My presentation at the RDA 6 premeeting on research infrastructures

1. “Information
Infrastructure for
agriculture: lessons
learned in the agINFRA
project”

2. Infrastructure is a term heavily used when talking about information
systems in science. The understanding what infrastructure means
is not always commonly shared and most probably there is no
one single meaning. The experience of the agINFRA project is
that developing an infrastructure for information management
may deemphasize the programming of complex software
applications and the intervention on the “aggregation level”. It
shows that there is an enormous need to concentrate on the level
where data are produced and managed. It also showed that
investment in common semantics is a necessary part of
infrastructure and the effort for this is often undervalued. A third
pillar of infrastructure (after tools, and standards) capacity
development is often completely neglected and can lead to failure
of the entire undertaking.
Only the combination of technology, standards and capacity
development will assure that efficient and successful
infrastructure can be created

3. johannes keizerhttp://aims.fao.org
agINFRA evaluation
3
d. Assessment
Excellent progress (the project
has fully achieved its objectives
and technical goals for the period
and has even exceeded
expectations).
……we wish to underline the
outstanding sustainability
plan proposed by the project
consortium. ..

4. johannes keizerhttp://aims.fao.org
Key statements
 Agreeing on the meaning of
Infrastructure
 Capacity development reigns
 One software less, one Agreement
(vocabularies, methodologies) more
 Riding the mainstream for having impact
 Specialize (software, ontologies), but
only with a business model

5. johannes keizerhttp://aims.fao.org
What is Infrastructure?
- A new aggregated repository is
not!
- Wires (Grid,Cloud) and
processing tools are not
sufficient
- The bottle neck is at the data
provision side
5

6. johannes keizerhttp://aims.fao.org
• CAAS Germplasm Data (CGRIS, China)
• CRA Soil Data (Italy)
You will find these data not even with GOOGLE!
The main problems
• Resistance to make the data open
• Undeclared idiosyncratic description of
data
2 Examples

7. johannes keizerhttp://aims.fao.org
Table (28) Field (880) Value Term (Alternative) InspireTerm (Preferred) InspireBroaderTerm
Soil_system WRB CH reference soil group (RSG) WRB Reference Soil Group (RSG) Soil Body
sottounita wrb_unità RG reference soil group (RSG) WRB Reference Soil Group (RSG) Derived Soil Profile
sottounita Localita_tipica Quarto Representative site name site name Derived Soil Profile
sottounita mpro_utile 135 potential root depth potential root depth Soil Derived Object Parameter Name
orizz_funzionali mph 8.1 mean soil pH (in water) pH value Soil Derived Object Parameter Name
orizz_funzionali mcarb_org 0.75 mean organic carbon content organic carbon content Soil Derived Object Parameter Name
analisi_routinarie phw 8.0 soil pH (in water) pH value Profile Element Parameter Name
analisi_routinarie azoto_totale total nitrogen content nitrogen content Profile Element Parameter Name
analisi_routinarie carbonio_org 0.60 organic carbon content organic carbon content Profile Element Parameter Name
Naming Classes
and Properties
Cleaning up SKOS
Using INSPIRE
Linsting all Classes
and Properties
expliciting complexity
(logical gerarchies)
Adding
Controlled lists
1° approximation:
3 level SKOS
2° approximation
n level KOS
The semantic Problem
7
agINFRA 3rd Review Meeting, 27th of March 2015

8. johannes keizerhttp://aims.fao.org
The “political” problem
8
…better not to write
it down……..

