This document summarizes the Agricultural Ontology Service which provides multilingual domain ontologies for knowledge management in agriculture. It describes FAO's mandate to make agricultural information available and the need for formal knowledge organization systems like ontologies to enable semantic search and natural language processing. The document outlines the process used to develop an ontology for food safety, including merging existing vocabularies and subject matter experts developing the initial core ontology, which was then expanded through text analysis. The final prototype ontology for food safety contained over 100 concepts and 180 relationships.

1. The Agricultural
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for
knowledge
The Agricultural Ontology Service:
management in
agriculture
multilingual domain ontologies for knowledge management in agriculture
APAN/NR -
JIRCAS
Workshop on
Multilingual
Services over
Asia Pacific:
Johannes Keizer
Ontology and
Thesaurus Information Systems Officer
Food and Agriculture Organization
of the UN
Johannes Keizer Library and Documentation
Food and Systems Division
Agriculture
Organization of
the UN
Library and
Documentation
Systems Division
22-01-2003
APAN 2003, Fukuoka 23rdth January 2003

2. The Agricultural
Ontology Service,
FAOs mandate
multilingual domain
ontologies for
knowledge
management in
agriculture • Reducing the quantity of hungry people by 50%
within the year 2015 (World Food Summit 1996).
APAN/NR -
JIRCAS
Workshop on
Multilingual
• WAICENT (World Agricultural Information Center)
Services over
Asia Pacific:
Ontology and
is FAO’s approach to fight hunger with information
Thesaurus
• FAO itself produces huge amount of content in it’s
subject area
Johannes Keizer
Food and • It is also within FAOs mandate to make available
Agriculture
Organization of
the UN
useful information from other information providers
Library and
Documentation • FAO collaborates in information networks
Systems Division
22-01-2003
Slide 2

3. Introduction
The Agricultural
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for
knowledge
management in
agriculture
APAN/NR -
JIRCAS
Workshop on
Multilingual
It is not difficult to find information on the
Services over
Asia Pacific:
Ontology and
WWW (if you for what you are looking)
Thesaurus
Johannes Keizer
Food and
But it is nearly impossible to extract
Agriculture
Organization of knowledge or structured information
the UN
Library and
Documentation
Systems Division
22-01-2003
Slide 3

4. The Search Problem
The Agricultural
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for
knowledge
management in
agriculture
How to evaluate Search Results?
Number of Relevant Documents Identified
APAN/NR -
JIRCAS
Precision
Workshop on
Multilingual
Services over
Total Number of Documents Identified
Asia Pacific:
Ontology and
Thesaurus
Number of Relevant Documents Identified
Recall
Johannes Keizer Number of Relevant Documents in the Collection
Food and
Agriculture
Organization of
the UN
Library and
Documentation
Systems Division Full text search engines might have a high recall (not
22-01-2003
verifiable), but precision/relevance is desperately low!
Slide 4

5. The Agricultural
Ontology Service,
State of Search Systems
multilingual domain
ontologies for
knowledge
management in
agriculture
 Full text search engines based on statistical text
analysis are inprecise by nature
APAN/NR -
JIRCAS  New system based only on “machine intelligence”
Workshop on
Multilingual
Services over do not show too promising results
Asia Pacific:
Ontology and
Thesaurus  Recogniton of meaning (semantic analysis) by
machines is only possible by using knowledge
Johannes Keizer organization systems
Food and
Agriculture
Organization of
the UN
 agreed metadata schemas
Library and
Documentation
Systems Division
 Controlled vocabularies
 Machine readable encoding
22-01-2003
Slide 5

6. Knowledge Organization Systems: Vocabularies
The Agricultural
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for  Insufficientand Knowledge +
Existing Thesauri subject Dedicated KOSs
knowledge Organization Systems (KOSs)
management in
agriculture language coverage e.g., ASFA thesaurus
e.g., the Multilingual
 Only very simple encoding
Forestry Thesaurus
APAN/NR -
JIRCAS
of semantic the Sustainable
e.g.,
relations
Workshop on
Development
Multilingual
Services over
Asia Pacific:
 Common concepts are website classification
Ontology and
Thesaurus not declared e.g., biological taxonomies such
as NCBI and ITIS
 No or very limited
Other thematic thesauri
Johannes Keizer
Food and
interoperability
Agriculture
Non-dedicated KOSs
Organization of
the UN  Very limited machine
CABI Thesaurus
Library and
Documentation readability AGROVOC
Systems Division
NAL Thesaurus
22-01-2003  Severe maintenance
GEMET
Slide 6 problems

