dcat:theme must also include the eu-categories

[sabinem]

Property:dcat:theme Class: dcat:Dataset Conformance Problem:

• The DCAT-AP makes the use of EU category vocabulary mandatory
• custom Swiss categories must also be turned into a skos:CoceptScheme (controlled vocabulary)

Details: The EU vocabulary to use is this: http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/data-theme

Proposal:

• change the range to make EU categories manadatory
• use https://dcat-ap.ch/vocabulary/themes as controlled vocabulary for the Swiss categories

[takohaller]

Not sure if I understand, but does this mean that the mandatory EU theme and additionally a Swiss theme must be specified? While some of the Swiss themes can automatically be mapped to EU themes, for others it is not clear (see https://dcat-ap.ch/vocabulary/themes).

[Juan-Juan-1]

@takohaller good question. @sabinem could you please briefly commet on that? thank you!

[metaodi]

I think this refers to DCAT-AP EU 2.0.1 in chapter "5.2 Controlled vocabularies to be used"

In the table below, a number of properties are listed with controlled vocabularies that MUST be used for the listed properties. The declaration of the following controlled vocabularies as mandatory ensures a minimum level of interoperability.

So it seems that certain vocabularies are indeed mandatory.

But it would still be possible to use the swiss themes in https://dcat-ap.ch/vocabulary/themes but map those to the EU compatible themes when exporting for the EU portal (i.e. by providing an extra schema for the EU Portal).

[andreasamsler]

I support "mapping" CH to EU. And let us focus our efforts on further improve - based on users' needs - themes between federal, cantonal and communal levels.

[sabinem]

@Juan-Juan-1 Sorry I missed your hint to comment. But @andreasamsler and @metaodi got it right. And regarding @takohaller; yes some themes could be mapped by a vocabulary, as proposed https://dcat-ap.ch/vocabulary/themes. This vocabulary would aid datapublishers, so they would not need to look into the EU themes themselves and decide how to map to these EU categories.

The vocabulary is just a proposal so far and we need to decide:

• whether a mapping to the EU catagories should be part of it (so that a dataportal such as opendata.swiss can use the vocabulary to map automatically on export to data.europe.eu)
• if the mapping proposed in https://dcat-ap.ch/vocabulary/themes is appropriate
• if a datapublisher already uses the EU vocabulary in his catalog in a different way, I think then his usage should be respected and no automatic mapping should take place (This relates to https://github.com/opendata-swiss/dcat_ap_ch/issues/8 it would be very helpful if it is specified on a catalog level, which dcat:themeTaxonomy is used in a catalog.)

[Juan-Juan-1]

Thank you @sabinem, it's on the list of the topics to discuss today! :)

[l00mi]

Btw. find the opendata.swiss categories as controlled vocabulary at https://register.ld.admin.ch/opendataswiss/category if nobody minds we will take over the mapping from https://dcat-ap.ch/vocabulary/themes/20210623.html ?

[Juan-Juan-1]

Thx @l00mi ! I'm not sure what you mean "taking over the mapping" (which is a work in progress btw). Anyway, to me http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/data-theme is the vocabulary. What to do for the transition (like for instance offering "secondary" vocabularies or convert categories) is something that opendata.swiss for "its" data will have to decide. Our goal remains to define a standard here, know to decide its implementation on opendata.swiss, i14y.admin.ch or any other catalogue. And I believe the categories on opendata.swiss cannot be this standard.

[l00mi]

So you will remove the CV from https://dcat-ap.ch/vocabulary/themes/20210623.html ?

I have no strong feelings about what list or where it is published. My only experience is that categories are bound to change with time. Therefore this inputs:

• They need to have one point of being maintained.
• A process needs to be in place to update them.
• Wherever used, the categories need to be update automatically based on the first maintained list. Hence: https://github.com/opendata-swiss/dcat_ap_ch/issues/186

[l00mi]

Btw. "sub-categories" of BAFU https://register.ld.admin.ch/foen/theme

[Juan-Juan-1]

Nothing is decided, we're still evaluating. This matter will be discussed within the eCH expert group next 30.11. - I'll forward you the invitation, would be great if you could bring your inputs there! I would have also asked to talk us about the advantages of publishing the way you did, but Dereferencable access to Controlled Vocabularies #186 is perfect for the discussion

Now, my personal opinion (semantic perspective): I'd fully adopt http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/data-theme and stick with it. No changes unless we have somehow to re-align to what the EU publication office defines. Every other further category could simply be offerend as a thesauri to provide more keywords (https://dcat-ap.ch/releases/2.0/dcat-ap-ch.html#dataset-keyword). But again, it's my personal opinion - I became quite alergic to infinite discussions on categorisation where nobody is ever fully satisfied.

Where/how to publish it is a discussion that I'll leave to way more competent colleagues like @sabinem

[l00mi]

I am on the same page on the category discussions. But instead of getting to a minimum common denominator I tend to open up and allow everybody to add dynamically "closed" lists of categories if wished or available. (This does not exclude to set the EU list as one mandatory category list.) But to simply "bail-out" and only have this category list and else tags seems to miss an opportunity.

[Juan-Juan-1]

@l00mi I think we are on the same page! Just... I wouldn't want to spend too much time deciding which are the mandatory or "official" categories - I'd focus indeed on reutilizing these "sectorial" categorizations as thesauri to enrich the catalog in an organic manner (see for instance ISO categories from the domain of geoinformation https://www.ech.ch/en/standards/60357 or even opendata.swiss'categories)

[Juan-Juan-1]

Vorschlag:

• Adopt the EU-Vocabulary in DCAT-AP-CH v2, give up current vocabulary
• A «mapping» to currenty or more current vocabularies (opendata.swiss, Geocat,…) could be propsed outside of eCH-0200 to support implementation