9. johannes keizerhttp://aims.fao.org
Registry of
Datasets and
APIs
Productivity Tools
Registry of
vocabularies
LOD Vocabularies
Information services
Infrastructure
9
(agINFRA 3rd Review Meeting, 27th of March 2015)

10. johannes keizerhttp://aims.fao.org
Registry of
Datasets and
APIs
Productivity Tools
Registry of
vocabularies
LOD Vocabularies
AGROVOC
Local KOSs
Controlled lists
- Document types
- Data types
- File formats
(IANA +)
- Protocols
- Audiences
- Licenses
etc.
agINFRA RDF
vocabularies
agINFRA LOD KOSs
Bibliographic
Educational
Germplasm
Soil
Datasets
APIs
etc.
Information services
Infrastructure
1agINFRA 3rd Review Meeting, 27th of March
(agINFRA 3rd Review Meeting, 27th of March 2015)

11. johannes keizerhttp://aims.fao.org
Registry of
Datasets and
APIs
Productivity Tools
Registry of
vocabularies
VEST
registry
LOD Vocabularies
AGROVOC
Local KOSs
Controlled lists
- Document types
- Data types
- File formats
(IANA +)
- Protocols
- Audiences
- Licenses
etc.
agINFRA RDF
vocabularies
agINFRA LOD
KOSs
Bibliographic
Educational
Germplasm
Soil
Datasets
APIs
etc.
agINFRA data
sources
agINFRA
collections
agINFRA APIs
Including:
Information services
Infrastructure
1agINFRA 3rd Review Meeting, 27th of March
harvested
registered
(agINFRA 3rd Review Meeting, 27th of March 2015)

12. johannes keizerhttp://aims.fao.org
Registry of
Datasets and
APIs
Productivity Tools
Registry of
vocabularies
VEST
registry
LOD Vocabularies
AGROVOC
Local KOSs
Controlled lists
- Document types
- Data types
- File formats
(IANA +)
- Protocols
- Audiences
- Licenses
etc.
agINFRA RDF
vocabularies
agINFRA LOD KOSs
Bibliographic
Educational
Germplasm
Soil
Datasets
APIs
etc.
agINFRA data
sources
agINFRA
collections
agINFRA APIs
Including:
Information services
Cloud / SaaS tools
Omeka,
AgriDrupal,
AgriOceanDSpac
e
VocBench
Infrastructure
1agINFRA 3rd Review Meeting, 27th of March
Public REST
APIs
agHarvest,
agTransform,
agTagger
Grid jobs
Grid workflows
agKEA, ag@RDF,
agHarvest…
harvested
registered
(agINFRA 3rd Review Meeting, 27th of March 2015)

13. johannes keizerhttp://aims.fao.org
Registry of
Datasets and
APIs
Productivity Tools
Registry of
vocabularies
and tools VEST
registry
LOD Vocabularies
AGROVOC
Local KOSs
Controlled lists
- Document types
- Data types
- File formats
(IANA +)
- Protocols
- Audiences
- Licenses
etc.
agINFRA RDF
vocabularies
agINFRA LOD KOSs
Bibliographi
c
Educational
Germplasm
Soil
Datasets
APIs
etc.
agINFRA data
sources
agINFRA
collections
agINFRA APIs
Including:
Information services
Cloud / SaaS tools
Omeka, AgriDrupal,
AgriOceanDSpace
VocBench
Shared
URIs
Infrastructure
1agINFRA 3rd Review Meeting, 27th of March
Public REST
APIs
agHarvest,
agTransform,
agTagger
Grid jobs
Grid workflows
agKEA, ag@RDF,
agHarvest…
(agINFRA 3rd Review Meeting, 27th of March 2015)

14. johannes keizerhttp://aims.fao.org
3 pillars of successful infrastructures
Technology for storage,
delivery and processing
Agreements on Standards
and Methodologies
Capacity development and
advocacy
14

15. johannes keizerhttp://aims.fao.org
Exploitation (agris.fao.org)

16. johannes keizerhttp://aims.fao.org
Aligning with International Initiatives
16
http://www.ciard.info/
http://www.godan.info/
https://rd-alliance.org/groups/agriculture-
data-interest-group-igad.html
Advocacy and awareness

17. johannes keizerhttp://aims.fao.org
http://aginfra.eu/
17