ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 32/WG 2 - MetaData

This document specifies the metamodel that provides a facility to register administrative and evolution information related to ontologies. The metamodel is intended to promote interoperability among application systems, by providing administrative and evolution information related to ontologies, accompanied with standardized ontology repositories that register ontologies themselves in specific languages. This document does not specify the metamodels of ontologies expressed in specific languages and the mappings among them.

This document specifies the message exchange framework for communicating data element definitions with an ISO/IEC 11179-3 metadata registry (MDR). It defines message semantics, protocols and bindings for a set of transactions allowing the exchange of a commonly used subset of data element metadata with an ISO/IEC 11179-3 MDR. This document establishes the following data element message exchange interoperability specifications: — retrieving data element list from an ISO/IEC 11179-3 MDR matching the selection criteria; — retrieving metadata of a selected data element from an ISO/IEC 11179-3 MDR.

This document provides a specification for an extension to a Metadata Registry (MDR), as specified in ISO/IEC 11179-3:2013, Clauses 5 to 11 in which metadata which describes data sets, collections of data available for access or download in one or more formats, can be registered. Since a set can contain a single element, this document enables the recording of metadata about a single data value. The registered metadata provides information about the data set that includes the provenance and the quality of the dataset.

This document specifies basic attributes which are required to describe data elements and associated metadata, and which might be used in situations where a complete ISO/IEC 11179-3 metadata registry is not appropriate (e.g. in the specification of other International Standards).

This document describes the basic concept of metadata, and its relationship to both data and metamodels.

This document compliments ISO/IEC 11179-3 by describing registration of classification schemes and using them to classify registered items in an MDR. Any metadata item can be made a Classifiable_Item so it can be classified, which can include object classes, properties, representations, conceptual domains, value domains, data element concepts and data elements themselves. This document does not establish a particular classification scheme as pre-eminent. Sanction of a particular taxonomic approach and/or a particular epistemology is also beyond the scope of this document. These are addressed by other standards committees and/or tend to be tailored to a particular domain of discourse. The MDR can establish its own classification schemes, and other standards committees are developing or have developed normative languages for use in classification and/or particular techniques and structures that can be accommodated by this document. Each registration authority, as described and specified in ISO/IEC 11179-6, can classify classifiable items according to the classification schemes, structures and content that it deems appropriate. In documenting the classification aspects of classifiable items, the registration authority can use the principles, methods, procedures and attributes covered in this document.

This document provides a usage scenario that utilizes the facilities defined in ISO/IEC 11179-3, ISO/IEC 19763-5 and ISO/IEC 19763-10 to demonstrate the registration of the mapping between process models. The availability of these registered process model mappings will help to promote the reuse of process models. The scope of this document is limited to a discussion of the process models associated with software development projects and the deliverables produced during these projects. This document describes a scenario that evaluates the combined usage of ISO/IEC 11179-3, ISO/IEC 19763-5 and ISO/IEC 19763-10 to enable the reuse of past knowledge of process models describing project processes and deliverables.

The primary purpose of the ISO/IEC 19763 series is to specify a metamodel framework for interoperability. ISO/IEC TS 19763-13(E) specifies a metamodel for registering form designs. ISO/IEC TS 19763-13(E) provides a metamodel to describe the structure and semantics of an implemented form devoid of any specific, domain semantics, e.g. in healthcare, social science, e-government and e-business, or representation format so that data may be faithfully exchanged between systems and system components, and associations expressed between sets of form designs whose data may be compared, joined or composed for analysis.

ISO/IEC 11179-1:2015 provides the means for understanding and associating the individual parts of ISO/IEC 11179 and is the foundation for a conceptual understanding of metadata and metadata registries. ISO/IEC 11179-1:2015 is applicable to the formulation of data representations, concepts, meanings and relationships to be shared among people and machines, independent of the organization that produces the data. It is not applicable to the physical representation of data as bits and bytes at the machine level. In this part of ISO/IEC 11179-1:2015 (and all other parts), metadata refers to descriptions of data. It does not contain a general treatment of metadata.

ISO/IEC TR 19763-9:2015 specifies a technical guideline on how to use the Role and Goal, Process, and Service (RGPS) metamodels to select appropriate combinations of models and/or services to support user-requests. The scope of ISO/IEC TR 19763-9 is limited to model selection based on ISO/IEC 19763-5, ISO/IEC 19763-7, and ISO/IEC 19763-8.

