Abstract

Introduction

The Core Public Organization Vocabulary (CPOV) is designed to support the exchange of basic information about individual public organizations. Using the vocabulary, almost certainly augmented with sector- or country-specific information, will facilitate the process for institutions publishing data about public organisations to

• share information G2G (government to government), G2B (government to business) and G2C (government to citizen);
• develop common information systems;
• link data from public organizations to other data sets;
• manage a cross-border repository of public services and organizations;
• enable the creation of interoperable catalogues of public organisation in Europe and beyond;
• browse public organizations by its function;
• link public service provided, budgets, and other types of resources with certain public organisations;
• keep track of the evolution of public organizations; and
• increase efficiencies by spotting duplicated or overlapping functions.

The Core Public Organization Vocabulary is designed to describe the organization itself. Whilst the vocabulary may support links to descriptions of public services, members of staff or other resources such as relevant legislation, policies and jurisdictional coverage, it will not describe those resources in detail.

Public organizations involve elected representatives but these descriptions are out of scope for the current work but may be the focus of future work once the vocabulary is established and used.

The vocabulary is not concerned with features associated with commercial entities such as shareholdings and ownership.

Wherever possible, the CPOV will reuse existing vocabularies to avoid defining new terms. When reusing existing terms, it may define how they should be used.

In order to assure the reusability, neutrality and extensibility of the core vocabulary, specific code lists to be used as values for properties will not be included in the specification.

Status

This Core Vocabulary has the status SEMIC Candidate Recommendation published at 2024-01-31.

Information about the process and the decisions involved in the creation of this specification are consultable at the Changelog.

License

Copyright © 2024 European Union. All material in this repository is published under the license CC-BY 4.0, unless explicitly otherwise mentioned.

Terminology

A Core Vocabulary (CV) is a basic, reusable and extensible data specification that captures the fundamental characteristics of an entity in a context-neutral fashion. Its main objective is to provide terms to be reused in the broadest possible context. More information can be found on the SEMIC Style Guide.

Overview

Main Entities

Address

Definition

A spatial object that in a human-readable way identifies a fixed location.

Usage Note

An "address representation" as conceptually defined by the INSPIRE Address Representation data type: "Representation of an address spatial object for use in external application schemas that need to include the basic, address information in a readable way.".

The representation of Addresses varies widely from one country's postal system to another. Even within countries, there are almost always examples of Addresses that do not conform to the stated national standard. However, ISO 19160-1 provides a method through which different Addresses can be converted from one conceptual model to another.

This specification was heavily based on the INSPIRE Address Representation data type. It is noteworthy that if an Address is provided using the detailed breakdown suggested by the properties for this class, then it will be INSPIRE-conformant. To this very granular set of properties, we add two further properties:

- full address (the complete address as a formatted string)
- addressID (a unique identifier for the address).

The first of these allows publishers to simply provide the complete Address as one string, with or without formatting. This is analogous to vCard's label property.

The addressID is part of the INSPIRE guidelines and provides a hook that can be used to link the Address to an alternative representation, such as vCard or OASIS xAL.

This class belongs to Core Location Vocabulary

Properties

For this entity the following properties are defined: address area , address ID , administrative unit level 1 , administrative unit level 2 , full address , locator designator , locator name , post code , post name , post office box , thoroughfare .