7. The Agricultural
Ontologies?
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for
knowledge
management in
agriculture
 An ontology is a formal knowledge organization
system
APAN/NR -
JIRCAS
 It contains concepts (and instances)
Workshop on
Multilingual
Services over
 a formal description of the application knowledge
Asia Pacific:
Ontology and
Thesaurus
 Definitions of concepts and instances
 Relations between concepts and instances
 possibility of machine processing
Johannes Keizer
Food and
Agriculture
Organization of
the UN  Nearly everyone tries to build (inexplicit) ontologies
Library and
Documentation  Directory structures, navigation trees
Systems Division
 Humans can overcome bad organization by intuition
22-01-2003
 Machine have no intuition, Machine need formal information
Slide 7

8. What benefits do we expect from Ontologies?
The Agricultural
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for • Semantic Organization of websites
knowledge
management in  Knowledge maps
agriculture
 Guided discovery of knowledge
 Easy retrievability of information without using complicated
APAN/NR -
JIRCAS
Boolean logic
Workshop on
Multilingual
Services over
• Text processing by machines
Asia Pacific:
Ontology and  Text Mining on the Web (meaning-oriented access)
Thesaurus
 Automatic indexing and text annotation tools
 Full text search engines that create meaningful classification
(FAO-Schwartz not related to FAO) (semantic clustering)
Johannes Keizer
Food and • Intelligent search of the Web
Agriculture
Organization of  Building dynamical catalogues from machine readable meta data
the UN
Library and
• Natural Language processing
Documentation
Systems Division
 Better machine translation
 Queries using natural language
22-01-2003
Slide 8

9. The Agricultural
Ontology Service, The Example: International Portal on Food Safety, Animal and Plant Health
multilingual domain
ontologies for
knowledge
management in
• Goal:
agriculture
APAN/NR - To create an explicit, formal specification of a
JIRCAS
Workshop on
Multilingual shared conceptualization of a domain of interest
Services over
Asia Pacific:
Ontology and
Thesaurus
Johannes Keizer
Food and
Agriculture
Organization of
the UN
Library and
Documentation
Ontology
Systems Division
22-01-2003
Slide 9

10. Ontology: conceptual model
The Agricultural
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for
knowledge
management in
agriculture
APAN/NR -
JIRCAS
Workshop on
Multilingual
Services over
label
Asia Pacific:
Ontology and Concept
Thesaurus synonym
relationship
Concept
Johannes Keizer stem
Food and
synonym
Agriculture
Organization of
the UN synonym
Library and
Documentation
Systems Division description
22-01-2003
Slide 10

11. Ontology: RDFS model, machine readable encoding
The Agricultural
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for
knowledge
management in
agriculture
APAN/NR -
JIRCAS
Workshop on
Multilingual
Services over
Asia Pacific:
Ontology and
Thesaurus
Johannes Keizer
Food and
Agriculture
Organization of
the UN
Library and
Documentation
Systems Division
22-01-2003
Slide 11

12. Processes to create a Domain Ontology
The Agricultural
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for
knowledge
management in
agriculture • Ontology acquisition (2 paths)
– Creating core ontology from scratch
APAN/NR -
JIRCAS – Automatic extraction of ontological knowledge from base
Workshop on
Multilingual
Services over
vocabulary and domain specific text sources
Asia Pacific:
Ontology and
Thesaurus
• Merging into one ontology
• Refinement and Extension
• Evaluation and Assessment
Johannes Keizer
Food and
Agriculture
Organization of
the UN
Library and
Documentation
Systems Division
22-01-2003
Slide 12