The primary purpose of the multipart standard ISO/IEC 19763 is to specify a metamodel framework for interoperability. ISO/IEC 19763-7:2015 specifies a metamodel for registering models of services, facilitating interoperability through the reuse of services. ISO/IEC 19763-7:2015 is only applicable to web services whose capabilities are described by some web service description language (see Annex A for examples of such languages). Figure 1 shows the scope of ISO/IEC 19763‑7:2015.

The primary purpose of the multipart standard ISO/IEC 19763 is to specify a metamodel framework for interoperability. ISO/IEC 19763-7:2015 specifies a metamodel for registering models of services, facilitating interoperability through the reuse of services. ISO/IEC 19763-7:2015 is only applicable to web services whose capabilities are described by some web service description language (see Annex A for examples of such languages). Figure 1 shows the scope of ISO/IEC 19763‑7:2015.

The ISO/IEC 19763 family of standards defines normative metamodels for the registration of models (including information models and process models), ontologies, services and roles & goals. Currently a lot of metadata registries or model registries were constructed and utilized in many different business domains, such as e-business, healthcare, automobile, electronics devices and civil construction. One of the key issues for the cross domain data or services integration must be enabling the easy discovery of metadata that are stored in the different registries that were scattered over different domains. Therefore, it is necessary to provide specific metadata that describes the registry itself in order to enable interoperation among different registries that were built following different standards. ISO/IEC 19763:2015 family of standards specifies an information artefact called the Registry Summary. The Registry Summary consists of information that describes administrative aspects, the summary of contents and the technical access method of the registry. A collection of multiple Registry Summary information is called a "Registry of Registries" or RoR, however, this standard does not mandate a particular implementation. Also, any specific protocol between Registry Summaries and RoR, such as creation of RoR and synchronization of RoR, would not be specified in this standard. Those are to be specified by other standards. The Registry Summary and RoR concept should be applied to all Metamodel Framework for Interoperability (MFI) registries, but its use may be applied to any kind of registries.

The primary purpose of the multipart standard ISO/IEC 19763 is to specify a metamodel framework for interoperability. ISO/IEC 19763-5:2015 specifies the metamodel that describes a facility to register administrative information and selected metadata about process models. The metamodel specified in ISO/IEC 19763‑5:2015 is intended to promote semantic discovery and reuse of process models within/across process model repositories. For this purpose, it provides selected metadata and common semantics of process models created with a specific process modelling language, including Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN), UML (Unified Modelling Language) Activity Diagram and EPC (Event-driven Process Chain), etc. The metamodel can help discovery of the function and composition of a process, and promote reuse of its components at different levels of granularity.

ISO/IEC 11179-6:2015 defines the type of information to be specified, the conditions to be met, and the procedure(s) to be followed for each metadata item to be registered in a metadata registry. The requirements and procedures contained herein apply to all metadata items specified in ISO/IEC 11179‑3 and those specified in ISO/IEC 19763. Some Registration Authorities may want to use this part of ISO/IEC 11179 to register and manage locally defined metadata item types that are not defined in ISO/IEC 11179‑3 or ISO/IEC 19763. ISO/IEC 11179-6:2015 addresses the common metadata that is used to document the common facilities of a metadata registry: administration, identification, naming and definition, details that can apply to any and all types of metadata items.

ISO/IEC19763-1:2015 (Metamodel framework for interoperability) (MFI) family of standards. As the first part of MFI, this part provides an overview of the whole of MFI. In particular, the purpose, the underlying concepts, the overall architecture and the requirements for the development of other standards within the MFI family are described. MFI provides a set of normative metamodels to enable the registration of many different types of model. Each of these metamodels is expressed as a UML Class Diagram. MFI is evolving. Currently, in addition to this part, the MFI family comprises: · A core model and facilities for the basic mapping of models (Part 10) · A metamodel for ontology registration (Part 3) · A metamodel for process model registration (Part 5) · A metamodel for service model registration (Part 7) · A metamodel for role and goal model registration (Part 8) · A Technical Report describing on demand model selection based on RGPS (Role, Goal, Process and Service) (Part 9) · A metamodel for information model registration (Part 12) · A metamodel for form design registration (Part 13) · A metamodel for a registry summary (Part 6) These parts are described in more detail in Annex A.

ISO/IEC 11179-5:2015 provides instruction for naming of the following items, as defined in ISO/IEC 11179‑3: concept, data element concept, conceptual domain, data element, and value domain. ISO/IEC 11179-5:2015 describes naming in a metadata registries (MDR); includes principles and rules by which naming conventions can be developed; and provides examples of naming conventions.

The ISO/IEC 19763 multipart International Standard specifies a metamodel framework for interoperability. ISO/IEC 19763-12:2015 specifies a metamodel for registering information models. This metamodel was developed taking into account two distinct types of information models such as ? those that are used to document the information requirements of a particular area of interest, and ? those that represent the structure of a database which are often expressed using a Database Definition Language (DDL).

