This Handbook explains the role of Core Vocabularies in enabling semantic interoperability at the EU level and provides a practical guide for public administrations to use them. It is intended for business users who wish to understand how the Core Vocabularies can be useful, and for semantic engineers who seek straightforward guidance for specific use cases.
This book is aimed at two main audiences: 1) administrative professionals, including policy officers and possibly also legal experts, and 2) technical experts and IT professionals.
Public administrations involve both legal/administrative experts and technical professionals. While they may not always "speak the same language", they must work together to ensure smooth digital transformation. Semantic interoperability provides the common foundation that allows them to bridge their disciplinary differences and find common ground, enabling effective collaboration and thereby contributing to improved public services.
Each intended audience will gain new insights relevant for their respective roles.
Domain experts will, upon reading the handbook:
- Understand the role of semantic interoperability at the EU level, which might also be of use at the national, regional, and local level.
- Gain insight about how structured data and shared vocabularies enhance legal clarity, data exchange, and cross-border cooperation.
- Gain insights into how interoperability supports public services and reduces administrative burdens.
- Ensure compliance with the SEMIC Style Guide rules & principles [xref:references.adoc#ref:4[sem-sg]].
It is expected that this will facilitate coordination with technical teams to ensure that interoperability initiatives meet both legal and operational requirements and assist the administrative professionals and legal experts in making informed decisions about financing and prioritising IT projects that align with interoperability goals.
The technical experts and IT professionals who design, implement, and maintain the software ecosystem will, upon reading the handbook:
- Learn how to design and implement interoperable systems using Core Vocabularies and semantic data models.
- Understand methodologies for creating, mapping, and integrating semantic data models in public administration systems.
- Be able to apply best practices for data exchange, ensuring consistency and accuracy across different systems.
- Use standardised approaches to enhance data accessibility, transparency, and reuse in line with FAIR principles.
It is expected that this will not only facilitate communication with the domain experts but also further streamline software development conformant to the user specification and, ultimately, benefit the citizens by providing more smoothly functioning digital services.
The handbook is organised into the following sections:
This section introduces what interoperability is, what makes it semantic, and why and how Core Vocabularies contribute to it.
The Primary Use Cases: are described in this section, which cover the most common, challenging, and interesting scenarios. They are thoroughly covered within this handbook.
The Additional Use Cases are deferred to the appendix, where brief introductions are provided to use interesting cases that were not deemed core at the time of writing, but may become so upon community input.
This chapter is divided into two main sections, where each section contains a business use case and user story, guidelines for carrying out the task, and a practica tutorial.
-
How to create new XSD schema: This section provides detailed, step-by-step instructions for designing and implementing an XSD schema. The tutorial uses the Core Business Vocabulary.
-
How to Create a New JSON-LD Context Definition: This section provides step-by-step guidance on generating JSON-LD contexts for data exchange. The tutorial uses the CPSV-AP Core Vocabulary.
This chapter is also divided into two main sections:
-
Map an existing model, focussing on the mapping process inspired by ontology matching frameworks. The tutorial zooms in on mapping the Core Business Vocabulary to Schema.org.
-
Map an existing XSD Schema, which outlines a methodology for XSD schema and XML file mapping. The tutorial uses the Core Business Vocabulary as example.
This section sums up the content, as well as what was not covered and why, and looks ahead to prospective new goalposts.
The appendix lists the additional use cases.
The glossary defines key terms related to semantic data specifications—including application profiles, conceptual models, ontologies, data models, and vocabularies. It clarifies their roles in data interoperability and provides references from the SEMIC Style Guide.
The handbook can also be read as one contiguous file, accessed from this link.