Establishing vocabularies for the exchange of geological map data-how to herd stray cats

GeoScience Victoria (GSV) is introducing a new service delivery model to improve capture, storage and delivery of geoscience information. This major project has prompted significant effort to establish a data model with accompanying vocabularies to govern what data to store in the model, and how to arrange and group that data. The principles behind the vocabulary are that it must be robust, flexible, expandable and hierarchical. The vocabulary, like the data model itself, must satisfy both internal business requirements and international efforts with respect to information exchange in a global environment. There are three components to the vocabulary: the terms themselves with their definitions/synonyms; arranging the terms into schemes; and the grouping of those schemes to provide meaningful information (handled by the data model). Our solution manages the vocabulary in an open source technology, with terms (and synonyms) arranged in hierarchies. The process demonstrated that while computers may require rigid terminology from us, in some cases this is a real challenge. As an evolving science, many areas of geology have terms that mean different things to different people, with no single correct meaning. Common vocabularies are essential to the exchange of geoscience information at a national or international level, and GSV strongly encourages their development.