	Property	Range	Card	Definition	Usage
	address area	Text	0..*	The name of a geographic area that groups Addresses.	This would typically be part of a city, a neighbourhood or village, e.g. Montmartre. Address area is not an administrative unit.
	address ID	Literal	0..*	A globally unique identifier for each instance of an Address.	The concept of adding a globally unique identifier for each instance of an address is a crucial part of the INSPIRE data spec. A number of EU countries have already implemented an ID (a UUID) in their Address Register/gazetteer, among them Denmark. OASIS xAL also includes an address identifier. It is the address Identifier that allows an address to be represented in a format other than INSPIRE whilst remaining conformant to the Core Vocabulary. The INSPIRE method of representing addresses is very detailed, designed primarily for use in databases of addresses. Whilst data that is published in full conformance with the INSPIRE data structure can be made available using theCore Location Vocabulary the reverse is not true since the Core Vocabulary allows much greater flexibility. Many datasets that include address data as one piece of information about something else are likely to have that data in simpler formats. These might be tailored to the specific need of the dataset, follow a national norm, or make use of a standard like vCard. To provide maximum flexibility in the Core Vocabulary, whilst remaining interoperable with INSPIRE Address Guidelines (which EU Member States are obliged to use), the Core Location Vocabulary provides the extra property of full address and makes use of INSPIRE's addressID.
	administrative unit level 1	Text	0..*	The name of the uppermost level of the address, almost always a country.	Best practice is to use the ISO 3166-1 code but if this is inappropriate for the context, country names should be provided in a consistent manner to reduce ambiguity. For example, either write 'France' or 'FRA' consistently throughout the dataset and avoid mixing the two. The Country controlled vocabulary from the Publications Office can be reused for this.
	administrative unit level 2	Text	0..*	The name of a secondary level/region of the address, usually a county, state or other such area that typically encompasses several localities.	Values could be a region or province, more granular than level 1.
	full address	Text	0..*	The complete address written as a string.	Use of this property is recommended as it will not suffer any misunderstandings that might arise through the breaking up of an address into its component parts. This property is analogous to vCard's label property but with two important differences: (1) formatting is not assumed so that, unlike vCard label, it may not be suitable to print this on an address label, (2) vCard's label property has a domain of vCard Address; the fullAddress property has no such restriction. An example of a full address is "Champ de Mars, 5 Avenue Anatole France, 75007 Paris, France".
	locator designator	Literal	0..*	A number or sequence of characters that uniquely identifies the locator within the relevant scope.	In simpler terms, this is the building number, apartment number, etc. For an address such as "Flat 3, 17 Bridge Street", the locator is "flat 3, 17".
	locator name	Text	0..*	Proper noun(s) applied to the real world entity identified by the locator. The locator name could be the name of the property or complex, of the building or part of the building, or it could be the name of a room inside a building.	The locator name could be the name of the property or complex, of the building or part of the building, or it could be the name of a room inside a building. The key difference between a locator designator and a locator name is that the latter is a proper name and is unlikely to include digits. For example, "Shumann, Berlaymont" is a meeting room within the European Commission headquarters for which locator name is more appropriate than locator.
	post code	Literal	0..*	The code created and maintained for postal purposes to identify a subdivision of addresses and postal delivery points.	Post codes are common elements in many countries' postal address systems. One of the many post codes of Paris is for example "75000".
	post name	Text	0..*	A name created and maintained for postal purposes to identify a subdivision of addresses and postal delivery points.	Usually a city, for example "Paris".
	post office box	Literal	0..*	A location designator for a postal delivery point at a post office, usually a number.	INSPIRE's name for this is "postalDeliveryIdentifier" for which it uses the locator designator property with a type attribute of that name. This vocabulary separates out the Post Office Box for greater independence of technology. An example post office box number is "9383".
	thoroughfare	Text	0..*	The name of a passage or way through from one location to another.	A thoroughfare is usually a street, but it might be a waterway or some other feature. For example, "Avenue des Champs-Élysées".

Contact Point

Definition

Information (e.g. e-mail address, telephone number) of a person or department through which the user can get in touch with.

Usage Note

The Core Public Organization Vocabulary defines properties for telephone number, e-mail address and opening hours although it is noteworthy that the class is based on schema.org's ContactPoint class that has additional properties that some implementations may find useful.

Properties

For this entity the following properties are defined: availability restriction , contact page , has email , has telephone , opening hours .

	Property	Range	Card	Definition	Usage
	availability restriction	Temporal Entity	0..*	The time during which the Contact Point is not available.
	contact page	Document	0..*	A web page that could be used to reach out the Contact Point.
	has email	Literal	0..*	An electronic address through which the Contact Point can be contacted.
	has telephone	Literal	0..*	A telephone number through which the Contact Point can be contacted.
	opening hours	Temporal Entity	0..*	The time at which the Contact Point is normally available.

Identifier

Definition

A structured reference that identifies an entity.

Usage Note

The Identifier class is based on the UN/CEFACT class of the same name and is defined under the ADMS namespace.

Properties

For this entity the following properties are defined: date of issue , notation , schema agency , scheme name , scheme URI .

	Property	Range	Card	Definition	Usage
	date of issue	Date	0..*	The date on which the Identifier was assigned.
	notation	Literal	0..*	A string of characters to uniquely identify a concept.
	schema agency	Literal	0..*	The name of the agency that issued the identifier.
	scheme name	Text	0..*	Name of the scheme used to construct the identifier.
	scheme URI	URI	0..*	URI of the scheme used to construct the identifier.

Public Organisation

Definition

An Organization that is defined as being part of the public sector by a legal framework at any level.

Usage Note

Organizations which exist to provide services for its citizens and companies are called Public Organizations. The Public Organization class represents the organization. One organization may comprise several sub-organizations and any organization may have one or more organizational units. Each of these is described using the same properties and relationships.

This definition is consistent with the more detailed definition of a "public sector body" as given in the PSI Directive: "the State, regional or local authorities, bodies governed by public law and associations formed by one or several such authorities or one or several such bodies governed by public law". It further defines a body governed by public law as any body "(a) established for the specific purpose of meeting needs in the general interest, not having an industrial or commercial character; and (b) having legal personality; and (c) financed, for the most part by the State, or regional or local authorities, or other bodies governed by public law; or subject to management supervision by those bodies; or having an administrative, managerial or supervisory board, more than half of whose members are appointed by the State, regional or local authorities or by other bodies governed by public law".

