here: Slides PLDN presentation

More about the PLDN event: event page

Position paper​

To read more about the topic of semantic interoperability in data space, please take a look at our position paper The Vocabulary Hub to configure data space connectors

Our colleague Wouter van den Berg (TNO) presented our position paper The Vocabulary Hub to configure data space connectors at the workshop Data Space & Semantic Interoperability in Vienna.

In this position paper we propose a wizard-like approach for data space connector configuration, where data consumers and data providers are guided through a sequence of steps to generate the specifications of their data space connectors, based on the shared vocabularies in the vocabulary hub. We illustrate this with our own implementation of a vocabulary hub, called Semantic Treehouse.

You can download the paper here: The Vocabulary Hub to configure data space connectors or read online about the Vocabulary Hub

Op 17 maart 2011 had ik samen met collega's mijn eerste SETU-overleg. Op dat moment ben ik twee maanden werkzaam bij TNO, net afgestudeerd en een groentje als het gaat over data-delen. Aangenomen als junior adviseur IT-governance, was mijn betrokkenheid bij het SETU-project bedoeld als een klein uitstapje waar ik mijn adviesvaardigheden kon ontwikkelen. Nietsvermoedend dat het onderwerp data-delen en data-standaarden de rode draad en mijn expertise zouden worden in de ruim 10 jaar die volgden.

"With Semantic Treehouse we are able to quickly and easily develop new message specifications and APIs" says Luuk d’Hooghe. Luuk is standardization manager at Ketenstandaard Bouw en Techniek. Since 2019, Ketenstandaard has been using the Semantic Treehouse platform for publishing and managing, among other things, the DICO standard. We spoke to Luuk to hear how they use the platform and what added value it offers their community.

"Semantic Treehouse supports us in making the step towards a syntax independent data model that can be expressed in both XML and JSON"

Kevin Boumans is a software architect at employment agency Driessen. When exchanging data between the various parties, they use the SETU standards, just like many other agencies. Kevin is also a board member of the SETU. We had a talk with Kevin to hear from both perspectives what his experiences are with the Semantic Treehouse platform.

The Vocabulary Hub to configure data space connectors​

Introduction​

Interoperability within a data space requires participants to be able to understand each other. But how do you get data space participants to use a common language? According to the IDS Reference Architecture Model (IDS-RAM), the main responsibility for this common language lies with an intermediary role called a vocabulary provider. This party manages and offers vocabularies (ontologies, reference data models, schemata, etc.) that can be used to annotate and describe datasets and data services. The vocabularies can be stored in a vocabulary hub: a service that stores the vocabularies and enables collaborative governance of the vocabularies.

The IDS-RAM specifies little about how vocabularies, vocabulary providers and vocabulary hubs enable semantic interoperability. The hypothesis that we address in this position paper is that a vocabulary hub should go a step further than publishing and managing vocabularies, and include features that improve ease of vocabulary use. We propose a wizard-like approach for data space connector configuration, where data consumers and data providers are guided through a sequence of steps to generate the specifications of their data space connectors, based on the shared vocabularies in the vocabulary hub. We illustrate this with our own implementation of a vocabulary hub, called Semantic Treehouse.