ISO/IEC 19763-10: 2014 specifies a metamodel framework for interoperability. This part of ISO/IEC 19763 specifies the metamodel that provides a facility to register administrative information and common semantics of models and mapping between two models. ISO/IEC 19763-10: 2014 does not specify the metamodel of models in a specific language, but provides a common core metamodel for the other parts of ISO/IEC 19763, each of which specifies a metamodel for a registry that can register models of a specific type, such as ontologies, process models or information models, in a number of different languages. ISO/IEC 19763-10: 2014 also provides a metamodel for registering the mappings between two models registered in those other parts of ISO/IEC 19763. ISO/IEC 19763-10: 2014 utilises the common facilities specified in ISO/IEC 11179‑3. ISO/IEC 11179 (all parts) specifies a metadata registry (MDR). These common facilities provide the ability to identify and register models and their associated model elements and modelling languages within a metadata registry used to register models.

ISO/IEC 11179-3:2013 specifies the structure of a metadata registry in the form of a conceptual data model. While the model diagrams are presented in UML notation, ISO/IEC 11179-3:2013 does not assume nor endorse any specific system environment, database management system, database design paradigm, system development methodology, data definition language, command language, system interface, user interface, computing platform, or any technology required for implementation. ISO/IEC 11179-3:2013 does not directly apply to the actual use of data in communications and information processing systems. ISO/IEC 11179-3:2013 specifies basic attributes which are required to describe metadata items, and which might be used in situations where a complete metadata registry is not appropriate (e.g. in the specification of other International Standards).

The ISO/IEC 20944 series of International Standards provides the bindings and their interoperability for metadata registries, such as those specified in the ISO/IEC 11179 series of International Standards. ISO/IEC 20944-1:2013 contains an overview, framework, common vocabulary, and common provisions for conformance for the ISO/IEC 20944 series of International Standards.

The ISO/IEC 20944 series of International Standards provides the bindings and their interoperability for metadata registries, such as those specified in the ISO/IEC 11179 series of International Standards. ISO/IEC 20944-3:2013 contains provisions that are common to application programming interface (API) bindings and the API bindings themselves. The API bindings have commonality in their conceptualization of the services provided. Common features include: using a session paradigm to access data; using a parameterized security framework to support a variety of security techniques; using a hierarchical navigation for data access. Bindings for C, Java, and ECMAscript programming languages are provided.

The ISO/IEC 20944 series of International Standards provides the bindings and their interoperability for metadata registries, such as those specified in the ISO/IEC 11179 series of International Standards. ISO/IEC 20944-2:2013 contains provisions that are common to coding bindings and the coding bindings themselves. The coding bindings have commonality in their conceptualization of data instances and their internal structures. Common features include: using datatypes to characterize the nature and operations upon data; using ISO/IEC 11404 to define and declare datatypes; using common aggregate structures, such as array and record, to describe sets of data; using common navigation descriptions to reference components within a set of data. The individual coding bindings each incorporate a mapping of common data semantics to their individual binding requirements. XML and DIVP (dotted identifier value pair) bindings are provided.

The ISO/IEC 20944 series of International Standards provides the bindings and their interoperability for metadata registries, such as those specified in the ISO/IEC 11179 series of International Standards. ISO/IEC 20944-5:2013 contains provisions that are common to the profiles, and the profiles themselves. A profile of ISO/IEC 11179-3:2003 is included, which maps ISO/IEC 11179 metadata attributes to standardized identifiers for navigation and access of ISO/IEC 11179 metadata.

The ISO/IEC 20944 series of International Standards provides the bindings and their interoperability for metadata registries, such as those specified in the ISO/IEC 11179 series of International Standards. ISO/IEC 20944-4:2013 contains provisions that are common to protocol bindings and the protocol bindings themselves. The protocol bindings have commonality in their conceptualization of the services provided. Common features include: common data transfer semantics; harmonized session services for connection-oriented and connection-less protocols. Bindings for HTTP and WebDAV protocols are provided.

ISO/IEC 19773:2011 specifies small modules of data that can be used or reused in applications. These modules have been extracted from ISO/IEC 11179-3, ISO/IEC 19763, and OASIS EBXML, and have been refined further. These modules are intended to harmonize with current and future versions of the ISO/IEC 11179 series and the ISO/IEC 19763 series. These modules include: reference-or-literal (reflit) for on-demand choices of pointers or data; multitext, multistring, etc. for recording internationalized and localized data within the same structure; slots and slot arrays for standardized extensible data structures; internationalized contact data, including UPU postal addresses, ITU-T E.164 phone numbers, internet E-mail addresses, etc.; generalized model for context data based upon who-what-where-when-why-how (W5H); data structures for reified relationships and entity-person-groups. Conformity can be selected on a per-module basis.

