Save the date: SEMIC 2012 conference, 18 June Brussels
The Semantic Interoperability Conference 2012 - SEMIC 2012 - offers a unique opportunity to explore and discuss how semantic interoperability solutions are being embraced by e-Government initiatives. It combines plenary sessions and interactive panel sessions in an inspiring networking atmosphere.
This one-day conference is organised by the ISA Programme of the European Commission as part of the Semantic Methodologies Action (Action 1.1). If you are interested to learn more about semantic initiatives that thrived and deliver value, join the SEMIC 2012 in Brussels on 18 June 2012.
+ Click here to read the full announcement of the SEMIC 2012 Conference
Key specifications for interoperability developed by the EU's Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administration (ISA) Programme to become W3C standards
The European Commission has reached an agreement with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) on the sustainability of key specifications to facilitate interoperability, across borders and sectors, between public administrations in Europe and beyond. The Asset Description Metadata Schema (ADMS) together with three Core Vocabularies (Core Person, Core Business, and Core Location) which were created by the EU's ISA programme will be contributed to the W3C's Government Linked Data (GLD) Working Group.
The ISA Programme outputs will be published by the GLD Working Group as First Public Working Drafts for further consultation within the context of the typical W3C standardization process. The desired outcome of that process will be the publication of these vocabularies as open Web standards available under W3C's Royalty-Free License.
Highlights of the 7 March CESAR Workshop
The highlights and presentations of the 7 March CESAR Workshop are available on Joinup. With approximately 50 attendees from all over Europe, 13 presentations and 15 presenters, the Workshop can certainly be called a success. The first part of the workshop tackled the experiences of Governmental semantic assets repository owners in setting up an infrastructure for metadata management. The second part focused on experiences in and future plans of a number of organisations for describing semantic assets using the Asset Description Metadata Schema (ADMS).
Latest publications
ISA Deliverable: The vision for an enhanced software description metadata schema and software catalogue for e-Government This document formulates the vision for better interlinking on-line software repositories. This can be achieved by creating an enhanced software description metadata specification that will allow software forges to exchange more information about their software projects and software assets. In addition to this, this report analyses the benefits and costs of constructing and maintaining an EU-wide software catalogue for public administrations on the Joinup platform.
ISA Deliverable: Report on existing Software Forges This report was created with the prospect of creating an enhanced federation of software forges on Joinup using the Asset Description Metadata Schema for Software.
Joinup Semantic Asset Licensing Framework The Joinup Semantic Asset Licensing Framework is a light weight system to acquire legal information about semantic assets stored in the Joinup platform, to link that legal information to the asset and to allow users of the Joinup platform to filter assets based on that legal information. It also establishes a system for the production of assets on the Joinup platform, the ISA Collaborator Licence Agreement v1.0, and a licensing model for Joinup's own assets, the ISA Open Metadata Licence v1.0, with a focus on optimal conditions for re-use of those assets.
Semantic asset repositories case studies:
ADMS-enabled federation of semantic asset repositories - Brochure This document contains the promotional brochure of the ISA Programme for the ADMS-enabled federation of European semantic assets repositories ("ADMS-enabled federation - Making metadata interoperable")
Semantic asset repositories factsheets and interviews:
- Listpoint will join the ADMS-enabled federation
- The International Commission on Civil Status will share its semantic assets using ADMS
- GS1 in Europe experiments with ADMS
+ Click here to browse through documents in the e-Library and to share your own
ADMS v1.0 soon to be released.
After implementing the comments raised during the public review period and having a final Working Group meeting, the Asset Description Metadata Schema v1.0 (ADMS v1.0) will soon be ready to be released on Joinup. ADMS is a common way to describe metadata of highly reusable semantic interoperability assets. It makes it possible for everyone to search and discover semantic assets shared through the forthcoming federation of European asset repositories. ADMS is the first step towards the federation which will become reality by mid 2012.
ADMS.F/OSS soon to be released for public review.
The Asset Description Metadata Schema for Free and Open Source Software (ADMS.F/OSS) will soon be released for a one month public review period. ADMS.F/OSS is a common XML and RDF vocabulary to describe software assets and to make it possible to more easily explore, find, and link software assets on the Web. The specification maximally reuses existing specifications, such as DOAP, ADMS, and the Trove software map (Trove © SourceForge 2012 CC-BY). The current draft of ADMS.F/OSS was elaborated in January 2012 by a multi disciplinary working group of 40 people, from 12 different Member States, Croatia, the US and some European Organisations.
