DE4A Semantic interoperability

According to the European Interoperability Framework,

Semantic interoperability ensures that the precise format and meaning of exchanged data and information is preserved and understood throughout exchanges between parties, in other words ‘what is sent is what is understood’. In the EIF, semantic interoperability covers both semantic and syntactic aspects:

• The semantic aspect refers to the meaning of data elements and the relationship between them. It includes developing vocabularies and schemata to describe data exchanges, and ensures that data elements are understood in the same way by all communicating parties;
• The syntactic aspect refers to describing the exact format of the information to be exchanged in terms of grammar and format.

In this sense, semantic interoperability agreements need to be set up and manage as part of the interoperability governance and the public service governance. In DE4A, there are concepts and information that need to have a common understanding and the semantic assets of the Information Desk implement the corresponding semantic interoperability agreements:

• Canonical evidence type: canonical form for each evidence type that has been identified by the DE4A pilots as needed by their online procedures and issued by cross-border authorities. The full semantic description of the terms that compose each canonical evidence type is available trough the DE4A Multilingual Ontology Repository.
• Provision: availability of a data service according to a exchange pattern for issuing a canonical evidence type by a issuing authority (data owner) corresponding to an administrative territorial unit within a country. Each provision can also require some additional parameters for properly identity the data subject and the evidence. The full semantic description of provisions is available through the DE4A Issuing Authority Locator, obtaining the provision information from an administrative territorial level or unit and a canonical evidence type. The additional parameters are semantically described in the DE4A Multilingual Ontology Repository.
• Data Service Endpoint: technical information needed for the use of the data services that are part of the evidence exchange system. This information is available through the DE4A Evidence Service Locator, obtaining the data service endpoint information from a issuing authority (data owner) and a canonical evidence type.
• Multilingual term: term uniquely identified and semantically described from the semantic and the syntactic point of view for a common understanding. The meaning of a term is described in every EU official language through automatic translations from English or translations verified by national domain experts. The data type of a term can be a simple type (e.g. string) or a complex type; complex types are compose by other simple and/or complex types. A special complex type is either a canonical evidence type, or a set of additional parameters for a provision or a code list. The full semantic description of all the terms used in DE4A is available trough the DE4A Multilingual Ontology Repository.