[Seavox] Devices: a new vocabulary for SeaVoX

[Lowry, Roy K]

Hi John,

Broad categories are held in L05 and mapped to L221 by narrowMatch relationships. The only 'broadening' within the list is where names are known to different levels of detail.

Putting a semantic model behind the naming is a good idea: it's what I've done with parameters.  But as you say, it's work and unless a volunteer steps forward, it's unlikely to happen to existing content this year.  However, in the mean time I'll make sure that if content containing this level of structure is supplied then it will be preserved. Getting the MBARI list with structured names would be good for both content extension and providing an example of the structuring.

My purpose for the list is to provide a vocabulary for tagging data objects with their 'data production tool or tools'. Our system uses this vocabulary in a structure with ordered workflow so a series can be tagged 'water bottle then autoanalyser'.  However, I'm guessing others may have additional applications.

Cheers, Roy.

From: John Graybeal [mailto:jbgraybeal at mindspring.com]
Sent: 29 September 2010 16:36
To: Lowry, Roy K
Cc: seavox at mailman.nerc-liv.ac.uk
Subject: Re: [Seavox] Devices: a new vocabulary for SeaVoX

Yes, with some caveats:

It wasn't clear from the email, but a casual look at the list suggests it *only* contains instrument names, not any broader instrument categories.  I think that's important to keep those two lists separate, to avoid conflating them.

I think each name corresponds to these things: (a) manufacturer; (b) model; (c) casual name that blends (a) and (b) with a function.  The list becomes more useful if (a), (b), and the function all come from controlled vocabularies, and are separately described within each term.  I know that's work, I'm just predicting it's work that will be done sooner or later, and normalizing the formation of the list now will save you (or many others) time later.

MBARI has a list of such instruments broken down in this way, it could probably be provided as well, which gets back to Nan's point about the purpose of the list and the methods for contributing to it.

John

.
On Sep 29, 2010, at 00:57, Lowry, Roy K wrote:


Dear All,

SeaVoX traffic resembles buses.  Nothing for ages then two messages come together!

There has been a project in BODC over the past couple of years to tag data with more detailed device metadata, using actual instrument names rather than instrument categories to populate 'data production tool' fields in metadata.  Thus 'Aanderaa RCM4/5' is now used instead of 'Savonious rotor current meter'.  When I looked at the metadatabase we were building to support this it became apparent that it fitted very comfortably into the vocabulary data model and that the concepts in it could be mapped to the 'SeaDataNet device categories'  (the L05x group of lists) to form quite a handy thesaurus, which I have exposed through the NERC Vocabulary Server as http://vocab.ndg.nerc.ac.uk/list/L221

In parallel, the IODE GE-BiCh  expert group - largely the work of Mary Kennedy -  has compiled a comprehensive list of nets and plankton samplers that would fit neatly together with the BODC list. Mary and Hernan Garcia of USNODC have also recently been working on compiling a catalogue of water samplers, which could be included.

So, my proposal is that the L221 vocabulary be transferred from BODC to SeaVoX governance, merged with the GE-BiCh contributions and further developed as a joint effort by SeaVoX.  Is this an acceptable proposition?

Cheers, Roy.




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I have my new work email address: jgraybeal at ucsd.edu<mailto:jgraybeal at ucsd.edu>
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John Graybeal   <mailto:jgraybeal at ucsd.edu>
phone: 858-534-2162
System Development Manager
Ocean Observatories Initiative Cyberinfrastructure Project: http://ci.oceanobservatories.org
Marine Metadata Interoperability Project: http://marinemetadata.org

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