Latest News about (Semantic) Interoperability in Europe
- NL - Awareness around Standard Business Reporting is growing
- Key specifications for interoperability developed by the EU’s Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administration (ISA) Programme to become W3C standards
- EC opens a Public Consultation on the Access to Interoperability Information of Digital Products and Services
- RDFa 1.1 specification gathers two independent and interoperable implementations in 48 hours
- EU - W3C promises to adopt the ADMS and Core Vocabularies specifications
- EU - 5 reasons why publishers of semantic assets should consider joining the Federation
- EU - GS1 in Europe experiments with ADMS
- UK - Listpoint will join the European Federation of Semantic Asset Repositories
- BE - Flemish Open Standard Initiative for Local Authorities
- EU -Activities of the ADMS Working Group will be extended for one month. It will now close on 26 March 2012.
- EU - EU Working Group seeks public comments on e-Government Core Vocabularies
- EU -1200 reads and 640 downloads - enthusiasm around ADMS echoed in its public review
- FR - France launches its open data portal – data.gouv.fr
- EE - X-Road celebrates its 10th anniversary
- EU - Establishment of the ADMS.F/OSS Working Group
- GR - Call for comments on the Greek Framework for the provision of e-Government services
+ Click here to browse through news items on Joinup and to propose your own news items
New semantic assets
- Trade Mark XML: TM-XML defines an XML standard for trade mark information exchange.
- RADion: In RADion, the common elements of ADMS, ADMS.F/OSS and DCAT are separated in a top level model.
- Shortsea XML: Shortsea XML is a message standard for exchange of data between parties in a shortsea transport chain.
- Core Business Vocabulary: The Core Business Vocabulary is a simplified, reusable and extensible data model that captures the fundamental characteristics of a legal entity.
- Core Person Vocabulary: The Core Person Vocabulary is a simplified, reusable and extensible data model that captures the fundamental characteristics of a person.
- Core Location Vocabulary: The Core Location Vocabulary is a simplified, reusable and extensible data model that captures the fundamental characteristics of a location.
- Strategy Markup Language: Strategy Markup Language (StratML) is an Extensible Markup Language (XML) vocabulary and schema for the information commonly contained in strategic and performance plans and reports.
Upcoming events
| 5 April 2012 | Quality of Semantic Standards Seminar |
| 16 - 20 April 2012 | World Wide Web 2012 |
| 23 - 27 April 2012 | The Open Group Conference 2012 |
| 2 - 5 May 2012 | International School on Semantic Web Applications and Technologies for the Life Sciences 2012 |
| 8 - 9 May 2012 | Transforming Government Workshop 2012 |
| 14 - 18 May 2012 | WSIS Forum 2012 |
| 27 - 31 May 2012 | 9th Extended Semantic Web Conference (ESWC12) |
| 30 May 2012 | Cross-Border Healthcare in Europe: Towards Clarity, Quality and Synergy between Member States |
| 6 - 7 June 2012 | European Data Forum 2012 |
| 12 - 13 June 2012 | The European e-Identity Management Conference 2012 |
| 13 - 15 June 2012 | International Conference on Web Intelligence, Mining and Semantics (WIMS '12) |
| 14 - 15 June 2012 | ECEG 2012 |
| 18 June 2012 | SEMIC 2012 - Semantic Interoperability Conference 2012 |
| 23 - 27 June 2012 | INSPIRE Conference 2012 |
+ Click here to browse through events on Joinup and to share your own
Semantic interoperability on Joinup
The Joinup platform was launched on 9 December 2011. Joinup integrates the former SEMIC.EU and OSOR.EU platforms and provides communication and collaobration tools for the EU's communities involved in cross-border e-Government interoperability. Joinup allows e-Government professionals to:
- Get in contact with users and communities with a similar interest:
- Share information and learn about semantic interoperability via the e-Library, news and newsletter;
- Find and reuse semantic interoperability assets;
- Develop semantic interoperability assets.
Get involved: How can I contribute?
You can contribute by:
- Sharing and Promote your semantic assets and/or open-source software projects;
- Sharing your news, events, documents, etc. ;
- Join us on
If you have questions, please contact us via the contact form.