Subclass of

Organization

Properties

For this entity the following properties are defined: address , alternative label , changed by , classification , contact point , description , has member , has unit , homepage , identifier , logo , member of , next , preferred label , prev , purpose , resulted from , spatial .

	Property	Range	Card	Definition	Usage
	address	Address	0..*	The Address of a Public Organization.	For consistency with INSPIRE, the Location Core Vocabulary's Address class should be used.
	alternative label	Text	0..*	An alternative or informal name(s) of a Public Organization, irrespective of language.
	changed by	Change Event	0..*	The Change Event that changed the Organization.	Usually a change in the legal framework that is linked with the existence and operation of the organisation.
	classification	Code	0..*	The categorisation of the Public Organization.	As an example, the Publications Office of the European Union provides a Named Authority list of Organization Types which is appropriate for European institutions. Other classification schemes should be used at other levels of Public Organization.
	contact point	Contact Point	0..*	The main contact information of the resource.	Usually a phone number and e-mail address. Other contact methods may be included, including online contact information, but this is conceptually distinct from the organization's homepage that may or may not provide contact information.
	description	Text	0..*	The textual description of the Public Organization.
	has member	Public Organisation	0..*	An Organization which is a member of another without being a sub organization, they are independent entities.	The memberOf and hasMember properties are very simple and don't support statements describing the nature of the membership. The W3C Organization Ontology provides both this simple method and a more sophisticated model that does make it possible to, for example, provide information about the period of time in which one Organization was a member of another, the level of membership etc. That more sophisticated model should be used where necessary and may be used in addition to the simple memberOf/hasMember properties. An example of memberships are the EU member states and other partners which could be represented via different legal entities as members of EFSA, the European Food Safety Agency.
	has unit	Organizational Unit	0..*	An operational department within the Public Organization.	Organizations typically comprise many departments, units, teams etc. Each of these is modelled in the CPOV as a unit that is linked from the parent Organization with hasUnit and to the parent with unitOf.
	homepage	Document	0..*	The official home page of the Public Organization.	The value of this property is a URL irrespective of the serialisation of the data.
	identifier	Identifier	0..*	The unambiguous structured reference for the Public Organization.	Public organizations identifiers are often using (but not limited to) acronyms. For example, among the EU institutions, the ECB is the identifier for the European Central Bank, OLAF for the European Anti-Fraud Office, and so on. These are formally recognised by the European Commission which provides a list of such acronyms.
	logo	Image Object	0..*	A graphic symbol to represent the Public Organization.	The value of this property can simply be the URL of the logo but it is better for developers if it links to an object that provides the URL of the image and essential metadata about it, notably its dimensions.
	member of	Public Organisation	0..*	An Organization of which the Public Organisation is a member without being a sub organization, they are independent entities.	The memberOf and hasMember properties are very simple and don't support statements describing the nature of the membership. The W3C Organization Ontology provides both this simple method and a more sophisticated model that does make it possible to, for example, provide information about the period of time in which one Organization was a member of another, the level of membership etc. That more sophisticated model should be used where necessary and may be used in addition to the simple memberOf/hasMember properties. An example of memberships are the EU member states and other partners which could be represented via different legal entities as members of EFSA, the European Food Safety Agency.
	next	Public Organisation	0..*	In some cases, it is necessary to be able to create an ordered sequence of organizations that precede and succeed each other. To support this, the CPOV includes the well-known relationships of previous and next to allow such sequences to be captured and computed.	Examples of events leading to sequences could be renaming, splitting or merging of public organizations.
	preferred label	Text	0..*	A preferred label is used to provide the primary, legally recognised name of the Public Organization, as defined in the ORG Ontology.	Refers to the official or legal name of a Public Organization. An organization may only have one such name in any given language. Primary names may be provided in multiple languages with multiple instances of the preferred label property.
	prev	Public Organisation	0..*	In some cases, it is necessary to be able to create an ordered sequence of an organization that precede and succeed each other. To support this, the CPOV includes the well-known relationships of previous and next to allow such sequences to be captured and computed.	Examples of events leading to sequences could be renaming, splitting or merging of public organizations.
	purpose	Code	0..*	This property describes the reasons of existence of an Organization.	The ORG ontology suggests that this property can also be thought of as meaning 'remit' or 'responsibility.' Ideally this will link to a COFOG code but where this isn't possible or appropriate, other controlled vocabularies may be used.
	resulted from	Change Event	0..*	A Change Event from which the Public Organisation resulted.	Usually a change in the legal framework that is linked with the existence and operation of the organisation.
	spatial	Administrative Territorial Unit	0..*	This property links an Organization to the Administrative Region(s) that it covers.	The value of the properly should be the URI of the region as defined in an authoritative list of regions. In Europe, this is likely to be the Administrative Territorial Units Named Authority List maintained by the Publications Office's Metadata Registry. The ATU list does not include a geometry. That is, the territory is only identified by its name not its spatial coordinates. This is likely to be the case for similar lists. If geometries are available for the Public Organization's territory, they can be linked from the territorial unit using the Core Location Vocabulary's locn:geometry property.