ISO/IEC 14957:2010 specifies the notation to be used for stating the format, i.e. the character classes, used in the representation of data elements and the length of these representations. It also specifies additional notations relative to the representation of numerical figures. For example, this formatting technique might be used as part of the metadata for data elements. The scope of ISO/IEC 14957:2010 is limited to graphic characters, such as digits, letters and special characters. The scope is limited to the basic datatypes of characters, character strings, integers, reals, and pointers.

ISO/IEC 19763 specifies a metamodel framework for interoperability. ISO/IEC 19763-3:2010 specifies a metamodel that provides a facility to register administrative and evolution information related to ontologies, independent of the languages in which they are expressed. The metamodel also administers the authoritative extent of ontologies, which indicates how commonly they can be used. A registry that conforms to ISO/IEC 19763-3:2010, together with repositories that contain actual ontologies, makes it possible for users to gain the benefits of interoperation among application systems based on ontologies.

ISO/IEC 11404:2007 specifies the nomenclature and shared semantics for a collection of datatypes commonly occurring in programming languages and software interfaces, referred to as the General-Purpose Datatypes (GPD). It specifies both primitive datatypes, in the sense of being defined ab initio without reference to other datatypes, and non-primitive datatypes, in the sense of being wholly or partly defined in terms of other datatypes. The specification of datatypes in ISO/IEC 11404:2007 is "general-purpose" in the sense that the datatypes specified are classes of datatype of which the actual datatypes used in programming languages and other entities requiring the concept "datatype" are particular instances. These datatypes are general in nature; thus, they serve a wide variety of information processing applications. ISO/IEC 11404:2007 expressly distinguishes three notions of datatype: the conceptual, or abstract, notion of a datatype, which characterizes the datatype by its nominal values and properties; the structural notion of a datatype, which characterizes the datatype as a conceptual organization of specific component datatypes with specific functionalities; and the implementation notion of a datatype, which characterizes the datatype by defining the rules for representation of the datatype in a given environment. ISO/IEC 11404:2007 defines the abstract notions of many commonly used primitive and non-primitive datatypes which possess the structural notion of atomicity. ISO/IEC 11404:2007 does not define all atomic datatypes; it defines only those which are common in programming languages and software interfaces. ISO/IEC 11404:2007 defines structural notions for the specification of other non-primitive datatypes, and provides a means by which datatypes not defined herein can be defined structurally in terms of the GPDs defined herein. ISO/IEC 11404:2007 defines a partial terminology for implementation notions of datatypes and provides for the use of this terminology in the definition of datatypes. The primary purpose of this terminology is to identify common implementation notions associated with datatypes and to distinguish them from conceptual notions. ISO/IEC 11404:2007 specifies the required elements of mappings between the GPDs and the datatypes of some other language. ISO/IEC 11404:2007 does not specify the precise form of a mapping, but rather the required information content of a mapping.

ISO/IEC 11179-4:2004 specifies requirements and recommendations for constructing definitions for data and metadata. Only semantic aspects of definitions are addressed; specifications for formatting the definitions are deemed unnecessary for the purposes of this standard. While especially applicable to the content of metadata registries as specified in ISO/IEC 11179-3, ISO/IEC 11179-4:2004 is useful broadly for developing definitions for data and metadata. These definitional requirements and recommendations pertain to formulating definitions for data elements and other types of data constructs such as entity types, entities, relationships, attributes, object types (or classes), objects, composites, code entries, metadata items, and the data referred to by XML tags.

The purpose of this technical report is to describe a set of procedures for the consistent registration of value domains and their attributes in a registry. This technical report is not a data entry manual, but a user's guide for conceptualizing a value domain and its components for the purpose of consistently establishing good quality metadata. An organization may adapt and/or add to these procedures as necessary.

