Semantic Interoperability

Several points:

1. The "dumb strings" are smarter than the techies think.  When a Top Level Domain=skos:TopConcept=dct:identifier [dct:URI]  is joined to a "Profile" such as language or the appointment of a Domain Naming Authority.  Problematic, from the view of "eGovernment" is that this Outer Join (language) or Inner Join (Domain Naming Authority) always have the same effect - creating a proxy Community - which does not inherit the profile of it's parent unless it is linked to the existing Government Authority.  This is a purely technical problem so subtle that techies don't get it:  When the Romania (a ccTLD) publishes a Web Site in English it is for external consumption and the EU (a gTLD)  does not "create" a proxy Germany, or UK.  If half the population of the UK thinks of Europe as a foreign land (your example), then semantics makes a guess at which half - an answer in search of a question.

2. Proxy Communities may be "created" at any level, but always one level below their parent.
3. Those responsible for Domain Security have known this for a long time, but are not in the business of education[1].  Or as Upton Sinclair put it (SPARQLers, cover your ears) "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!".
4. A Generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) is not a Sovereign in the traditional sense, but Governments have an inflexible hierarchy.  Neither Government nor Industry, nor the data itself needs to "do anything" to fix this.  The problem is an unintended side effect of the engineering.  The Rosetta Stone* was language translation aid and Squanto* was a language interpreter capable of learning new terms.
5. This scheme has no effect at all on ADMS, for reasons explained below.  In fact, the "Assets" it describes are limited to learned behavior (bibliograph) and currency
6. The EU Membership, UN Membership, WIPO 
Membership and UN/CLOS (Law of the Sea) Signatories are peer groups 
(gTLD's, if you will), but none include all Countries. 


[2] is a visualization of eGov on a Cartesian Grid.  The "horizontals" are a profile, a list of properties (CURIE) representing an Average Citizen and the cash in their pocket.  Obviously, this changes second to second, and it makes a very lousy profile, but it is never null, and that's the point.  A broke, mute refugee can be counted.  The "verticals" are a list of eGov web page languages (Terminology Languages).  Every Community page has to have one, including the proxies.

There are 676 possible ISO Codes. The table has 901 members, includes some subdivisions and some codes which do not correspond to Countries (the Inner Join-Outer Join problem with profiles). 

There are up to 3 hyperlinks in each row (for each sequence) .
Column: Community -> Government Website (The name of the Community is an alias)

Column: CommunityLink -> Country or Region (LOC ID Servers)
Column: TerminologyLink -> Terminology Language or LOC Subject Heading (LOC ID Servers)
In addition, the CommunityIDLink Column gives a federalized hypertext link eGov Alias.  To fill out the subdivisions to the State, Local, Regional and Tribal levels is a task that can be automated, once the Community Proxies which arise from coding and domain sponsorship technical issues (joins) have been identified. 

Example #1 Western Sahara was "created" by having an ISO 3166code (EH seq. 179) although it has no link to Government, UN Membership, etc..
Example #2 Ascension Island is (seq. 3) "created" by having a Domain Sponsor, even though the code is out-dated.  It belongs to St. Helena (which in turn belongs to the UK).
Example #3 Penguins are well-dressed *and* speak the four terminology languages of Antarctica, created by the Domain Sponsor and the UN.
Example #4 Kosovo (seq. 826,827,828) is not recognized by anybody but the EU and me.  I gave them one of the user defined ISO Codes and the EU gave them a web page in three languages. 


--Gannon

[*] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squanto
[1] http://www.rustprivacy.org/2012/cctld/CURIE.xhtml
[2] http://www.rustprivacy.org/2012/cctld/CURIE2.xhtml


________________________________
 From: Phil Archer <phila@w3.org>
To: Gannon Dick <gannon_dick@yahoo.com> 
Cc: "public-egov-ig@w3.org" <public-egov-ig@w3.org>; Debora Di Giacomo <debora.di.giacomo@pwc.be> 
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2012 12:14 PM
Subject: Re: [Invitation] Semantic Interoperability Conference 2012
 
Interesting, thanks Gannon.

