Day 2 - Theme: Integrated Systems AgrisContent Taskforce Meeting Wageningen, 1-2 March Feb 2007GFAR - Global Forum on Agricultural Research1 Use Cases for a Standard to describe Organizations  GFAR in this context  Why a standard: possible use cases  Proposed Application Profile  Open issues A proposal from FAO and GFAR

AgrisContent Taskforce Meeting, 1-2 March 2007 – INTEGRATED SYSTEMS Use Cases for a Standard to describe Organizations 26 Feb 2007GFAR - Global Forum on Agricultural Research2 GFAR in this context (1) 1) The fourth pillar of GFAR's business plan is Management Information Systems 2) The second general objective identified for EGFAR is: “to identify information resources relevant to agricultural research for development and to enhance access to them by the GFAR stakeholders”

AgrisContent Taskforce Meeting, 1-2 March 2007 – INTEGRATED SYSTEMS Use Cases for a Standard to describe Organizations 26 Feb 2007GFAR - Global Forum on Agricultural Research3 GFAR in this context (2) The second specific objective is the development of gateway functions: “a multi-host database search engine allowing transparent access to decentralised resources managed at a regional or national level” “EGFAR will have to promote standards to be shared by the various stakeholders”

AgrisContent Taskforce Meeting, 1-2 March 2007 – INTEGRATED SYSTEMS Use Cases for a Standard to describe Organizations 26 Feb 2007GFAR - Global Forum on Agricultural Research4 Why a Standard for describing Organizations?  The ARD community is asking for reliable and comprehensive information on Organizations in the ARD field, especially in correlation to information about projects and eperts Partial geographical coverage Not up to date Data provider 1 Data and service provider Data provider 2 Full coverage of a certain type Partial geographical coverage Regularly updated Service providers harmonization mapping of vocabularies data processing Specialised service 1 Specialised service 2 ARDCOMMUNITYARDCOMMUNITY ? DATA INFORMATION KNOWLEDGE

AgrisContent Taskforce Meeting, 1-2 March 2007 – INTEGRATED SYSTEMS Use Cases for a Standard to describe Organizations 26 Feb 2007GFAR - Global Forum on Agricultural Research5 Why a Standard for describing Organizations? (2) There is the need for advanced integrated services that are capable of extracting coherent and reliable / updated information from the different resources available The basic instrument and starting point for any such information service is an agreed standard for describing the object of the information service: organizations The Expert Consultation identified the mandate for organizations at the international level to develop normative standards / tools

AgrisContent Taskforce Meeting, 1-2 March 2007 – INTEGRATED SYSTEMS Use Cases for a Standard to describe Organizations 26 Feb 2007GFAR - Global Forum on Agricultural Research6 Possible Use Cases (1)  Exposing / exchanging data Two or more organizations making their data available to each other Data provider 1 Data provider 2 XML Same standard to describe the data Standard description: necessary - Controlled vocabularies: recommended Unique identifier: not necessary - Meta-metadata on the data provider: not necessary Available records Database Available records Database

AgrisContent Taskforce Meeting, 1-2 March 2007 – INTEGRATED SYSTEMS Use Cases for a Standard to describe Organizations 26 Feb 2007GFAR - Global Forum on Agricultural Research7 Possible Use Cases (2)  Integrating existing data sources Two or more organizations merging data Data provider 1 Data provider 2 XML Available records Final Database Available records Database XML? Standard description: necessary - Controlled vocabularies: necessary Unique identifier: not necessary - Meta-metadata on the data provider: not necessary

AgrisContent Taskforce Meeting, 1-2 March 2007 – INTEGRATED SYSTEMS Use Cases for a Standard to describe Organizations 26 Feb 2007GFAR - Global Forum on Agricultural Research8 Possible Use Cases (3)  Integration with other information types - Responsible Organization - Funding Organization Project database Bibliographic database Expert database - Organization - Corporate Author - Publisher Data provider 1 Service provider XML Registry file? Standard description: necessary - Controlled vocabularies: not necessary IF Registry: Unique identifier: necessary - Meta-metadata on the data provider: necessary

AgrisContent Taskforce Meeting, 1-2 March 2007 – INTEGRATED SYSTEMS Use Cases for a Standard to describe Organizations 26 Feb 2007GFAR - Global Forum on Agricultural Research9 Possible Use Cases (4) A globally integrated information system Data provider 1 Data provider 4 Gateway Data provider 2 Specialised service 1 Service providers XML Registry file? Data provider 3 Specialised service 2 Ideal Each organization exposes the record describing itself XML Harvesting Data maintenanceHarmonization and toolsSpecialised services

AgrisContent Taskforce Meeting, 1-2 March 2007 – INTEGRATED SYSTEMS Use Cases for a Standard to describe Organizations 26 Feb 2007GFAR - Global Forum on Agricultural Research10 Proposed Application Profile (1)  The identification of the elements necessary to describe an organization was based on: - existing DTDs: only CERIF uses a DTD for organizations, quite complex - fields used in existing databases: Infosys, Wisard, AROW...

AgrisContent Taskforce Meeting, 1-2 March 2007 – INTEGRATED SYSTEMS Use Cases for a Standard to describe Organizations 26 Feb 2007GFAR - Global Forum on Agricultural Research11 Proposed Application Profile (2) United Nations UN United Nations Plaza, New York, New York, US The United Nations (UN) is an international organization... Forestry Fisheries International organizations Bioversity

AgrisContent Taskforce Meeting, 1-2 March 2007 – INTEGRATED SYSTEMS Use Cases for a Standard to describe Organizations 26 Feb 2007GFAR - Global Forum on Agricultural Research12 Open Issues  Description: Mandatory fields Controlled vocabulary  Identification / context: Unique Identifier Relations Submitting Organization

AgrisContent Taskforce Meeting, 1-2 March 2007 – INTEGRATED SYSTEMS Use Cases for a Standard to describe Organizations 26 Feb 2007GFAR - Global Forum on Agricultural Research13 Benefits for each participant in the cooperative effort Maintenance of the data: with the data owner Data updated only in one place Visibility Data ownership is acknowledged Information Service implementation by service providers Focus on service, not data maintenance Information service source is acknowledged Services targeted for groups of end-users / specialized niche services. Focus on tailoring information ARD Community Funds DATAINFORMATION KNOWLEDGE

Day 2 - Theme: Integrated Systems AgrisContent Taskforce Meeting Wageningen, 1-2 March Feb 2007GFAR - Global Forum on Agricultural Research14 Use Cases for a Standard to describe Organizations Thank you Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) c/o FAO Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, Roma (Italy)