Interoperability Assessment Vocabulary

Abstract

The Interoperability Assessment Vocabulary is a reusable and extensible data model that provides the set of classes and properties for describing Interoperability Assessments as required by the Interoperable Europe Act.

Terminology

An Application Profile (AP) is a specification that reuses terms from one or more base standards, adding more specificity by identifying mandatory, recommended and optional elements to be used for a particular application, as well as recommendations for controlled vocabularies to be used.

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.

Used Prefixes

This specification uses the following prefixes to shorten the URIs for readability.

Prefix	Namespace IRI
`adms`	`http://www.w3.org/ns/adms#`
`cav`	`http://data.europa.eu/2sa/cav#`
`cpsv`	`http://purl.org/vocab/cpsv#`
`cv`	`http://data.europa.eu/m8g/`
`dcat`	`http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#`
`dct`	`http://purl.org/dc/terms/`
`foaf`	`http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/`
`frbr`	`http://purl.org/vocab/frbr/core#`
`iopa`	`http://data.europa.eu/2qy/iopa#`
`rdf`	`http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#`
`rdfs`	`http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#`
`skos`	`http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#`
`xsd`	`http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#`

Main Entities

The main entities are those that form the core of the Vocabulary.

Assessment

Definition: The intellectual work to evaluate an asset against the criteria of a given scenario.
Usage Note: The Assessment class connects the to be assessed binding requirement with the Organisation performing the assessment and the resulting Statement.
Properties: For this entity the following properties are defined: assesses , is provided by , results in .

Property	Range	Card	Definition	Usage
assesses	Binding Requirement	1..*	The reference to the asset(s) that are the object of the assessment.	This relation points to the to be assessed new binding requirements for cross border public services.
is provided by	Public Organisation	1	Agent that transmits the Assessment.	This relation points towards the Public Organisation performing the Assessment.
results in	Statement	1..*	The creation of the statements resulting from the assessment.	This relation point towards the result of the Assessment expressed as a Statement.

Binding Requirement

Definition: An obligation, prohibition, condition, criterion or limit of a legal, organisational, semantic or technical nature, which is set by a Union entity or a public sector body concerning one or more trans-European digital public services and which has an effect on cross-border interoperability.
Usage Note: These are the new binding requirements for cross border public services which need to be assessed.
Properties: For this entity the following properties are defined: affects , documented in , has participation , is part of , is part of , page , references , relation , value description .

Property	Range	Card	Definition	Usage
affects	Public Service	1..*	The Public Service affected by the Binding Requirement.
documented in	URI	0..*	A link to any information supporting the value of the asset and any other related relevant details.	This is a link do any documentation hosted on the web about the binding requirements.
has participation	Participation	0..*	The way how a resource is organized.	This relation point towards a Participation activity. Participation can be considered a stakeholder role filled by differing stakeholders.
is part of	Expression	0..*	A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.	The new binding requirements came about in a specific context this relation points to that context.
is part of	Legal Expression	0..*	A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.	The new binding requirements came about in a specific context this relation points to that context.
page	Document	0..*	A page or document about this thing.	This relation points to additional documentation available about the new binding requirements.
references	Resource	0..*	A related resource that is referenced, cited, or otherwise pointed to by the described resource.	Binding requirements may reference data, datasets, standards, solutions etc. This relation provides a machine readable version of that reference.
relation	Asset	0..*	A related resource.	This relation points to interoperability solutions relevant for the binding requirements.
value description	Text	1..*	Brief description of the Asset.	This is a plain free text description of the new binding requirements.

Legal Expression

Definition: The intellectual realisation of a legal resource in the form of a sequence of signs.
Usage Note: (typically alpha-numeric characters in a legal context). For example, any version of the legal resource whose content is specified and different from others for any reason: language, versions, etc.; Note that ELI ontology accommodates different point of view on what should be considered a new legal resource, or a new legal expression of the same resource. Typically, a consolidated version can be viewed, in the context of ELI, either as separate legal resource (linked to original version and previous consolidated version using corresponding ELI relations), or as a different legal expression of the same legal resource.
Properties: This specification does not impose any additional requirements to properties for this entity.

