Overview
EN ISO 19150-6:2023 - Geographic information - Ontology - Part 6: Service ontology register specifies a standard mechanism for registering and maintaining geographic information service ontologies that conform to ISO 19150-4. It provides a formal register structure, conformance rules, management roles and procedures to support the publication and governance of OWL-based service ontologies for the GeoWeb and the Semantic Web. The document references ISO 19135-1 for registration practices and aligns with the procedural foundations of ISO 19101-1.
Key topics and technical requirements
- Register structure and fundamentals: Defines the architecture and core components of a service ontology register, including required properties and data model elements for registered ontologies.
- Service ontology register item class: Specifies the item class for entries (registered service ontology), its required properties and metadata to ensure consistent discovery and reuse.
- Conformance and testability: Establishes conformance rules and includes an abstract test suite (normative) to validate register entries and their compliance with ISO 19150-4.
- Implementation guidance: Describes practical register implementation considerations and namespaces/abbreviated terms to support interoperable deployment.
- Governance and lifecycle management: Defines roles and responsibilities - register owner, manager, submitting organization, control body, registry manager and user - and processes for proposal, status changes and publication.
- Interoperability with other frameworks: Informative annex guidance on enabling registration of GeoWeb service ontologies described in other frameworks.
Applications and practical value
- Semantic interoperability: Enables organizations to publish OWL service ontologies that make ISO/TC 211 standards consumable by Semantic Web agents and applications.
- Service discovery and reuse: Standardized registry entries improve discoverability of geographic information service components and their behavior for Web-based data processing.
- Governance and quality assurance: Provides a repeatable process for registration, review and maintenance - useful for national bodies, standardization committees, and organizations publishing GeoWeb services.
- Integration and reasoning: Supports mapping of ISO standards into OWL ontologies for reasoning, data integration and machine-readable semantics across GIS, Web services and linked data platforms.
Who should use this standard
- GIS and geomatics standards authors (ISO/TC 211, national committees)
- Ontology engineers and semantic web developers working on GeoWeb services
- Registry owners and managers, data custodians and catalog providers
- Organizations implementing OWL ontologies to expose ISO geographic standards on the Web
Related standards
- ISO 19150-4 (service ontology conformance)
- ISO 19135-1 (registration procedures)
- ISO 19101-1 (reference model - procedural foundation)
- W3C OWL and Semantic Web specifications
Keywords: EN ISO 19150-6:2023, Service ontology register, geographic information, ontology, Semantic Web, OWL, ISO 19150-4, GeoWeb, semantic interoperability.