13. Creation of the core ontology
The Agricultural
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for
knowledge
management in
agriculture
Information Resources:
•Brainstorming
•Codex Alimentarius
APAN/NR -
JIRCAS
Workshop on
•SPS Agreement
Multilingual
Services over
Asia Pacific:
Ontology and
Thesaurus
3 subject specialists
Johannes Keizer Core Ontology
Food and 67 concepts
Agriculture
Organization of 91 relationships
the UN
Library and
Documentation
Systems Division Ontology Editor
(SOEP)
22-01-2003
Slide 13

14. 1st Acquisition Approach:
Focused Crawling
The Agricultural List of extracted main sites:
Ontology Service, http://www.foodsafety.gov/
multilingual domain
Gateway to Government Food Safety Information
ontologies for
knowledge
management in http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/
agriculture
Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/
APAN/NR - Canadian Food Inspection Agency
JIRCAS
Workshop on Focused
Multilingual http://www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsafety/
Services over
Asia Pacific:
Web Crawling Iowa State University - Food Safety Project
Ontology and
Thesaurus
Core Ontology http://www.foodsafety.iastate.edu
Iowa State University - Food Safety Consortium
68 concepts
91 relationships http://www.fsis.usda.gov/
Johannes Keizer List of 257 food United States Department of Agriculture,
Food and Safety domain Food Safety and Inspection Service
Agriculture
Organization of web pages
http://www.nal.usda.gov/foodborne/index.html
the UN
Foodborne Ilness Education Information Center
Library and
Documentation http://www.euro.who.int/foodsafety
Systems Division
Grouping into World Health Organization –
Regional Office for
22-01-2003 Main sites Europe Food Safety
Programme
Slide 14

15. Selection of Documents
The Agricultural
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for
knowledge
management in • Domain Set: Manual selection
agriculture
– 11 documents
• Codex Alimentarius: Description, Code of Ethics, Food Hygiene, Food Import and Export
• Report of consultation on risk assessment of microbiological hazards in foods
APAN/NR - • Ensuring food quality and safety, Protecting food quality and safety
JIRCAS
Workshop on
Multilingual • Domain Set: Focused Crawler Output
Services over
Asia Pacific:
Ontology and
– 5 documents extracted:
Thesaurus • http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/;
• http://www.inspection.gc.ca/;
• http://www.foodsafety.iastate.edu;
• http://www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsafety/;
• http://www.euro.who.int/foodsafety
Johannes Keizer
Food and
Agriculture • Generic documents: Manual Selection
Organization of
the UN
– 8 documents
• www.nytimes.com
Library and • Several documents of the animal feed domain
Documentation
Systems Division
22-01-2003
Slide 15

16. 2nd Acquisition Approach:
The Agricultural
Thesaurus Pruning
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for
knowledge
management in
agriculture
AGROVOC 5 evaluation runs
27365 keywords
APAN/NR - Rice
JIRCAS
Workshop on BT … 1632 frequent
Multilingual
Services over NT … terms
Asia Pacific:
Ontology and
Thesaurus RT … Automatic
RT … Pruning
RT …
Johannes Keizer …
Food and
Agriculture
Organization of Food Safety Extracted ontological
the UN Documents structure:
Library and
Documentation # of concepts: 504
Systems Division taxonomic depth: 5
Generic
22-01-2003 Documents
Slide 16

17. Merging of Ontologies and Refinement
The Agricultural
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for
knowledge
management in
agriculture
1632 Terms from
pruning process 12 new concepts
APAN/NR -
extracted Core Ontology
JIRCAS 67 concepts
Workshop on
Multilingual
92 new 91 relationships
Services over
Asia Pacific:
Ontology and
relationships
Thesaurus created
Assembly
step
Johannes Keizer
Food and
Agriculture Ontological
Organization of structure 23 new concepts
the UN
extracted from With hierarchical
Library and
Documentation
AGROVOC relationships Food Safety Ontology
Systems Division extracted Prototype
102 concepts
22-01-2003
183 relationships
Slide 17

