Metadata standards for semantic interoperability in electronic government

Abstract

Effective data sharing, across government agencies and other organisations, relies upon agreed meanings and representations. A key, technological challenge in electronic governance is to ensure that the meaning of data items is accurately recorded, and accessible in an economical---effectively, automatic---fashion. In response, a variety of data and metadata standards have been put forward: from government departments, from industry groups, and from organisations such as the ISO and W3C.This paper shows how the leading standard for metadata registration---ISO 11179---can be deployed without the need for a single, monolithic conceptualisation of the domain, and hence without the need for universal agreement upon a particular model of electronic governance. The advantages of this approach are discussed with regard to the UK eGovernment Interoperability Framework (eGIF) and the UK Integrated Public Sector Vocabulary (IPSV).