[Seavox] Devices Controlled Vocabulary

[John Graybeal]

Roy,

Thanks for putting this out there, I think we're at a critical moment for doing this.

I'll start with your questions and work backwards.  I think Luis can better follow up with some specific ideas for moving forward.

>Are there any more device types that should be considered other than the four I've got?

Yes, there are remote sensors.  (But I worry your first categorization may be a little confusing, see below.)

>Should I put an explicit hierarchy level (generic e.g. water bottle/specific e.g. 10-litre Go-Flo bottle) in each of the category lists or depend upon putting relationships between list members?

There are going to be multiple relations and multiple hierarchies, I suspect -- a single hierarchy level is not sufficient.

>Is there anything else I should be doing?

Perhaps we can ask if the existing categorizations are the best or most useful ones, and if the list is complete. 

For example 1, I think your last two 'Sample' lists, L062 and L063, are actually sensors.  (Sample collectors might be gracefully divided into passive (e.g., dragged)and active, or maybe not...)  Sensors include in-situ, remote, and laboratory devices, and can maybe be categorized as passive or processing.

For example 2, device disciplines will cut across sensors very broadly -- most sensors will easily fit into multiple disciplines, probably with more yet to be discovered.  Not sure how important or useful this is, certainly the mapping relationships are likely to be messy.

The third topic to consider is what will represent a class a devices -- is 'CTD' sufficient, or do we have to be more specific to allow for the fact some CTDs have other sensors, and some don't even have a pressure sensor (to believe the manufacturer web site)?

We have access to a number of instrument lists from the work we've been doing so far on sensor vocabularies.  They aren't necessarily organized along the same lines as your own, so some normalization will probably need to be considered.

John





At 1:10 PM +0100 8/23/07, Roy Lowry wrote:
>Dear All,
>
>It's been a while since there was activity on the list, so now the holiday season is drawing to a close I thought it time to stir things up again.  Basically, I need to build a 'devices' Controlled Vocabulary for SeaDataNet.  However, I thought that I would share what I'm doing with SeaVoX so we end up with something useful outside SeaDataNet, preferably something that would provide both a basis for SensorML record population and the foundation for a "Devices" ontology.
>
>My plan is to start building a set of lists, namely:
>
>Device types (L211) - high level category - initially sample collectors/processors/analysers and sensors
>Device disciplines (L212) - high level category - physicas, chemistry, biology, geology etc.
>
>Sample collectors (L061) - nets, corers, water bottles etc.
>Sample processors (L062) - incubators, filtration systems, etc.
>Sample analysers (L063) - laboratory instruments of varying kinds
>Sensors (L064) - in-situ measurement takers
>
>and the build SKOS mapping relationships between the first two lists and the four lower lists (each representing a 'device type') . 
>
>My initial questions to SeaVox list readers is:
>
>Are there any more device types that should be considered other than the four I've got?
>
>Should I put an explicit hierarchy level (generic e.g. water bottle/specific e.g. 10-litre Go-Flo bottle) in each of the category lists or depend upon putting relationships between list members?
>
>Is there anything else I should be doing?
>
>Once I've got the framework firmed up I'll be asking for your favourite 'instrument lists' to populate the vocabs.
>
>Cheers, Roy.
>
>
>
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-- 
----------
John Graybeal   <mailto:graybeal at mbari.org>  -- 831-775-1956
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Marine Metadata Initiative: http://marinemetadata.org   ||  Shore Side Data System: http://www.mbari.org/ssds