Statement

Definition: A value judgement, resulting from the assessment, pertinent to its entirety or to one or more of its specific parts.
Usage Note: This class contains the result of the interoperability assessment performed on the new binding requirements.
Properties: For this entity the following properties are defined: has related service , interpretation , judgement , page , type .

Property	Range	Card	Definition	Usage
has related service	Public Service	0..*	The Public Service related to the Statement.	A statement might focus on the interoperability effect on specific public services.
interpretation	Code	1..*	The favourability perception of the statement (e.g. positive, negative or neutral).	This value indicates the effect of the binding requirements on interoperability.
judgement	Text	1..*	The text expressing the statement's resulting value judgement.	This free text field allows more context to be provided around the judgement.
page	Document	0..*	A page or document about this thing.	This relation points to additional documents supporting the Statement.
type	Code	1..*	The categorisation of the statement.	This property classifies the statement.

Supportive Entities

The supportive entities are supporting the main entities in the Vocabulary. They are included in the Vocabulary because they form the range of properties.

Agent

Definition: Entity that is able to carry out action.
Usage Note: This is a stakeholder of the binding requirement being assessed.
Properties: For this entity the following properties are defined: name , type .

	Property	Range	Card	Definition	Usage
	name	Text	1..*	The noun given to the Agent.
	type	Code	0..*	A classification assigned to an Agent.

Asset

Definition: An abstract entity that reflects the intellectual content of the asset and represents those characteristics of the asset that are independent of its physical embodiment. This abstract entity combines the FRBR entities work (a distinct intellectual or artistic creation) and expression (the intellectual or artistic realization of a work).
Usage Note: An ADMS asset is a Interoperability Solution.
Properties: For this entity the following properties are defined: description , identifier , landing page , title , type .

Property	Range	Card	Definition
description	Text	1..*	An account of the resource.
identifier	Identifier	1	Links a resource to an adms:Identifier class.
landing page	Document	0..*	A web page that provides access to the Dataset, its Distributions and/or additional information.
title	Text	1..*	A name given to the resource.
type	Code	0..*	The nature or genre of the resource.

Document

Definition: A self-contained collection of information in a readable format.
Properties: This specification does not impose any additional requirements to properties for this entity.

Expression

Definition: A realization of a single work usually in a physical form.
Usage Note: This class describes the context under which the binding requirements came about.
Properties: For this entity the following properties are defined: description , documented in , name .

Property	Range	Card	Definition
description	Text	1..*	A free text Description of the resource.
documented in	URI	0..*	A link to any information supporting the value of the work and any other related relevant details.
name	Text	1..*	A name given to the resource.

Identifier

Definition: An identifier in a particular context, consisting of the string that is the identifier; an optional identifier for the identifier scheme; an optional identifier for the version of the identifier scheme; an optional identifier for the agency that manages the identifier scheme.
Properties: This specification does not impose any additional requirements to properties for this entity.

Location

Definition: An identifiable geographic place or named place.
Usage Note: This class describes a location. It is recommended to reuse URIs from the Publications Office of the European Union's Named Authority list of Administrative territorial unit
Properties: For this entity the following properties are defined: geographic identifier .

	Property	Range	Card	Definition	Usage
	geographic identifier	URI	0..*	A reference in the form of a Uniform Resource Identifier to the Location.

Participation

Definition: The Participation class allows to define roles within a certain context.
Usage Note: This class represents a stakeholder role which can be fulfilled by an Agent.
Properties: For this entity the following properties are defined: description , has participation , identifier , role , type .

Property	Range	Card	Definition	Usage
description	Text	1..*	A textual explanation of the Participation.	This text field describes the Participation.
has participation	Agent	0..*	The Agent involved in the Participation.	This relation indicates the Agents partaking in the Participation.
identifier	Literal	1	The unambiguous structured reference for the Participation.	This value uniquely identifies the Participation.
role	Code	1..*	The function of an Agent within a Participation.	This classifies the role of the participation by using relevant code lists.
type	Code	1..*	A classification assigned to a Participation.	This classifies the participation by type.

