1. TWC
A use case-driven iterative method for
building a provenance-aware GCIS ontology
Xiaogang Ma a
, Jin Guang Zheng a
, Justin Goldstein b,c
, Linyun Fu a
,
Steve Aulenbach b,c
, Curt Tilmes c,d
, Peter Fox a
a
Tetherless World Constellation, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
b
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
c
U.S. Global Change Research Program, Washington
d
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
ESIP 2013 Summer Meeting, Chapel Hill, NC

2. TWCWho we are
• Global Change Information System:
Information Model and Semantic Application
Prototypes (GCIS-IMSAP)
• Working group:
Brian Duggan
Peter Fox
Justin Goldstein
Curt Tilmes Xiaogang Ma Steve AulenbachJin G Zheng
Stephan Zednik Anne WapleAna P Privette
Chengchong Du
Jun Xu
Anusha Akkiraju
Aaron Smith
…
Linyun Fu

3. TWCWhere are we
National Science and
Technology Council (NSTC)
Committee on Environment,
Natural Resources and
Sustainability (CENRC)
Subcommittee on Global
Change Research (SGCR)
U.S. Global Change Research
Program (USGCRP)
White House Office
of Science and
Technology Policy
(OSTP)
National Climate
Assessment
(NCA)
Global Change
Information
System (GCIS)
GCIS: Information Model
and Semantic Application
Prototypes (GCIS-IMSAP)
National Climate Assessment
Development Advisory
Committee (NCADAC)

4. TWCWhat we do
• The ongoing research concentrates on the
provenance for the NCA3 report.
• In the future, the GCIS will collect and link records
of publications, datasets, instruments,
organizations, methods, people, etc. eventually
covering provenance information for the entire
scope of global change.

5. TWCSemantic Web methodology and technology
development process (Fox and McGuiness, 2008)
Source: http://goo.gl/2XkDc
Our method

6. TWC
Source: http://goo.gl/2XkDc
Identifies questions to be asked,
resources to be used to answer the
questions, and methods to be used to
determine the answer.
Use case template:
http://goo.gl/Ys2bW

7. TWC
Source: http://goo.gl/2XkDc
A facilitator: set and monitor direction,
provide guidance for scoping the use
case and timeline for implementation.
Team formation: domain experts, data
and information producers, knowledge
and information modelers, software
engineers, and a scribe.

8. TWC
Check the source document for more details: http://goo.gl/2XkDc
For example,
Group meeting: Titanpad, Skpye,
GotoMeeting
Conceptual modeler: CMap
Ontology editor: Protege, Notepad++,
Evolution environments: TopBraid
Validators/checkers: Epimorphics
Linked Data API (ELDA)

9. TWCOur first use case
• Visit data center website of dataset used
to generate a report figure
• A viewer wishes to identify the source of
the data in a particular NCA3 figure. A
reference to the paper in which the figure
was originally published in appears in the
figure caption. Clicking that reference
displays a page of information about the
paper, including a link to the datasets
used in the paper. Following each of
those links presents a page of
information about the dataset, including
links back to the agency/data center web
page describing the dataset in more
detail and making the actual data
available for order or download.
9

10. TWCOur first use case
• Visit data center website of dataset used
to generate a report figure
• A viewer wishes to identify the source of
the data in a particular NCA3 figure. A
reference to the paper in which the figure
was originally published in appears in the
figure caption. Clicking that reference
displays a page of information about the
paper, including a link to the datasets
used in the paper. Following each of
those links presents a page of
information about the dataset, including
links back to the agency/data center web
page describing the dataset in more
detail and making the actual data
available for order or download.

11. TWCOur second use case
• Roles of people in the generation of a chapter in the NCA3 draft
report
• A reader sees that Chapter 6 (Agriculture) in the NCA3 draft report
was written by a list of authors. On the title page of that chapter the
reader can see the role of each author, i.e., convening lead author,
lead author or contributing author, in the generation of this report
chapter.
• We decided to use the PROV-O ontology to describe this use case

12. TWCThe three Starting Point classes in PROV-O
ontology and the properties that relate them
Source: http://www.w3.org/TR/prov-o/

13. TWCMapping the use case into PROV-O
Authors of
Chapter 6
Chapter 6 in
NCA3
Writing of
Chapter 6
in NCA3
isA isA
isA

14. TWCRoles of agents in an activity in PROV-O

15. TWCMap roles of chapter authors into
PROV-O
Writing of
Chapter 6
in NCA3
isA
Authors of
Chapter 6
isA
Convening
lead author
Lead author
Contributing
author
isA

16. TWC
Roles of people in the
writing of chapter 6
(Agriculture) in NCA3 –
starts from Chapter 6
writing as an activity
Here just three
of the eight
authors are
shown. Each
author had a
specific role for
this chapter.
USE CASE 2

17. TWC
We can also use PROV-O to describe roles of agents for an entity
We used PROV-O for describing roles of agents in an activity

18. TWC
Roles of people in the
writing of chapter 6
(Agriculture) in NCA3 –
starts from Chapter 6
as an entity
Here just three
of the eight
authors are
shown. Each
author had a
specific role for
this chapter.
USE CASE 2

19. TWCOur third use case
• Provenance tracing of NASA contributions to Figure 1.2 in NCA3 draft
report
• A reader sees that Figure 1.2 “Sea Level Rise: Past, Present and
Future” of the NCA3 draft report cites four data sources in the figure
caption. Selecting the third citation displays a page of information
about the paper and a citation to the dataset used in the paper.
Clicking the citation link the reader opens a page containing
information about the dataset, including a description that the dataset
is derived from data produced by the TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason
altimeter missions funded by NASA and CNES. Following each of
these missions presents a page about the platforms, instruments and
sensors in that mission.
19

20. TWC
Provenance tracing of NASA contributions to Figure 1.2 “Sea
Level Rise: Past, Present and Future” in NCA3
USE CASE 3

21. TWC• We have had and will have more use cases…
21

22. TWCPrimary classes and relationships in
current version of the GCIS ontology
Current result

23. TWCMap to PROV-O ontologyCurrent result

24. TWCMap to PROV-O ontologyCurrent result

25. TWCWrap up
• An use case-driven iterative method for ontology
engineering
• In GCIS ontology works:
– Re-use existing ontologies and schemas: dctype, dcterms, bibo,
org, foaf, etc.
– Map to PROV-O ontology

26. TWC
More information:
Xiaogang (Marshall) Ma
max7@rpi.edu
Thank you!