18. Final Prototype
The Agricultural
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for
knowledge
management in
agriculture
APAN/NR -
JIRCAS
Workshop on
Multilingual
Services over
Asia Pacific:
Ontology and
Thesaurus
Core Ontology
Food Safety Ontology
Johannes Keizer 67 concepts
Prototype
Food and
91 relationships
Agriculture
Organization of
102 concepts
the UN 183 relationships
Library and
Documentation
relationships
Systems Division
1.36 concept relationships
22-01-2003 1.79 concept
Slide 18

19. 102 Concepts
The Agricultural
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for
knowledge Agreement of Agriculture chemical agent humans plant feed ingredients
management in ALOP Codex Committees international agreements plant feeding
agriculture
ALOP, Codex commodities international food trade plant health
ALOP, OIE Consumer health international governmental plant processing
ALR diseases organizations plant products
APAN/NR - animal byproducts eggs IPPC plant waste
JIRCAS
Workshop on animal diseases exposure assessment labelling plants
Multilingual animal fats fabrication meat processed animal products
Services over
Asia Pacific: animal feed additives FAO microorganisms processed plant products
Ontology and animal feed contaminants fishes microorganisms byproducts processed products
Thesaurus
animal feed ingredients food microorganisms processing processing
animal feeding food additives microorganisms products risk analysis
animal health food consumption microorganisms waste risk assessment
animal processing food contaminants milk risk characterization
Johannes Keizer animal products food export milk products risk communication
Food and animal waste food import milk products risk management
Agriculture animals food ingredients non-pathogens slaughter
Organization of
antibiotics food safety OIE SPS agreement
the UN
Bacteria food-borne diseases packaging standards
Library and bakery products fungi parasites sugar
Documentation
Systems Division
biological agent good hygienic practices pathogens TBT agreement
CAC hazard physical agent transport
Caragene protocol hazard characterization plant byproducts viruses
22-01-2003 CCFH hazard identification plant diseases WHO
Slide 19 cereal products human health plant feed additives WTO
cheese human nutrition plant feed contaminants

20. 29 Unique Relationships
The Agricultural
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for
knowledge
management in
agriculture adopts influences
adversely affect interacts with
APAN/NR - are included in is a consequence of
JIRCAS
Workshop on
Multilingual
are produced by is a step in the process
Services over
Asia Pacific:
are the source for is comprised of
Ontology and
Thesaurus can be used as is established by
constitutes is protected by
describes originate from
Johannes Keizer determines refer to
Food and
Agriculture
ensures requires
Organization of
the UN
establishes rule
Library and
govern sustains
Documentation
Systems Division
has economical impact on trades
Implies uses
22-01-2003 includes
Slide 20

21. Current project status
Ontology creation: 2nd application of framework
The Agricultural
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for
knowledge
management in
agriculture
List of
~100 domain frequent
Specific Text To Onto
terms
APAN/NR - documents
JIRCAS Food Safety Ontology 1st acquisition
Workshop on
Multilingual Prototype approach
Services over 102 concepts
Asia Pacific:
Ontology and 183 relationships
Thesaurus 2nd acquisition
approach
Revised
Ontology
Pruner
Johannes Keizer
Food and AGROVOC Pruned Agrovoc:
Agriculture ~3000 concepts
Organization of
the UN
Library and
Documentation
Merging &
Systems Division Refinement
22-01-2003 Ontology Editor
Slide 21
(OIModeler)

22. Usage Scenario
The Agricultural
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for Ontology based search extension
knowledge
management in
agriculture Biosecurity Portal: Mark the terms below, which you might want to include in
… your search:
Search:
APAN/NR - Exposure assessment
Is a
JIRCAS Risk assessment
Workshop on Risk characterization Step
Multilingual … In the Risk assessment
Services over Hazard characterization
Asia Pacific: process
Ontology and Is a
Thesaurus Hazard identification
Step
Ontology Interacts In the
Enabled with process
Johannes Keizer
Search Risk communication Risk analysis
Food and
Application
Risk management
Agriculture
Organization of
the UN Search: Risk assessment Risk characterization Risk analysis
Library and
Documentation Ontology Extended Search
Systems Division
Search
22-01-2003
Doc base
results
Slide 22