An ISO/IEC 11179-based metadata registry (MDR) (hereafter referred to as a "registry") is a tool for the management of shareable data; a comprehensive, authoritative source of reference information about data. It supports the standardization and harmonization processes by recording and disseminating data standards, which facilitates data sharing among organizations and users. It provides links to documents that refer to data elements and to information systems where data elements are used. When used in conjunction with an information database, the registry enables users to better understand the information obtained. A registry does not contain data itself. It contains the metadata that is necessary to clearly describe, inventory, analyze, and classify data. It provides an understanding of the meaning, representation, and identification of units of data. The standard identifies the information elements that need to be available for determining the meaning of a data element (DE) to be shared between systems. The purpose of ISO/IEC TR 20943-1:2003 is to describe a set of procedures for the consistent registration of data elements and their attributes in a registry. ISO/IEC TR 20943-1:2003 is not a data entry manual, but a user's guide for conceptualizing a data element and its associated metadata items for the purpose of consistently establishing good quality data elements. An organization may adapt and/or add to these procedures as necessary. The scope of ISO/IEC TR 20943-1:2003 is limited to the associated items of a data element: the data element identifier, names and definitions in particular contexts, and examples; data element concept; conceptual domain with its value meanings; and value domain with its permissible values. There is a choice when registering code sets and other value domains in an ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registry. Some Registration Authorities treat these sets as value domains, and others treat them as data elements. For the purposes of ISO/IEC TR 20943-1:2003, the choice will always be to treat the sets as data elements unless explicitly stated. This choice is made to help illustrate the way to register many different kinds of data elements, including examples for registering standard code sets as data elements.

This part of ISO/IEC 6523 specifies the procedure for registration of organization identification schemes, and the requirements for the administration of International Code Designator values, to designate these organization identification schemes.

1.1 This part of ISO/IEC 6523 specifies a structure for globally and unambiguously identifying organizations, and parts thereof, for the purpose of information interchange. This part of ISO/IEC 6523 also makes recommendations regarding cases where prior agreements may be concluded between interchange partners. 1.2 This part of ISO/IEC 6523 does not specify file organization techniques, storage media , languages, etc. to be used in its implementation.

Replaces the wording of some clauses and subclauses of ISO/IEC 10728:1993 and adds a new annex E.

Contains a great number of amendments and additions; Information Resource Dictionary System (IRDS) services interface; ADA language binding.

Contains some amendments and adds the annex C - C language binding.

Provides general guidance on the manner on which data can be expressed by codes. Describes the objectives of coding, the characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of different coding methods, the features of codes and gives guidelines for the design of codes. Examples of applications are ISO 9735:1988, ISO 8601:1988, ISO 3166:1993.

The services interface specified gives any program full access to all IRDS services. Defines the semantics of this interface, and also specifies the language bindings for ISO Pascal (ISO 7185). Language bindings for other ISO standard programming languages are provided as separate standards. Makes no assumptions about an implementation environment, and assumes no specific run-time or compile time interfaces. Details of the IRDS series of standards are to be found in ISO/IEC 10027.

This Technical Report type 3 contains the fundamental concepts and terminology for the conceptual schema, the information base, and the mechanisms involved in manipulating them. The approaches and associated languages described in the appendices A through H are intended to be explanatory only.

ISO/IEC 19763 specifies a metamodel framework for interoperability. ISO/IEC 19763-3:2007 specifies the metamodel that is intended to promote interoperation among application systems based on ontologies. The metamodel specified by ISO/IEC 19763-3:2007 provides a facility to register administrative information related to ontologies, which consist of several sentences that use several non-logical symbols, irrespective of the languages in which they are described. The metamodel also distinguishes a reference ontology, an ontology that is usable and sharable by a community of interest, and a local ontology, an ontology that is specialized for defined applications. The metamodel, together with repositories that contain actual ontologies, makes it possible for users to gain the benefits of interoperation among application systems based on ontologies.

ISO/IEC 19763 specifies a metamodel framework for interoperability. ISO/IEC 19763-1:2007 specifies objectives, the basic concept of the metamodel framework, and requirements for development of each part of ISO/IEC 19763.

ISO/IEC 11179-2:2005 restates and elaborates on the procedures and techniques of ISO/IEC 11179-3:2003 for registering classification schemes and classifying administered items in a metadata registry (MDR). All types of administered items can be classified, including object classes, properties, representations, value domains, and data element concepts, as well as data elements themselves. ISO/IEC 11179-2:2005 develops a set of principles, methods, and procedures for specifying what is needed (at a minimum) to document the association between the various types of administered items and one or more classification schemes. This includes the names, definitions, and other aspects of the classification scheme and its contents. These can be captured through the use of a set of attributes. Particular attributes are specified in ISO/IEC 11179-2:2005, along with a structure for the contents of these attributes. Users may extend the set of attributes as necessary. Additional information may accompany a taxonomy or ontology; for example, to provide a suggested set of qualifiers that could be applied to the object class, property, or representation taxa to more fully qualify the classification of the particular administered item. ISO/IEC 11179-2:2005 summarizes the basic attributes and model specified in ISO/IEC 11179-3:2003.