Enabling An Information Driven Enterprise: Terminology Management at EPA

1. Enabling An Information Driven Enterprise: Terminology Management at EPA Michael Pendleton Metadata Open Forum New York City July 10, 2007 For Conference Purposes Only

2. Overview • EPA’s need for terminology management • Current terminology development efforts • Elements of a successful terminology program • Environmental Terminology System and Services (ETSS) • Semantic Vision For Conference Purposes Only

3. Why EPA Needs to Manage Terms REASON # 1: So that we know what we mean • Business terms • Legal terms • Administrative terms • Acronyms Gary Larson – The Far Side For Conference Purposes Only

4. EPA’s Quality System • Quality System focuses on data • Need for shared understanding • Quality Glossary Project • Retooling the Quality Glossary • Establishing a repeatable glossary governance framework and methodology For Conference Purposes Only

5. Why EPA Needs to Manage Terms REASON # 2: So we can find stuff • Indexing • Cataloging • Keyword management “Commentary.” Government Computer News – August 14, 2006 For Conference Purposes Only

6. Web Taxonomy • EPA’s Web content • Information Architecture Strategy • Web Taxonomy • Metadata specifications + controlled vocabulary • Faceted approach For Conference Purposes Only

7. EPA Taxonomy Facets For Conference Purposes Only

8. Information Types Audiences Geography Basic Facts & Information Community Information Concerned Citizens Resources Curriculum Resources Emergency Preparedness & Response Information Environmental Laws & Regulations News & News Releases Program Resources Resources for Non Profit Organizations Technical Information Test Methods & Models Consumers Contractors & Grantees EPA Employees Government Health Care Providers International Researchers & Scientists Teachers & Kids Technical & Regulated Community • Country & Region • United States • State • Region • Regulated Facilities • Superfund Sites • Watersheds & Wetlands EPA Web Taxonomy: Asset & Use Facets For Conference Purposes Only

9. Functions Industries Organizations Substances Topics • Services for Citizens • Community & Social Services • Disaster Mgmt Economic Dev Education • Energy • Environmental Mgmt • General Science & Innovation • Homeland Security • Intl Affairs & Commerce • Law Enforcement • Natural Resources • Mode of Delivery • Support Delivery of Services • Mgmt of Resources • Admin Mgmt Agriculture Automobile Repair Banking Chemical Construction Dry Cleaning Electronics & Computer Energy Environmental Extractive Fishing Food Processing Forest Garment & Textile Care Leather Tanning & Finishing Metal Finishing Metal Processing Pesticides Petroleum Pharmaceutical Printing Pulp & Paper Real Estate Transportation EPA Federal Government Interagency Programs Local Government Military Multi-State Workgroups Non-Government Organization Partner/Network Publication & Information Source State Government Tribal Government Agricultural Chemical Air Pollutant Allergen Biological Contaminant Carcinogen Chemical Explosive Extremely Hazardous Substance Liquid Waste Microorganism Multimedia Pollutant Mutagen Ozone Pesticide Radiation Radioactive Waste Soil Contaminant Solid Waste - Nonhazardous Teratogen Toxic Substance Water Pollutant Economics & Policy Emergencies & Cleanup Environmental Media Human Health Industrial Research, Prevention & Control EPA Web Taxonomy: Subject Facets For Conference Purposes Only

10. EPA Taxonomy: Topics Sub-Facets Topics Emergencies & Cleanup Cooperation & Assistance EnvironmentalMedia Health Industrial Research, Prevention & Control Communities Economics & Financing Global Climate Change International Cooperation Risk Assessment Technical Assistance Technical Cooperation Voluntary Partnerships • Cleanup • Brownfields • Cleanup Technology • Corrective Actions • Storage Tanks • Superfund • Emergencies • Accidents • Contingency Plans • Counter-Terrorism • Disasters • Emergency Preparedness • Oil Spills • Poisoning • Radiation Emergencies • Storage Tank Spills Air Ecosystems Waste Water Advisory Children’s Health Exposure Food Safety Health Assessment Health Effect Health Risk Occupational Health Pesticide Effects Senior's Health Sun Protection Toxicity Industrial Ecology Industrial processes Large Buildings Orphaned Sources Pesticide Topics Radiation & Radioactivity Small Business Storage Tanks Pollution Prevention Physical Aspects Research Treatment & Control For Conference Purposes Only

11. Example Webpage: Mercury Research Strategy For Conference Purposes Only

12. Why EPA Needs to Manage Terms REASON # 3: Others are counting on us • Emergency response • Federal Government • (CENDI) Interagency workgroup • International efforts • EcoInformatics Initiative  Ecoterm For Conference Purposes Only

