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VocEdit - Browser-based Vocabulary Editor

Les Kneebone & Edmond Chuc

Presented: Australian Vocabularies Special Interest Gr0up, 3 December 2024

https://kurrawong.ai

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Let’s see some hands ✋

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

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Hello, I’m Les Kneebone

Librarian (kinda)
Vocabularies
Digital libraries

KurrawongAI

Vocabularies Specialist

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2004

Department of Justice

Subject Thesaurus

Describing and organizing content for a department -wide intranet

Schools Online Thesaurus

And other education vocabularies, at Education Services Australia

20052015

Public Policy Taxonomy

apo.org.au website

2016

Biosecurity Thesaurus

Biosecurity Research Portal

2021

Vocabs (various)

Kurrawong.ai

2024

Term Tree

MultiTes

PoolParty

Drupal

Term Tree:

based on MS Access database

Generic txt and xml outputs

Publish static HTML pages

no CMS integration

Australian-based support

MultiTes:

similar to Term Tree

Generic txt and xml outputs

Html pages generated on the fly

We were at least exporting files to be ingested into content management systems

PoolParty

from PC-based to server-based application

significant overheads for server implementation and maintenance

URI minting; RDF; SPARQL etc

Drupal

In-built taxonomy editor
Integration with PoolParty
There is a native RDF model, which we could have used to publish PPT in RDF

The Public Policy Taxonomy, which when I started working at APO was known as the ‘uncontrolled keywords’, was managed using a taxonomy module within Drupal, an open source content management system. Of course these kinds of taxonomy management features exist in other content systems, for example Sharepoint.

VocExcel

Excel template. Back to PC-based!

Paired with a transformation service at KAI, VocExcel is uploaded, then .ttl files are available

VocEdit

Browser-based form

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VocExcel

Excel template and processor
https://tools.dev.kurrawong.ai/vocexcel

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2004

Department of Justice

Subject Thesaurus

Describing and organizing content for a department -wide intranet

Schools Online Thesaurus

And other education vocabularies, at Education Services Australia

20052015

Public Policy Taxonomy

apo.org.au website

2016

Biosecurity Thesaurus

Biosecurity Research Portal

2021

Vocabs (various)

Kurrawong.ai

2024

Term Tree

MultiTes

PoolParty

Drupal

Term Tree:

based on MS Access database

Generic txt and xml outputs

Publish static HTML pages

no CMS integration

Australian-based support

MultiTes:

similar to Term Tree

Generic txt and xml outputs

Html pages generated on the fly

We were at least exporting files to be ingested into content management systems

PoolParty

from PC-based to server-based application

significant overheads for server implementation and maintenance

URI minting; RDF; SPARQL etc

Drupal

In-built taxonomy editor
Integration with PoolParty
There is a native RDF model, which we could have used to publish PPT in RDF

The Public Policy Taxonomy, which when I started working at APO was known as the ‘uncontrolled keywords’, was managed using a taxonomy module within Drupal, an open source content management system. Of course these kinds of taxonomy management features exist in other content systems, for example Sharepoint.

VocExcel

Excel template. Back to PC-based!

Paired with a transformation service at KAI, VocExcel is uploaded, then .ttl files are available

VocEdit

Browser-based form

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What are controlled vocabularies

“Controlled vocabularies provide a consistent way to describe data. They are standardized and organized arrangements of words and phrases presented as alphabetical lists of terms or as thesauri and taxonomies with a hierarchical structure of broader and narrower terms.”

Source: EU Vocabularies accessed 2024-10-19

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Existing solutions are fine…

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Data Integration

Publisher A

Publisher B

National Aggregator

International Aggregator

Granularity levels:

Repository
Community
National
International

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Photo by Duane Mendes on Unsplash.

I’m a supermodel!

😎

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Supermodel

WA Geological Survey Supermodel

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DCAT Example

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Semantic Sensor Network (SSN/SOSA)

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Server based create and edit vocabularies

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Server-based Vocabulary Management

Open source
Collaborative
Multi-lingual
SKOS-based

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Server-based Vocabulary Management

User

Vocabulary Server

Database

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Lower the barrier to entry

A story to:

Increase adoption
Incremental adoption
Tools for community engagement

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New Tool

VocSimple

VocForm

VocEdit

VocSmith

VocVoyage

VocStudio

VocIt

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New browser-based tool - VocEdit 🎉

Browser-based vocabulary editor
SKOS, with VocPub quality control
Open and save straight from and to your local filesystem
No need to run servers or databases
Open-source software
Test it out today!

https://vocedit.dev.kurrawong.ai/

In recent times, platforms like GitHub have been favoured for their low barrier to entry and flexibility in managing vocabularies as RDF textual data files. However, this style of management requires a deep understanding of the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and specialised technical expertise to create and enforce publication rules using the GitHub platform, making manual editing of the data files both cumbersome and error-prone.

VocPub Editor addresses these challenges as a free, user-friendly, browser-based tool designed to streamline the vocabulary management process. It uses the VocPub specification which is a vocabulary publication standard which enforces simple rules for vocabulary metadata and structure. By adhering to VocPub, it ensures that each vocabulary edit is publication-ready, eliminating the need for intricate technical knowledge and manual RDF editing. VocPub Editor empowers editors to manage their vocabularies effortlessly while maintaining SKOS best practices. This significantly enhances management efficiency as well as collaboration. All this will hopefully lower the barrier to vocabulary adoption in the eResearch community.

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VocPub Profile

A set of SHACL validation rules
Vocabulary publication best practices
Sufficient metadata

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Serialisation Format: Turtle (.ttl)

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VocEdit migration path

Open a new project by selecting a Turlte (.ttl) file
Successful migrations:

VocExcel ⇒ VocEdit
PoolParty == VocEdit (change the .ttls to a .ttl)

Let’s have a quick look!

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Future Plans

SKOS Collection support
Validate with VocPub Profile

Or your own SKOS profile

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Future Plans

Hierarchical tree navigation
General UX improvements

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Future Plans

GitHub integration
Build a community of contributors

Gather feedback and feature requests

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A new adoption story

VocEdit push vocabs updates to GitHub
Vocabularies versioned - just like code!
Community collaboration in GitHub
GitHub push vocabs elsewhere (e.g. RVA)

User

Database

RVA

?

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Follow the Development

Star the repository and follow the issue tracker and discussions forum.

https://github.com/kurrawong/vocedit

Email if you want an update when VocEdit is released.

edmond@kurrawong.ai

General vocab enquiries.

les@kurrawong.ai

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Thanks!

Les Kneebone

les@kurrawong.ai

Edmond Chuc

edmond@kurrawong.ai

Nicholas Car

nick@kurrawong.ai

KurrawongAI�Brisbane, Australia�https://kurrawong.ai�info@kurrawong.ai