It is clear that no matter how much techies shout that URIs are dumb 
strings - of course they are brands too. A recurring issue in eGov 
circles (we've talked about it) is that, for example, the US gov isn't 
going to use any data with a URI on foo.eu and, even within the EU, 
countries like the UK would think 17 times before using foo.eu for 
anything (we're in the EU but more than half of the population sees 
Europe as a foreign land - I'm in the minority on not holding this view).

data.gov.eu doesn't exist, but http://publicdata.eu/ does. In the 
Netherlands it's http://www.overheid.nl - so the string 'gov' is not 
always needed (and I know the US folks get really annoyed when the rest 
of us refer to 'data gov' meaning data.gov.uk or any of the above 
mentioned portals.

Re your question - are you offering to come to Brussels and present your 
work at the SEMIC conference? I am not responsible for organising the 
event but I work closely with those that are. Drop a like to Debora Di 
Giacomo (cc'd) if I've understood you correctly.

Phil.



On 14/05/2012 23:42, Gannon Dick wrote:
> Thanks Phil,
>
> This opinion [1] if effected somewhere down the line would have a bearing on the issue of the "data.gov" brand (gTLD).  That would include data.gov.uk (ccTLD=UK), data.gov (ccTLD=US) and many others.  There is no "data.gov.eu", and that's not the issue for branding and Trademarks, but when you federalize the ccTLD, you risk losing sight of subdivisions and overseas dependencies, and the UK, France, the Netherlands (off the top of my head) and others, have overseas dependencies with seriously nice beaches and climate :o)  In terms of gTLD branding, "data.gov.{gTLD}" is a possible domain name, but does not supply a Government service.  The gTLD is an official supplier of something, but not Government Data.
>
> I have a solution (amounting to carefully tabulating ccTLD's as gTLD's) if you are interested, but I'm not sure if this is actually on the radar yet.
>
>
> --Gannon
> [1] http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/P_87207/
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>   From: Phil Archer<phila@w3.org>
> To: public-egov-ig@w3.org
> Sent: Monday, May 14, 2012 10:33 AM
> Subject: [Invitation] Semantic Interoperability Conference 2012
>
>
>
> I believe this will be of interest to several members of the IG. It is at the start of a week of events in Brussels in Mid-June. This one is on the Monday, then on the Tuesday/Wednesday there's the Using Open Data Workshop I'm organising under the Crossover project (position papers due by this Saturday!) and then it's the Digital Agenda Assembly on the Thurs/Fri/. A busy week!
>
>
>   Semantic Interoperability Conference 2012
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Dear  Sir / Madam,
> We are pleased to invite you to the:
>   Semantic Interoperability Conference 2012
>
> SEMIC 2012 offers an opportunity to explore and discuss how semantic interoperability solutions are being embraced by eGovernment initiatives. The main topics of interest include:
>     * The practical use of semantic technologies such as RDF, OWL and SPARQL.
>     * The work of standardisation organisations in the field of semantic technologies.
>     * The business case for ICT projects to consider the use of semantic tehcnologies.
> Monday, June 18, 2012 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (GMT+0100)
>
> Madou Plaza Tower (Brussels)
> Auditorium - Ground Floor
> 1 Place Madou
> 1210 Brussels
> Belgium
> View Map
>
>
> If you are interested to learn more about semantic technologies, join the SEMIC 2012 conference in Brussels on 18th June 2012. This is a free and open event, however registration is required and places are limited. Register now!
> Visit the conference website for detailed information.
>
> We are looking forward to welcoming you,
> Débora Di Giacomo
> - on behalf of the ISA Programme of the European Commission
>
> Share this event on LinkedIn and Twitter - #SEMIC2012
>
>    Phil Archer, W3C for
> The Joinup Team

-- 


Phil Archer
W3C eGovernment
http://www.w3.org/egov/

http://philarcher.org
+44 (0)7887 767755
@philarcher1