Interested in semantic interoperability? Read about SEMIC highlights in second half of 2018

In the past few months, the SEMIC team tackled various topics to help public administrations in Europe solve semantic interoperability challenges. This included updating our data specifications such as DCAT-AP, sharing knowledge and insights on our semantic solutions through studies, and setting up new pilots to test ISA² solutions - just to name a few highlights!

Our purpose

SEMIC (Semantic Interoperability Community) is an ISA² action promoting the use of semantic tools and solutions to address interoperability challenges faced by EU countries when exchanging data for the execution of European public services. The action provides free of charge a number of semantic specifications and solutions.

The SEMIC team has worked with enthusiasm in the past months to continue providing up-to-date, fit-for-purpose and effective solutions that can support complex interoperability projects. Moreover, SEMIC engages an active community of practitioners who enable semantic interoperability across their organisations and promote our common goals.

The timeline below shows the key highlights and milestones of the action between July and December 2018.

/isa2/file/semichighlightsisa2newsletterjan2019jpg_ensemic_highlights_isa2_newsletter_jan_2019.jpg

Engaging with the SEMIC community

The 2018 edition of the SEMIC conference on ‘Linked Digital Public Administrations’ was one of the key moments to connect and engage with our diverse community of interoperability experts. We shared the conference report allowing you to relive the highlights of the conference that took place in Sofia, Bulgaria on 14 June under the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU. The planning of SEMIC 2019 in Finland is on its way!

Evolving SEMIC products

We worked on updates of our data specifications to make sure they continue to provide value for your organisation:

• DCAT-Application Profile for data portals in Europe (DCAT-AP): Taking on board minor change requests from the DCAT-AP Working Group, we released a new version of DCAT-AP (v1.2).
• Core Vocabularies: Translations of all specifications of the six Core Vocabularies into the 23 official languages of the European Union are underway to better respond to the multilingual challenge and help them bring the SEMIC assets into their organisation.

Sharing knowledge & best practices and illustrating use cases of SEMIC solutions

As part of our commitment to share knowledge with our community, we carried out two studies to showcase the use and benefits of semantic specifications and assets and to explain how our solutions are relevant for public administrations:

• Use cases and benefits of ISA² specifications
• GDPR data portability and Core Vocabularies

Partnering up to test and showcase ISA² specifications

We helped to drive three pilots using ISA² specifications, involving various stakeholders in the EU Member States and the European Commission:

• Linked Data Showcase (LDS): This pilot is about creating a reference architecture for publishing the contents of relational databases as linked (open) data. The initiative aims to accelerate the growth of Member States’ capability of sharing linked data. The pilot has been set up based on a request from Denmark and enjoys the great effect of other Member States’ collaboration.
• National Interoperability Framework Observatory (NIFO): This pilot has involved the NIFO, which we helped to create machine-readable representations of the NIFO e-Government factsheets. The goal is to publish the factsheet documents as Linked Open Data, so that they can be enriched with data from other sources.
• Common Mapping Tool – DG GROW: This pilot supports building a platform that consolidates information about tools that support innovation in enterprises and SMEs. The resulting interoperable mapping solution (pilot) will demonstrate the value of elaborating such a platform.

Raising awareness of semantic interoperability topics

Our team participated in key events to share information and insights, to present our solutions and to give a semantic point-of-view on interoperability topics, such as the ISA² Mid-Term Conference (Brussels, 29 November) or the CEF eTranslation Conference (Brussels, 29 November).

Looking forward to 2019!

We are looking forward to taking up new semantic interoperability challenges in 2019 and helping you bring your organisation’s semantic interoperability capabilities to the next level.

More information on SEMIC’s key milestones in 2019 will be disclosed soon!

We want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for having contributed in different ways to promote semantic interoperability in Europe in 2018!

Interested in more?

DCAT-AP and the Core Vocabularies are new to you? Are you interested in learning more about SEMIC and how our solutions could help your organisation solve its semantic interoperability challenges?

Visit our SEMIC space on Joinup and join our community!

If you have any specific questions, please contact the SEMIC Action Team.