2. Planning controlled vocabularies for the UK public sector Stella G Dextre Clarke Consultant to Office of the e-Envoy

3. The context of planning Responsibility of the Office of the e- Envoy (OeE) Part of its project to develop a metadata framework and standard Vocabulary debate began August 2000 Consultation among government departments and other public bodies

4. What sort of vocabulary? A: Full thesaurus, ISO 2788 style B: High-level vocabulary, linked to detailed departmental vocabularies - High-level thesaurus - High-level taxonomy C: Switching tool (metathesaurus) D: Search thesaurus

5. Search Thesaurus Not used for (human) indexing; only for searching Types of search thesaurus: -Expansion via synonym rings -List of term associations -Probabilistic list of term associations

6. What sort of vocabulary? A: Full thesaurus, ISO 2788 style B: High-level vocabulary, linked to detailed departmental vocabularies C: Switching tool (metathesaurus) D: Search thesaurus

7. What sort of vocabulary? A: Full thesaurus, ISO 2788 style B: High-level vocabulary, linked to detailed departmental vocabularies C: Switching tool (metathesaurus) D: Search thesaurus E: Mainly a discussion forum

8. What sort of vocabulary? A: Full thesaurus, ISO 2788 style B: High-level vocabulary, linked to detailed departmental vocabularies C: Switching tool (metathesaurus) D: Search thesaurus E: Mainly a discussion forum F: Taxonomy for automated use

9. Focus of decisions Models A and B require consensus from all departments Models C, D, E or F can be adopted at any time, unilaterally or however

10. Model A: Full thesaurus Superior retrieval performance Little understood by end-users Demanding at the time of meta-tagging Quality management essential Verdict: probably not the most practical proposal

11. Model B: High level taxonomy The chosen model Relatively simple to build and maintain Allows freedom at departmental level Departments maintain mapping tables from their own vocabularies. Widespread implementation achievable Leaves open the option of automated meta-tagging

12. Taxonomy – whats that? To be the UK Government Category List (GCL) It will evolve from an existing Policy Category List Basically a simple polyhierarchical classification scheme With inbuilt synonyms and relationships, like a thesaurus

16. Planning – whats next? Workshop consensus is behind us Departments now planning implementation, especially mapping procedures Existing PCL under review, to develop the GCL Software functional requirements to be established

17. In conclusion… …Were ready to start! Distributed system, needing minimal intervention at the centre Structures in place for consultation and feedback Departments enthusiastic to implement Options wide open for harnessing new technologies and giving the public first class access to information.