23. Current project status: Application: Ontology Browser for the Ontology on Food Safety,
The Agricultural Animal and Plant Health
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for
knowledge
management in
agriculture
APAN/NR -
JIRCAS
Workshop on
Multilingual
Services over
Asia Pacific:
Ontology and
Thesaurus
Johannes Keizer
Food and
Agriculture
Organization of
the UN
Library and
Documentation
Systems Division
22-01-2003
Slide 23

24. The Agricultural The Project for an Agricultural
Ontology Service
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for
knowledge
management in
agriculture
• Only agreed semantic standards guarantee
APAN/NR -
JIRCAS knowledge discovery between different
Workshop on
Multilingual
Services over applications
Asia Pacific:
Ontology and
Thesaurus • The definition of Knowledge Organization systems
is resource intensive
Johannes Keizer • Therefore FAO started initiatives to bring
Food and
Agriculture
Organization of
interested partners together
the UN
 October 2000 Launch of the AGStandards initiative to agree on
Library and
Documentation metadata standards
Systems Division
 July 2001 concept paper on Agricultural Ontology Service
22-01-2003
Slide 24

25. What does Agricultural Ontology Service mean?
The Agricultural
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for
knowledge
The Agricultural Ontology Service is an approach to organize
management in
agriculture
knowledge organization systems that is
 International
APAN/NR -
JIRCAS The Internet must become plurilingual
Workshop on
Multilingual
Services over
Asia Pacific:
 Multidisciplinary
Ontology and The area of subjects is broad and needs various inputs
Thesaurus
 Cooperative
different expert knowledge has to be associated and used
Johannes Keizer
Food and
Agriculture
 Distributed
Organization of no central ownership should be looked for
the UN
Library and
Documentation
 Coordinated
Systems Division Coordination must ensure reusability and standardization
22-01-2003
Slide 25

26. AOS: Iterative Knowledge Registration
The Agricultural
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for Components: terms,
knowledge
management in
definitions,
agriculture relationships
KOS uses
components to build
APAN/NR - an application
JIRCAS
Workshop on
Multilingual
Services over
Asia Pacific:
Ontology and Agricultural Ontology
Thesaurus Service (AOS)
Federated storage and
description facility
Johannes Keizer
Food and
Agriculture Components: terms,
Organization of definitions,
the UN relationships
Library and Users search and browse
Documentation application using
Systems Division
components Discussions and choices
for amendments to
22-01-2003 User feedback components
Slide 26

27. Activities up to now
The Agricultural
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for
knowledge
management in
• 4 workshops (Rome, Wallingford, Florida,
agriculture
APAN/NR - Cobenhavn) and numerous presentations have
JIRCAS
Workshop on
Multilingual been organized to discuss the role of ontologies
Services over
Asia Pacific:
Ontology and and semantic standards
Thesaurus
• Several prototypes for ontology use are in
Johannes Keizer
preparation
Food and
Agriculture
• The AGROVOC thesaurus has been enhanced
Organization of
the UN especially in multilinguality
Library and
Documentation
Systems Division
22-01-2003
Slide 27

28. AOS – a “business model”
The Agricultural
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
ontologies for
knowledge
management in
• A consortium of Information Providers
• A clearinghouse for semantic standards in the
agriculture
APAN/NR - relevant subject areas
JIRCAS
Workshop on
Multilingual
Services over
• One stop access to agreed standards (Ontologies,
Asia Pacific:
Ontology and
Thesaurus
Metadataschemas, Vocabularies…)
• Participation as a consortium in semantic web
Johannes Keizer activities to get funding for specific projects
Food and
Agriculture
(“Semkos” for EU 6th framework)
Organization of
the UN • Organization of seminars and workshops to further
Library and
Documentation
Systems Division
develop and promote the use of semantic
standards
22-01-2003
Slide 28

29. Further Information
The Agricultural
Ontology Service,
multilingual domain
http://www.fao.org/agris/AOS
ontologies for
knowledge
management in
agriculture
http://www.fao.org/agris/AGMES
APAN/NR -
JIRCAS
Workshop on
Multilingual
Services over
Asia Pacific:
Ontology and
Thesaurus
Johannes Keizer
Food and
Agriculture
Organization of
the UN
Library and
Documentation
Systems Division
22-01-2003
Slide 29