Ontologies for e-Government

What is oeGOV?

oeGOV is making and publishing W3C OWL ontologies for eGovernment. This initiative is born out of the idea: "Use small OWL ontologies to model recovery and deploy across all government" posted at TheNationalDialogue.org and Tim Berners-Lee's vision of "Linked Open Data".

The blog for oeGOV is www.oegov.us/blog

Why build ontologies for eGovernment?

By having ontologies for eGovernment we enable:

distributed creation and maintenance of information on data, about where it is used, and the government data itself;

standardization of neutral models for data exchange and transformation;

aggregation of data through the use of RDF/OWL formats;

interpretation of data through precise semantics and controlled vocabularies, including geospatial and temporal aspects;

navigation over who is publishing what in what format;

provenance and trust in the sources of data;

correlations and comparisons of data;

accountability of the political process with policy making;

transparency of government efficiencies and effectiveness;

citizen awareness and appreciation of government initiatives.

Who is oeGOV?

oeGOV is an initiative started by TopQuadrant. As far back as 2003 we have been building ontologies for eGovernment. TopQuadrant was co-organizer of the first eGovernment conference at the White House Conference Center on the importance of Semantic Web Technologies for the sharing of data using the web infrastructure.

The first eGovernment ontologies were the FEA Ontologies. Currently the focus is on ontologies of Government, datasets of US Government branches, agencies, departments, offices and state governments, and an ontology of data.gov.

oeGOV invites others to participate in these efforts. We are keen to have participation from US Government Agencies.

If you are interesting in participating please send an email to rhodgson AT topquadrant.com

Where can I access the oeGOV Ontologies?

The first set of oeGOV Ontologies were published at the oeGOV blog site this site on August 1, 2009 - "Data Independence Day".

The current versions of the oeGOV Ontologies can be accessed using the tables below:

Overview

oeGOV is made up of schemas and several datasets. The Ontology Architecture is based on Modular Component Ontologies using "Named Graphs". See this post for more details. A consistent convention has been used for Names and Identifers, as documented on the "Guidelines" page.

Schemas

The following Ontologies make up the oeGOV Schemas:

Schema

Title

Details

Creative Commons (in RDF)

Namespace URI: http://creativecommons.org/ns#

RDF Format: http://creativecommons.org/schema.rdf

Dependencies: none

Dublin Core

Namespace URI: http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/

Dependencies: none

oecc

Creative Commons Ontology

Description:	OWL Extensions to the Creative Commons RDF (cc).
Namespace URI:	http://www.oegov.org/core/owl/cc#
N3 Format:	cc.n3
RDF/OWL Format:	cc
Dependencies:	cc, dc

Government Core Ontology

Description:	The Government Core (gc) Ontology establishes a foundation for all oegov ontologies.
Namespace URI:	http://www.oegov.org/core/owl/gc#
N3 Format:	gc.n3
RDF/OWL Format:	gc
Dependencies:	cc, dc, oecc

geopolitical

Geopolitical Ontology

Description:	The FAO geopolitical ontology facilitates data exchange and sharing in a standardized manner among systems managing information about countries and/or regions.
Namespace URI:	http://aims.fao.org/aos/geopolitical.owl#
RDF/OWL Format:	http://aims.fao.org/aos/geopolitical.owl
Dependencies:

gov

Government Ontology

Description:	Level 1 Ontology about Government.
Namespace URI:	http://www.oegov.org/core/owl/cc#
N3 Format:	oe1gov.n3
RDF/OWL Format:	oe1gov
Dependencies:	cc, dc, gc, oecc

oe2gov

Government Ontology

Description:	Level 2 Ontology about Government. Imports 'geopolitical'.
Namespace URI:	http://www.oegov.org/core/owl/cc#
N3 Format:	oe2gov.n3
RDF/OWL Format:	oe2gov
Dependencies:	cc, dc, gc, gov

usgov

U.S. Government Ontology

Description:	Level 1 Ontology about the U.S. Government.
Namespace URI:	http://www.oegov.org/core/owl/cc#
N3 Format:	us1gov.n3
RDF/OWL Format:	us1gov
Dependencies:	cc, dc, gc, gov, oecc

Foundation for U.S. Government Bodies

Built on the oegov schemas is a foundation ontology for U.S. Government Bodies

Graph

Description

Details

us1gov-bodies

U.S. Government Ontology

Description:	Level 1 Ontology about the U.S. Constitution.
Namespace URI:	http://www.oegov.org/core/owl/cc#
N3 Format:	us1gov-bodies.n3
RDF/OWL Format:	us1gov_bodies
Dependencies:	cc, dc, gc, gov, oecc, usgov

U.S. Constitution Ontology

The level 1 Ontology of the U.S. Constitution is a model of the Bill of Rights with articles and amendments

Graph

Description

Details

us1constitution

U.S. Constitution Ontology

Description:	Level 1 Ontology about the U.S. Government.
Namespace URI:	http://www.oegov.org/core/owl/cc#
N3 Format:	us1constitution.n3
RDF/OWL Format:	us1constitution
Dependencies:	cc, dc, gc, gov, oecc, usgov

Government Agency Ontologies

Each Government Agency has its own Named Graph or "DataSet". The following named graphs make up the current oeGOV datasets for Government Agencies:

DHS, DOC, DOE, DOI, DOL, DOJ, DOS, DOT, ED, EPA, GSA, HHS, HUD, NARA, NASA, NOAA, TREASURY, USDA, VA, WH

The following Aggregation Graphs are available:

Civil Agencies

Department of Homeland Security

Blog Page

Type

Details

DHS

gov:CivilAgency,
gov:ExecutiveAgency

Description:	Level 1 Ontology about the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Namespace URI:	http://www.oegov.us/democracy/us/federal/agency/owl/dhs#
N3 Format:	us1gov_dhs.n3
RDF/OWL Format:	us1dhs
Dependencies:	cc, dc, gc, gov, oecc, usgov, usgov-bodies

Ontologies for e-Government

What is oeGOV?

Why build ontologies for eGovernment?

Who is oeGOV?

Where can I access the oeGOV Ontologies?

Overview

Schemas

Foundation for U.S. Government Bodies

U.S. Constitution Ontology

Government Agency Ontologies

Department of Homeland Security

Department of Commerce

Department of Energy

Department of Interior

Department of Justice

Department of Labor

Department of State

Department of Transportation

Education Department

Environment Protection Agency

General Service Administration

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

National Archives Administration (NARA)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Treasury

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Whitehouse

Aggregation Graphs

Civil Agencies"

Screenshots