Public Organisation

Definition: An Organization that is defined as being part of the public sector by a legal framework at any level.
Usage Note: This class represents the Public Organisation providing the Assessment.
Properties: For this entity the following properties are defined: classification , description , preferred label , spatial .

Property	Range	Card	Definition	Usage
classification	Code	0..*		It is recommended to use codes from the Publications Office of the European Union's Named Authority list of Organization Types or Administrative territorial unit type? .
description	Text	1..*	The textual description of the Public Organization.	This free text fields describes the Public Organisation.
preferred label	Text	1..*	A preferred label is used to provide the primary, legally recognised name of the Public Organization, as defined in the ORG Ontology.	This indicates the preferred name of the Public Organisation. It is advised to have only one per language.
spatial	Location	0..*	This property links an Organization to the Administrative Region(s) that it covers.	This property indicates the location of the Public Organisation.

Public Service

Definition: A Public Service is a mandatory or discretionary set of activities performed, or able to be performed, by or on behalf of a public organisation, publicly funded and arise from public policy.
Usage Note: This class represents the Public Service itself, as it is described in a public service catalogue. Services may be for the benefit of an individual, a business, or other public authority, or groups of any of these. A service exists whether it is used or not, and the term 'benefit' may apply in the sense of enabling the fulfilment of an obligation. As defined in the revised version of the European Interoperability Framework, a European public service comprises any service provided by public administrations in Europe, or by other organisations on their behalf, to businesses, citizens or others public administrations.
Properties: For this entity the following properties are defined: description , identifier , name , spatial , thematic area .

Property	Range	Card	Definition	Usage
description	Text	1..*	A free text Description of the Public Service.	This free text field describes the Public Service.
identifier	Literal	1..*	A formally-issued Identifier for the Public Service.	This property uniquely identifies a Public Service.
name	Text	1..*	A name given to the resource.	This text field provides the name of the Public Service.
spatial	Location	0..*	Spatial characteristics of the resource.	This relation points towards the geographical area to which the Public Service applies.
thematic area	Code	0..*	The Thematic Area of a Public Service.	For example: social protection, health, recreation, culture and religion, family, traveling economic affairs, tax, staff, environment, etc. It is recommended for the implementor to define and publish a code list allowing for the alignment of shared code lists, the reuse of common code lists but also the tailoring to specific national, regional or other context.

Resource

Definition: Resource published or curated by a single agent.
Usage Note: This class represents any dataset, standard, solution etc. referenced in the new binding requirements.
Properties: For this entity the following properties are defined: description .

	Property	Range	Card	Definition	Usage
	description	Literal	1..*	An account of the resource.

	Class	Definition
	Code	An idea or notion; a unit of thought.
	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).

Usage Guidelines

Support for implementation

The following section provides support for implementing the Interoperability Assessment Vocabulary.

JSON-LD context file

One common technical question is the format in which the data is being exchanged. For conformance with the Interoperability Assessment Vocabulary, it is not mandatory that this happens in an RDF serialisation, but the exchanged format SHOULD be unambiguously transformable into RDF. For the format JSON, a popular format to exchange data between systems, SEMIC provides a JSON-LD context file. JSON-LD is a W3C Recommendation [[[json-ld11]]] that provided a standard approach to interpret JSON structures as RDF. The provided JSON-LD context file can be used by implementers. This JSON-LD context is not normative, i.e. other JSON-LD contexts are allowed.

The JSON-LD context file downloadable here.

Validation

To verify if the data is (technically) conformant to the Interoperability Assessment Vocabulary, the exchanged data can be validated using the provided SHACL shapes. SHACL is a W3C Recommendation to express constraints on an RDF knowledge graph.

To support the check whether or not a catalogue satisfies the expressed constraints in this Application Profile, the constraints in this specification are expressed using SHACL [[shacl]]. Each constraint in this specification that could be converted into a SHACL expression has been included. As such this collection of SHACL expressions that can be used to build a validation check for data.