Supportive Entities

Change Event

Definition

An event which resulted in a major change to an Organization such as a merger or complete restructuring.

Usage Note

It is intended for situations where the resulting Organization is sufficiently distinct from the original Organizations that it has a distinct identity and distinct URI.

Properties

For this entity the following properties are defined: description , ended at time , has formal framework , original organization , resulting organization , started at time .

	Property	Range	Card	Definition	Usage
	description	Text	0..*	A textual explanation of the event.
	ended at time	Date Time	0..*	The time instant when the state of the organisation update was terminated.
	has formal framework	Reference Framework	0..*	A piece of legislation or a policy document that prompted the change.	The property hasFormalFramework links a Change Event or Foundation Event to a piece of legislation or a policy document that prompted the change.
	original organization	Public Organisation	0..*	The Organization that existed before the change.	Although the Foundation Event class is defined as a subclass of Change Event, it is inappropriate to use the original organization property with the Foundation Event class.
	resulting organization	Public Organisation	0..*	This property links a Change Event or a Foundation Event to the Organization that resulted from it.
	started at time	Date Time	0..*	The time instant when the state of the organisation update was initiated.

Organization

Definition

A collection of people organized together into a community or other social, commercial or political structure. The group has some common purpose or reason for existence which goes beyond the set of people belonging to it and can act as an Agent. Organizations are often decomposable into hierarchical structures.

Subclass of

Agent

Properties

For this entity the following properties are defined: has sub organization , sub organization of .

	Property	Range	Card	Definition	Usage
	has sub organization	Organization	0..*	Represents hierarchical containment of Organizations or OrganizationalUnits; indicates an organization which is a sub-part or child of this organization.
	sub organization of	Organization	0..*	Represents hierarchical containment of Organizations or OrganizationalUnits; indicates an Organization which contains this Organization.

Organizational Unit

Definition

A subdivision of Organization which is part of this Organization.

Usage Note

The existence of an Organizational Unit depends on the Parent Organization, which means that it can only exist in the scope of the Parent Organization and not on its own.

Subclass of

Organization

Properties

For this entity the following properties are defined: unit of .

	Property	Range	Card	Definition	Usage
	unit of	Public Organisation	0..*	The Public Organisation of which the Organizational Unit is an operational department.	Organizations typically comprise many departments, units, teams etc. Each of these is modelled in the CPOV as a unit that is linked from the parent Organization with hasUnit and to the parent with unitOf.

Reference Framework

Definition

Legislation or official policy from which Requirements are derived.

Usage Note

Usual Reference Frameworks are legal and non-legal specifications. Examples include procedures, tendering legislation, etc.

Properties

For this entity the following properties are defined: identifier , implements .

	Property	Range	Card	Definition	Usage
	identifier	Literal	0..*	An unambiguous reference to a Reference Framework.
	implements	Change Event	0..*	A Change Event linked to relevant legislation or policy documents.	An example is the reference framework under which the Change Event is defined.

Temporal Entity

Definition

A temporal interval or instant.

Properties

For this entity the following properties are defined: description , frequency .

	Property	Range	Card	Definition	Usage
	description	Text	0..*	A textual representation of the Temporal Entity.
	frequency	Code	0..*	The recurrence of an instant or period.	It is recommended to use the frequency from an existing vocabulary like the Frequency from the Publications Office.

Datatypes

	Class	Definition
	Code	An idea or notion; a unit of thought.
	Date	Date represents top-open intervals of exactly one day in length on the timelines of dateTime, beginning on the beginning moment of each day, up to but not including the beginning moment of the next day). For non-timezoned values, the top-open intervals disjointly cover the non-timezoned timeline, one per day. For timezoned values, the intervals begin at every minute and therefore overlap.
	Date Time	dateTime represents instants of time, optionally marked with a particular time zone offset. Values representing the same instant but having different time zone offsets are equal but not identical.
	Literal	The class of literal values, eg. textual strings and integers.
	Text	The text data type is a combination of a string and a language identifier.
	URI	anyURI represents an Internationalized Resource Identifier Reference (IRI). An anyURI value can be absolute or relative, and may have an optional fragment identifier (i.e., it may be an IRI Reference).