13. Where We’ve Been • EPA’s Terminology Reference System (www.epa.gov/trs) • Searchable repository • Over 250 distinct vocabularies; over 11,000 terms • Environmental regulations and laws • EPA Program glossaries and term lists • GEneral Multilingual Environmental Thesaurus (GEMET) • Significant limitations • Limited search capability • Lacks web services • Lacks editing functionality • Doesn’t support multilingual capability • Insufficient for concept management For Conference Purposes Only

14. Elements of a Successful Terminology Management Program • Content – terminology important to EPA and our partners • Data Model – to hold various types of terminologies • Tools – create, store, maintain, compare, and distribute terminologies • Governance – to support development and maintenance of terminologies • Services – training, administration, web services For Conference Purposes Only

16. ETSS Status Current • Terminology editorial system • Providing editor training and resource page • Migrated TRS content to ETSS • Added Web Taxonomy to ETSS Coming Soon • Public interface • Integrate with other systems • Establish governance and workflow • Strategy for concept-based system For Conference Purposes Only

17. Login for EPA and Partners For Conference Purposes Only

18. Semantic Vision Controlled concepts interact with data ETSS – Vocabulary Management Web Content Catalog ECMS: Doc. Mgmt. & Records EDR: Data Element Metadata READ: System Inventory SCRR: Reusable Components For Conference Purposes Only

19. Getting There • Establish umbrella concept system • Establish relationships between terms across vocabularies • Add and improve content • Develop comparison tools • Enable stewardship program • Automated transactions For Conference Purposes Only

20. For More Information Environmental Terminology System and Services Michael Pendleton – Office of Environmental Information, Data Standards Branch, pendleton.michael@epa.gov; (202) 566-1658 Linda Spencer - Office of Environmental Information, Data Standards Branch, spencer.linda@epa.gov; (202) 566-1651 Quality Glossary Katherine Breidenstine - Office of Environmental Information, Quality Staff, breidenstine.katherine@epa.gov; (202) 564-1511 Web Taxonomy Susan Fagan - Office of Environmental Information, Information Access Division fagan.susan@epa.gov; 202-566-2021 For Conference Purposes Only

21. Key ETSS Customers • Human Customers • EPA vocabulary developers like the Web Taxonomy Project • Policy makers defining terms in regulations • System developers selecting XML tags and defining data elements • Program managers and researchers seeking terms and glossaries perhaps via the portal • Non-EPA vocabulary developers interested in environmental terms • People trying to use terms and definitions consistently • Stakeholders, partners and the public • System Customers • Search engines – to expand searches or provide the basis for taxonomies or folders • Enterprise content management – source of value domains and controlled vocabularies • Other systems that use pick lists For Conference Purposes Only

22. Extra Slides For Conference Purposes Only

23. ETSS High-Level Data Model Vocabulary(Relationship Definitions, Rules, Versions, Contact Information for Stewards & Owners) Relationship Links (Narrower Than, Broader Than, Equivalent, and EPA-Custom Relationships to be Defined) Terms Standard Attributes (Definitions, Source, Language) EPA Custom Attributes (Notes fields, etc.) For Conference Purposes Only

24. Knowledge Organization Continuum For Conference Purposes Only

25. Enterprise Content Management System (ECMS) • Terminology Management Needs • keyword list management such as document type and topic (e.g. air, water, waste) • manage content, and web service content to Documentum • Repository for ECMS metadata For Conference Purposes Only

26. Concept Management and the Semantic Web The Semantic Web is an extension of the current web in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation. It’s about: • Managing concepts • More explicit meaning • Structure and standards • Tools and infrastructure For Conference Purposes Only

27. What is Concept Management? • Organizing terms around core concepts in a business, domain or enterprise • Goals:* • Articulate clear and concise meanings of business domain concepts • Achieve a shared understanding of the concepts among relevant stakeholders, and • Guard the stability of a concept’s meaning during system development • Major activities:* • Scoping the environment of discourse • Concept specification, integration and enforcement *Bleeker, et al “The Role of Concept Management in System Development – A Practical and Theoretical Perspective” 2003. http://www.cs.ru.nl/Research/reports/full/NIII-R0330.pdf For Conference Purposes Only

28. For Conference Purposes Only

29. ETSS Relationship to the System of Registries EPA System of Registries Registry of EPA Applications and Databases (READ) Substance Registry System (SRS) Environmental Data Registry (EDR) ETSS Facility Registry System (FRS) Service Component Registry and Repository (SCRR) Develop Terminology Discover Terminology Launches to Synaptica Launches to collaboration tools For Conference Purposes Only

30. Taxonomy Topics Sub-Facets For Conference Purposes Only

31. Indexing rules: How to use EPA Taxonomy to tag content For Conference Purposes Only

32. Environmental Terminology System and Services (ETSS) • Search & Discovery • Terminology Management • Human and Automated Services • Collaborative Stewardship For Conference Purposes Only