It is up to the implementers to define the validation they expect. Each implementation happens within a context, and that context is beyond the SHACL expressions here.

The shapes can be found here.

The Interoperability Test Bed (ITB) provides a validation service that can reuse the linked shapes. The examples in this specification can be validated via the ITB REST API.

UML representation

The UML representation from which the Interoperability Assessment Vocabulary has been build is available here.

Governance

Versioning governance

All specifications produced in SEMIC will follow the versioning rule described by the SEMIC Style Guide rule PC-R3. In case a SEMIC asset is deprecated the asset will remain available through its PURI.

The serialisation will have:

a dct:isReplacedBy referencing the new assets used instead and
an adms:status indicating its deprecated status.

Governance requirements for re-used assets

In order to adhere to the SEMIC Style Guide rule GC-R2 a specification should have quality and governance standards for the assets that are being reused.

In order for an asset to be considered for reuse within a SEMIC specification it can be requested by a community member or it requires to adhere to the following requirements:

The asset is part of a recommendation by a major standards body or an EU institution.
The asset is actively being maintained.

After being taken into consideration the asset will be validated in three steps:

Syntax validation will be performed on the relevant artefacts.
Constraint validation will be performed on the relevant artefacts.
The PURI will be validated.

Once considered and validated an asset can be adopted if it is approved by the community.

Lexicalisation rules

In order to adhere to the SEMIC Style Guide rule SC-R3 a specification requires formal lexicalisation rules. The Style Guide proposes two options either by using RDFS or SKOS lexicalisation.

SEMIC uses and will use the RDFS lexicalisation for all of its specifications. More specifically:

rdfs:label is used to provide a human-readable version of a resource's name.
The usage of certain resource can be clarified in a skos:usageNote.

Quick Reference of Classes and Properties

This section provides a condensed tabular overview of the mentioned classes and properties in this specification. The properties are indicated as mandatory, recommended, optional and deprecated. These terms have the following meaning.

Mandatory property: a receiver MUST be able to process the information for that property; a sender MUST provide the information for that property.
Recommended property: a receiver MUST be able to process the information for that property; a sender SHOULD provide the information for that property if it is available.
Optional property: a receiver MUST be able to process the information for that property; a sender MAY provide the information for that property but is not obliged to do so.
Deprecated property: a receiver SHOULD be able to process information about instances of that property; a sender SHOULD NOT provide the information about instances of that property.

