Building Geoscience Semantic Web Applications Using Established Ontologies

Authors

  • Matthew S Mayernik National Center for Atmospheric Research, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4122-0910
  • M Benjamin Gross UNAVCO
  • Jon Corson-Rikert Cornell University Libraries, Cornell University
  • Michael D Daniels National Center for Atmospheric Research, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
  • Erica M Johns Cornell University Libraries, Cornell University
  • Huda Khan Cornell University Libraries, Cornell University
  • Keith Maull National Center for Atmospheric Research, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
  • Linda R Rowan UNAVCO
  • Don Stott National Center for Atmospheric Research, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2016-011

Keywords:

semantic web, ontology, geoscience, metadata

Abstract

The EarthCollab project is using the VIVO Semantic Web software suite to support the discovery of information, data, and potential collaborators within the geodesy and polar science communities. This paper discusses the ontology selection, consolidation, and reuse efforts of EarthCollab. EarthCollab’s ontology design approach heavily emphasizes ontology reuse, bringing together existing ontologies to support diverse use cases related to the discovery of geoscience information and resources. We developed a small local ontology to tie these existing ontologies together and to build appropriate geoscience-relevant connections. Five key ontology decision drivers are presented to outline EarthCollab’s ontology design process and decision points: use cases, existing systems and metadata, semantic application dependencies, external ontology characteristics, and community recommendations for good ontological modeling practices.

Author Biography

Matthew S Mayernik, National Center for Atmospheric Research, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

Matthew Mayernik is a Project Scientist and Research Data Services Specialist in the NCAR/UCAR Library at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). He leads research and development initiatives related to research data within the NCAR Library, and contributes to data coordination and integration projects across NCAR. He has authored or co-authored more than 30 peer-reviewed journal and conference publications on diverse topics, including data publication and citation, metadata practices and standards, data curation education, and social and institutional aspects of research data curation. He is a member of the Board on Data Stewardship within the American Meteorological Society (AMS), and in 2015 was the chair of an Ad Hoc Committee that wrote data archiving and citation recommendations for AMS journals. In 2014, he was a co-organizer of the “GeoData 2014" workshop, which focused on increasing coordination among geoscience data activities across U.S. federal agencies. He received his Master's degree in Library & Information Science and Ph.D. in Information Studies from UCLA.

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Published

2016-09-30

Issue

Vol. 15 (2016)

Section

Practice Papers

Categories

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