Sports Opportunities "Activity use cases" and the LGA Service Directory Schema

In our December Community Hangout, I promised to feedback thoughts from the
LGA Service Directory Schema work and contrast it with the sports and
leisure Activity use cases
<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-jTHF31wfWuobPcB9xlxMKODqdCYhG3tyQIYt-BDHA4/edit?usp=sharing>
.

The Service Directory work is more generic and the Sports community needs
to decide if it wants to fit into a wider framework or be more specialist.
Even if Sports do their own specialist thing, there may be useful lessons
from the Service Directory.

*SERVICE DIRECTORY BACKGROUND*
This project aims to combine data on services published by local
authorities, charities and private sector organisations and populate
directories that point people to specific services based on their
circumstances (eg age, gender, employment), need (eg lose weight, find
company, get fit) and geographical location.

The project is discussed here on Knowledge Hub
<https://khub.net/group/localopendatacommunity/forum/-/message_boards/category/25897466>
(needs login).

iStandUk (formerly LeGSB) has reviewed existing directories and worked with
Local Authorities and directory providers to produce these three documents:

   - LocalServicesSchema-StandardsRequirement
   <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A6Gq6FNF14AdpHaf4p_9PQNyR_lrPFuCFlgKr0EM894/edit?usp=sharing>
   - LocalServicesSchema-StandardsLandscape
   <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UCRrmtK2_ujEB5Hn12wrbANiXbzBa9ErBI6i-n0F1_s/edit?usp=sharing>
   - LocalServicesSchema-StandardsApproach
   <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HuzHP80FNUUa8M1UNacvQs8SNNPFHgv4NDZXIUbbNdY/edit?usp=sharing>

and then a schema (see below).

Outputs will be piloted by local authorities, charities and other
organisations in the North West.

*SERVICE DIRECTORY SCHEMA*
iStandUk developed a rich data model
<http://modeller.openpublicdata.com/model.php?modelid=5> (needs login), a
view (known as an "archetype") of which is expressed as a draft CSV schema
which is loaded into a our CSV validator
<http://validator.opendata.esd.org.uk/servicedirectoryschema>.  (This also
outputs to a format that can be used by the ODI's CSVLint tool.)

The CSV view is somewhat simplified to accommodate people who can only work
with spreadsheets.  I expect a full API to use a richer format that
reflects the full structure of the data model.

Please take a look at the schema in the online validator page
<http://validator.opendata.esd.org.uk/servicedirectoryschema> to see how
suitable the fields are.  Full documentation has not yet been released.
I'll share it when it is.

Note that the schema references many controlled lists / registers and
suggests use of SKOS lists from LGA (electronic service delivery - esd) BUT
the schema supports any lists with a base URL and identifier from which a
URI can be derived and other properties looked up.

*CONTRAST WITH SPORTS OPPORTUNITIES*
The Activity use cases.spreadsheet
<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-jTHF31wfWuobPcB9xlxMKODqdCYhG3tyQIYt-BDHA4/edit?usp=sharing>
has
many properties that could be represented by controlled lists, including:

   - Area - needs a SKOS list of sports and wellbeing activity types
   (analogous to esd's service types list)
   - Gender and age restrictions - these are specific cases of circumstance
   collections (eg gender
   <http://id.esd.org.uk/circumstanceCollection/Gender>) and circumstance
   (eg female <http://id.esd.org.uk/circumstance/Gender_Female>) that are
   represented by esd's circumstance list
   <http://id.esd.org.uk/list/circumstances>.  The Service Directory sees
   these as "Filter URIs".  We maintain quite a rich list and associated
   demographic metrics for each circumstance.

Properties like costs, times and locations have quite complicated data
structures that we have tried to express in CSV but are better given in the
full object structure.

If anyone wants to chat with me about this, I'm happy to arrange a hangout.

Thanks
Mike