Class	Class IRI	Property Type	Property	Property IRI
Agent	http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/Agent	Mandatory	name	http://purl.org/dc/terms/title
Agent	http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/Agent	Optional	type	http://purl.org/dc/terms/type
Assessment	http://data.europa.eu/2sa/cav#Assessment	Mandatory	assesses	http://data.europa.eu/2sa/cav#assesses
Assessment	http://data.europa.eu/2sa/cav#Assessment	Mandatory	is provided by	http://data.europa.eu/m8g/isProvidedBy
Assessment	http://data.europa.eu/2sa/cav#Assessment	Mandatory	results in	http://data.europa.eu/2sa/cav#resultsIn
Asset	http://www.w3.org/ns/adms#Asset	Mandatory	description	http://purl.org/dc/terms/description
Asset	http://www.w3.org/ns/adms#Asset	Mandatory	identifier	http://www.w3.org/ns/adms#identifier
Asset	http://www.w3.org/ns/adms#Asset	Mandatory	title	http://purl.org/dc/terms/title
Asset	http://www.w3.org/ns/adms#Asset	Mandatory	type	http://purl.org/dc/terms/type
Asset	http://www.w3.org/ns/adms#Asset	Optional	landing page	http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#landingPage
Binding Requirement	http://data.europa.eu/2qy/iopa#BindingRequirement	Mandatory	affects	http://data.europa.eu/2qy/iopa#affects
Binding Requirement	http://data.europa.eu/2qy/iopa#BindingRequirement	Mandatory	value description	http://data.europa.eu/2sa/cav#valueDescription
Binding Requirement	http://data.europa.eu/2qy/iopa#BindingRequirement	Optional	documented in	http://data.europa.eu/2sa/cav#documentedIn
Binding Requirement	http://data.europa.eu/2qy/iopa#BindingRequirement	Optional	has participation	http://data.europa.eu/m8g/hasParticipation
Binding Requirement	http://data.europa.eu/2qy/iopa#BindingRequirement		is part of	http://purl.org/dc/terms/isPartOf
Binding Requirement	http://data.europa.eu/2qy/iopa#BindingRequirement		is part of	http://purl.org/dc/terms/isPartOf
Binding Requirement	http://data.europa.eu/2qy/iopa#BindingRequirement	Optional	page	http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/page
Binding Requirement	http://data.europa.eu/2qy/iopa#BindingRequirement	Optional	references	http://purl.org/dc/terms/references
Binding Requirement	http://data.europa.eu/2qy/iopa#BindingRequirement	Optional	relation	http://purl.org/dc/terms/relation
Document	http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/Document
Expression	http://purl.org/vocab/frbr/core#Expression	Mandatory	description	http://purl.org/dc/terms/description
Expression	http://purl.org/vocab/frbr/core#Expression	Mandatory	name	http://purl.org/dc/terms/title
Expression	http://purl.org/vocab/frbr/core#Expression	Optional	documented in	http://data.europa.eu/2sa/cav#documentedIn
Identifier	http://www.w3.org/ns/adms#Identifier
Legal Expression	http://data.europa.eu/eli/ontology#LegalExpression
Location	http://purl.org/dc/terms/Location	Optional	geographic identifier	http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#seeAlso
Participation	http://data.europa.eu/m8g/Participation	Mandatory	description	http://purl.org/dc/terms/description
Participation	http://data.europa.eu/m8g/Participation	Mandatory	identifier	http://purl.org/dc/terms/identifier
Participation	http://data.europa.eu/m8g/Participation	Mandatory	role	http://data.europa.eu/m8g/role
Participation	http://data.europa.eu/m8g/Participation	Mandatory	type	http://purl.org/dc/terms/type
Participation	http://data.europa.eu/m8g/Participation	Optional	has participation	http://data.europa.eu/m8g/hasParticipant
Public Organisation	http://data.europa.eu/m8g/PublicOrganisation	Mandatory	description	http://purl.org/dc/terms/description
Public Organisation	http://data.europa.eu/m8g/PublicOrganisation	Mandatory	preferred label	http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#prefLabel
Public Organisation	http://data.europa.eu/m8g/PublicOrganisation		classification	http://www.w3.org/ns/org#classification
Public Organisation	http://data.europa.eu/m8g/PublicOrganisation	Optional	spatial	http://purl.org/dc/terms/spatial
Public Service	http://purl.org/vocab/cpsv#PublicService	Mandatory	description	http://purl.org/dc/terms/description
Public Service	http://purl.org/vocab/cpsv#PublicService	Mandatory	identifier	http://purl.org/dc/terms/identifier
Public Service	http://purl.org/vocab/cpsv#PublicService	Mandatory	name	http://purl.org/dc/terms/title
Public Service	http://purl.org/vocab/cpsv#PublicService	Optional	spatial	http://purl.org/dc/terms/spatial
Public Service	http://purl.org/vocab/cpsv#PublicService		thematic area	http://data.europa.eu/m8g/thematicArea
Resource	http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#Resource	Mandatory	description	http://purl.org/dc/terms/description
Statement	http://data.europa.eu/2sa/cav#Statement	Mandatory	interpretation	http://data.europa.eu/2sa/cav#interpretation
Statement	http://data.europa.eu/2sa/cav#Statement	Mandatory	judgement	http://data.europa.eu/2sa/cav#judgement
Statement	http://data.europa.eu/2sa/cav#Statement	Mandatory	type	http://data.europa.eu/2sa/cav#type
Statement	http://data.europa.eu/2sa/cav#Statement	Optional	has related service	http://data.europa.eu/m8g/hasRelatedService
Statement	http://data.europa.eu/2sa/cav#Statement	Optional	page	http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/page