A world of conceptual schemas: mapping of standards to databases and other standards
J. Torre, W. Lipp, M.Döring, A. Hahn & W. Berendsohn. Freie Universität Berlin , Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin -Dahlem, Department of Biodiversity Informatics and Laboratories, Königin-Luise-Str. 6–8, D–14191 Berlin, Germany
{a.hahn, j.torre, m.doering, w.berendsohn, w.lipp}@bgbm.orgConceptual schemas are increasingly used to integrate data in distributed networks. ABCD defines over 700 elements describing specimen data. It acts as a simple ontology: the result of mapping databases to ABCD is a unified description of these databases. Collection databases may contain hundreds of attributes, resulting in thousands of possible mappings. A configuration tool is needed, which provides (1) lexical analysis of the terms in the schema (the ‘Google approach’); (2) a structured catalog of terms in the schema (the ‘Yahoo approach’); (3) the incorporation of experts’ assessments of the importance of terms for certain domains; (4) formats and tools to identify terms of the schema with terms of other schemas or standards. The first three requirements have been implemented in a BioCASe configuration tool. The forth requirement is extending this practical approach. We have started creating a prototype for a general repository of concepts. At the core, a database holds an extensive set of concepts, which can be mapped to (versions of) standards. Functions for mapping and comparing elements or subtrees are needed, incorporating those realised in the configuration tool. The repository can be used for data transformation services, automatic update of wrapper configurations, documentation of standard mappings, and general documentation of data used in specific networks.