DEPUIS: Reference data on the Web: Simple application using reference data


Reference data on the Web	DEPUIS

Cover page
1 Introduction
2 Simple examples of reference data
3 Simple application using reference data

4 Lifecycle assessment for an individual house
A Lifecycle assessment ontology
B URI assigned to a thing by an ISO standard

3 Simple application using reference data

3.1 CORGI registration for gas fitters

In the UK, any person who installs or repairs gas fittings or appliances must be registered with an accreditation body called CORGI. The UK Government Health and Safety Executive provides advice on the use gas in homes on its site http://www.hse.gov.uk/gas/domestic/ (note the intuitive structure of the HTTP URI). It makes the following statement:

Do I have to use a CORGI-registered installer to complete gas work?

Anyone employed to work on gas appliances in domestic premises must be a CORGI-registered installer and competent in that area of gas work. The gas installer�s competencies are clearly marked on the back of the installer�s CORGI registration card. If in any doubt you can ring CORGI or check their website to see if the installer is registered. Further information is provided under our registration body page.

The URI for the CORGI organisation is http://www.trustcorgi.com/, and this can be regarded as both the web page and the identifier of the organisation. Ideally, CORGI would also define http://www.trustcorgi.com/registered_installer as the URI for the class of person "CORGI registered installer", and would provide a web service to check with the URI http://www.trustcorgi.com/registered_installer/check. (Although this structure has not been followed, the CORGI web site is well structured.)

The use of the URI http://www.trustcorgi.com/registered_installer for the class of person "CORGI registered installer", would enable the following statement to be made using OWL:

serialised as N3:

mailto:fred.bloggs@bloggs_gas.co.uk a http://www.trustcorgi.com/registered_installer .

serialised as RDF/XML:

<iso10303:Person rdf:about="mailto:fred.bloggs@bloggs_gas.co.uk">
 <rdf:type rdf:resource="http://www.trustcorgi.com/registered_installer"/>
</isoiso10303:Person>

The benefit of publishing information in this way, is that a trade directory could reliably compile a list of CORGI registered installers in a particular area.

3.2 A registry of widget maintainers

Consider a hypothetical registry, which maintains a register of widget maintenance organisations, with information about:

whether or not it is a member of the "Widget Maintainers Society";
the postcodes and locations of its premises;
the types of widget which are maintained.

The registry may be provided by a commerical organisation, trade association or statutory body.

The information recorded for Fred Bloggs and Co. is expressed using N3 below:

http://www.fred_bloggs.co.uk
  registry:companyName          "Fred Bloggs and Co." ;
  registry:logo                 http://www.fred_bloggs.co.uk/logo ;
  a                             http://www.WidgetMaintainersSociety.org/member ;
  registry:hasDepartment
    [  :-                       http://www.fred_bloggs.co.uk/HeadOffice
       registry:departmentName  "Head Office" ;
       registry:postcode        http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?&geocode=&q=AB12+3CD ;
       registry:location        http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ll=51.123456,-0.345678 ;
       registry:maintainedType  urn:iso:std:iso:12345:-6:tech:LowPressureWidget ;
       registry:maintainedType  urn:iso:std:iso:12345:-6:tech:HighPressureWidget
    ] ;
  registry:hasDepartment
    [  :-                       http://www.fred_bloggs.co.uk/MuchBindingDepot
       registry:departmentName  "Much Binding Depot" ;
       registry:postcode        http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?&geocode=&q=AB12+4EF ;
       registry:location        http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ll=51.234567,-0.456788 ;
       registry:maintainedType  urn:iso:std:iso:12345:-6:tech:LowPressureWidget
    ] .

This fragment of N3 is more or less readable without a deep understanding of the syntax. It records the following information about company http://www.fred_bloggs.co.uk:

its name is "Fred Bloggs and Co."
its logo is http://www.fred_bloggs.co.uk/logo;
it is a member of the Widget Maintainers Society:
it has the following departments:
- http://www.fred_bloggs.co.uk/HeadOffice:
  - with name "Head Office";
  - with postcode AB12 3CD;
  - at location (51.123456,-0.345678);
  - where they maintain low pressure and high pressure widgets;
- http://www.fred_bloggs.co.uk/MuchBindingDepot:
  - with name "Much Binding Depot";
  - with postcode AB12 4EF;
  - at location (51.234567,-0.456788);
  - where they maintain low pressure widgets;

The recording of this information requires the following reference data:

The vocabulary used by the registry, which includes the terms;
- companyName;
- logo;
- hasDepartment;
- departmentName;
- postcode;
- location;
- maintainedType;
the class http://www.WidgetMaintainersSociety.org/member defined by the Widget Maintainers Society;
the URIs for locations and postcode maintained by Google (because the UK Government has abrogated this responsibility);
the classes urn:iso:std:iso:12345:-6:tech:LowPressureWidget and urn:iso:std:iso:12345:-6:tech:LowPressureWidget defined by ISO 12345-6.

All that Fred Bloggs and Co has to supply is:

The URIs for the company as a whole and for each department. These are HTTP URIs, and a browser will retrieve information which Fred Bloggs and Co. believes to be useful to its customers.

The company logo, with an HTTP URI.

The information, shown above as N3 , which links everything together.

N3 is still a niche technology, so in practice the information will be recorded using RDF/XML as follows:

<registry:Company rdf:about="http://www.fred_bloggs.co.uk">
 <registry:companyName>Fred Bloggs and Co.</registry:companyName>
 <registry:logo rdf:resource="http://www.fred_bloggs.co.uk/logo"/>
 <rdf:type rdf:resource="http://www.WidgetMaintainersSociety.org/member"/>
 <registry:hasDepartment>
  <registry:Department rdf:about="http://www.fred_bloggs.co.uk/HeadOffice">
   <registry:departmentName>Head Office</registry:departmentName>
   <registry:postcode rdf:resource="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?&geocode=&q=AB12+3CD"/>
   <registry:location rdf:resource="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ll=51.123456,-0.345678"/>
   <registry:maintainedType rdf:resource="urn:iso:std:iso:12345:-6:tech:LowPressureWidget"/>
   <registry:maintainedType rdf:resource="urn:iso:std:iso:12345:-6:tech:HighPressureWidget"/>
  </registry:Department>
 </registry:hasDepartment>
 <registry:hasDepartment>
  <registry:Department rdf:about="http://www.fred_bloggs.co.uk/MuchBindingDepot"/>
   <registry:departmentName>Much Binding Depot</registry:departmentName>
   <registry:postcode rdf:resource="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?&geocode=&q=AB12+4EF"/>
   <registry:location rdf:resource="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ll=51.234567,-0.456789"/>
   <registry:maintainedType rdf:resource="urn:iso:std:iso:12345:-6:tech:LowPressureWidget"/>
  </registry:Department>
 </registry:hasDepartment>
</registry:Company>

Suppose the registry is maintained by "The Widget Owners Association". This organisation can collect the information provided by widget maintainers and provide it in a convenient form, sorted by location and type of widget. The record for Fred Bloggs and Co. on http://theWidgetOwnersAssociation.org/maintainers/registry can be as follows:

Fred Bloggs and Co.

Widget Maintainers Society member

Head Office

AB12 3CD

map

low pressure widget
high pressure widget

NOTE The ISO standards provide definitions of equipment classes, such as low pressure widget and high pressure widget. At present, with a few exceptions, these standards are on paper. It is important that they soon become Web standards to support the needs of industry.

Annex B is a paper written by the Industrial Data on the Web group under ISO TC184/SC4, which discusses how URIs assigned to things by ISO standards can be used by industry.