Interoperability among knowledge organization systems (KOS)
Interoperability in computer science is the ability of software and hardware on
different machines from different vendors to share data. In a broader sense it
is the ability to link systems so that they can actually work together like one,
integrated system.
In knowledge organization (KO) is interoperability the ability of knowledge organization systems (KOS) to exchange information. This is primarily a semantic question: Defining terms and classes in standardized ways ("semantic interoperability").
"Data semantics is the relationship between data and what
the data stand for. In order to obtain mutual understanding of interchanged
data, the actors have to share a model of what the data represent. Semantic
interoperability is about how to achieve such mutual understanding" (Sølvberg
et al., 2002).
Interoperability is also a question of power and market dominance. This is perhaps most clearly seen in the case of Microsoft versus "open source".
Literature:
ALA (American Library Association). (2000). Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CC:DA) Task Force on Metadata. Final report. Available: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/jca/ccda/reports.html
Ferrer, R. (1999). University of Illinois the federation of digital libraries:
Interoperability among heterogeneous information systems. Science &
Technology Libraries, 17(3-4), 81-119.
Iyer, H.,
Giguere, M. (1995), "Towards designing an expert
system to map mathematics classificatory structures", Knowledge
Organization, Vol. 22 pp.141-147
Harvey, F.; Kuhn, W.; Pundt, H.; Bishr, Y. & Riedemann, C. (1999). Semantic interoperability: A central issue for sharing geographic information. Annals of Regional Science, 33(2), 213-232.
Heflin, J. & Hendler, J. (2000). Semantic Interoperability on the Web. In Proceedings of Extreme Markup Languages 2000. Graphic Communications Association, pp. 111-120. Available: http://www.cs.umd.edu/projects/plus/SHOE/pubs/extreme2000.pdf
Mai, J.-E. (2004).The Future of General Classification. Cataloging and Classification Quarterly, 37 (1/2): 3-12. http://www.ischool.washington.edu/mai/Papers/2004_FutureOfGeneralClassification.pdf (Visited March 16, 2004).
Maniez, J. (1997). Database merging and the compatibility of indexing languages. Knowledge Organization, 24(4), 213-224.
Miller, P. (2000). Interoperability. What is it and Why should I want it? Ariadne, 24. Available at: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue24/interoperability/intro.html
Sølvberg, A.; Hakkarainen, S.; Brasethvik, T.; Su, X.; Matskin, M. & Strasunskas, D. (2002). Concepts on Enriching, Understanding and Retrieving the Semantics on the Web. ERCIM [the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics] News No. 51. Available at: http://www.ercim.org/publication/Ercim_News/enw51/solvberg.html
Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia. (2006). Interoperability. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interoperability
Zeng, M. L. & Chan, L. M. (2004). Trends and issues in establishing interoperability among knowledge organization systems. Journal for the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 55(5), 377-395.
See also: Homonym; Semantic relations; Standardization (Core Concepts in LIS); Synonymy; Switching languages; Z39.50
Birger Hjørland
Last edited: 27-04-2009