Skip to content
Robert Glaser edited this page May 2, 2014 · 28 revisions

iQvoc

iQvoc is a web-based open source tool for managing vocabularies (classifications, thesauri, etc.). It combines an intuitive user interface with Semantic Web standards.

The navigation is intuitive, providing direct links and hierarchical tree visualizations. All common browsers are supported. Due to iQvoc's modular architecture, its appearance can be easily and extensively customized.

iQvoc covers a comprehensive range of capabilities:

  • support for multiple languages in both the user interface and the content corpus (i.e. labels, notes etc.)
  • import/export of existing SKOS vocabularies
  • editorial control and workflow
  • notes and annotations
  • use of the vocabulary within the Linked Data network
  • modularity and extensibility

iQvoc is licensed under the Apache 2.0 open source license.

Import/Export

The Simple Knowledge Organisation System (SKOS) is a widely used RDF schema for representing glossaries, classifications, taxonomies, thesauri and similar vocabularies.

iQvoc supports the entirety of SKOS, including collections and mapping properties. There is also an iQvoc extension to support SKOS Extension for Labels SKOS-XL.

Existing data sets in other formats can also imported using custom transformation scripts.

Editorial Control and Workflow

iQvoc is the perfect tool for a geographically distributed editorial team. Everyone works using the same data, on the Web.

Available roles include editors, publishers, administrators and guests. The workflow starts with creating or checking out individual terms. All changes are invisible to the public and locked to prevent concurrent editing conflicts. The editing process can also be delegated to other editors. A formal consistency check ensures the quality of the entered data. Publishers can publish and discard edits or recommend them for further editing. A dashboard provides the editorial team with an overview of the current status. The actual editing is performed via web forms available as part of the website.

Vocabularies Within the Linked Data Network

iQvoc supports Linked Data, including content negotiation. Depending on the MIME type, the same concept URI returns HTML, RDF/XML or Turtle syntax. Combined with a triple store, a SPARQL end point can also be provided.

SKOS mapping properties are used for interlinking. This interlinking can be partially automated with Silk - A Link Discovery Framework for the Web of Data.

iQvoc is currently being employed for Linked Environment Data.

Usage Examples

  • Species Catalog of the German Federal Environment Agency – here SKOS is being extended with Darwin Core elements.
  • Environmental Thesaurus of the German Federal Environment Agency – SKOS-XL and integrated classification
  • Soil Thesaurus of the GS Soil Best Practice Network

In preparation:

  • Geo-Thesaurus of the German Federal Environment Agency SKOS extended with Geonames Ontology elements
  • Environmental Chronicle of the German Federal Environment Agency SKOS extended with Event Ontology elements
  • replacement of the technologically obsolete Semantic Network Service (SNS) with RESTful service extensions of iQvoc