ShowVoc is a web-based, multilingual, collaborative development platform for publishing, consulting and validating reference data and controlled lists of codes and terms used to organise information.

Owner

Publications Office of the European Union

Supra-national authority

Contact information

Denis Dechandon

http://showvoc.uniroma2.it/

ShowVoc is a web-based, multilingual, collaborative development platform for publishing, consulting and validating reference data and controlled lists of codes and terms used to organise information. Cross-dataset features, such as global search and the translation API benefit from the presence of multiple datasets creating a rich multilingual knowledge resource for term reference and authoritative term translation.

With persistent URIs, managed concepts are correctly referenced in any domain. Developed in a context neutral way as an open-source project, it can be deployed or further developed for any sector wanting to have authentic reference data/codes made available for information systems and human users.

Reference data, such as code lists and authority tables, means data that are used solely to characterise or relate to other data. They are fundamental building blocks of most information systems. Using common interoperable reference data is essential for achieving interoperability.

Exchanging data in processes involving both users and systems can be an impossible target in a multilingual environment, if there are no common vocabularies. For that reason, reference data and controlled vocabularies, in general, come into the picture as core elements that ensure interoperability. While development and maintenance of such vocabularies is done by experts (with VocBench), an easy access to them is a key factor when it comes to reach the desired benefits.

First major deliverable of the Public Multilingual Knowledge Management Infrastructure (PMKI) action launched by the European Commission to promote a single European market for data, ShowVoc aims to create a multilingual knowledge management infrastructure capable of establishing and promoting interoperability between multilingual classification systems (like thesauri) and other language resources. Such a level of interoperability between language resources is essential to overcome language barriers and create a common service marketplace. Interoperable multilingual resources in the Linguistic Linked Open Data (LLOD) cloud are a prerequisite of Europe’s Digital Single Market.

What is ShowVoc?

ShowVoc features

ShowVoc to your service?

Get started

Documentation

Open source community

Get involved

To the ENDORSE Exchange Platform

What is ShowVoc?

ShowVoc is a web-based, multilingual, collaborative platform for the visualisation and sharing of reference data and controlled lists of codes and terms used to organise information, whether in the form of OWL ontologies, SKOS(/XL) thesauri, Ontolex-lemon lexicons and generic RDF datasets.

ShowVoc has been designed to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), especially in the language technology industry, and public administrations, by providing them with multilingual tools to improve cross border accessibility of their digital services.

ShowVoc is a reusable open-source solution, with the Publications Office of the European Union in charge of its development. It is also the first major deliverable of the Public Multilingual Knowledge Management Infrastructure (PMKI) action launched by the European Commission to promote a single European market for data and to create a public multilingual knowledge management infrastructure capable of establishing and managing interoperability between multilingual classification systems (like thesauri) and other language resources. The PMKI action aims to create a set of tools and facilities, based on semantic web technologies, for establishing semantic interoperability between multilingual lexicons. Interoperability between language resources is essential for overcoming the language barrier in the access to European services. Interoperable multilingual resources in the Linguistic Linked Open Data (LLOD) cloud are also a prerequisite of Europe’s Digital Single Market.

In principle, ShowVoc is an extension of the VocBench application, the most mature OSS platform for advanced thesaurus management and the only existing system that provides a combined support for OWL ontologies, SKOS (and SKOS-XL) thesauri and Ontolex lexicons.

Licensed under the BSD 3-clause, ShowVoc has been developed in a context neutral way as an open-source project, so that it can be deployed or further developed for any sector.

[Top]

Why ShowVoc

ShowVoc is meant to host an expanding set of vocabularies maintained by EU institutions and agencies, EU national public administrations and international organisations, or by private organisations and SMEs specialised in the provision of language services or active in the field of language technologies.

[Top]

ShowVoc features

The ShowVoc application includes:

a browsing interface that supports different visualisation needs
multiple search options (search in reference data and controlled lists of codes and terms and search for correspondences or mappings
reference data and controlled lists of codes and terms or correspondences (mappings) available for download in machine readable formats
Translation API providing an easy way to benefit from the translations already available in different multilingual thesauri
a native integration with VocBench (the editorial environment) offering the possibility to edit reference data and controlled lists of codes and terms using VocBench (being dedicated to a large public for visualisation, ShowVoc adopts a more common terminology for its interface than the one used in VocBench)

PMKI, and ShowVoc in particular, is part of the EIF toolbox, which provides users with access to information and reusable solutions or components to tackle specific aspects of interoperability when designing a new digital solution, and helps bridge the gap between public administrations and interoperable digital public services.

[Top]

ShowVoc to your service

If you look for reusable reference data or controlled lists of codes and terms or want to share some, ShowVoc can help you:

look up for codes and terms
look up for correspondences (mappings) among such lists
download such lists or mappings in your format of choice

If you are a developer, you are probably interested in ways to automatically access resources available in ShowVoc. Currently, you can:

access the SPARQL endpoint and test what you can retrieve
exploit the advantages of using the LOD datasets published in the catalogue

If you maintain your own reference data and controlled lists of codes and terms in the VocBench instance shared by the Publications Office, you then have the possibility to have them easily visualised by various professionals and larger audiences.

Depending on your needs, ShowVoc is:

A look-up service for general use of reference datasets
A catalogue of reference data or controlled lists of codes and terms server
A service for maintainers of reference data or controlled lists of codes and terms

[Top]

Get started

Access the Publications Office ShowVoc instance at https://showvoc.op.europa.eu and explore the catalogue of datasets

Video URL

Get the latest code from the ShowVoc website.

[Top]

Documentation

[Top]

Open source community

The ShowVoc application, released under the BSD 3-clause, is officially published as an open-source project to foster the creation of a community helping improve and maintain the application.