Terminology ManagementUsing DITA to squeeze maximum value from

your Terminology

Jim TivyOctober 2013

Jim Tivy:

• Documentation systems since the 80s

• Data modeling, database system specialist

• XQuery Working Group early 90s

• CTO, Bluestream

• Member, Oasis DITA TC

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Contents

1. Introduction2. DITA Glossary/Term Mechanism3. Thesaurus Index4. Browse and Search

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Introduction

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Terminology Management

• Identification, organization and use of terms• The promise:

– accuracy– coherence – findability

• Terminology– Set of preferred terms– Alternative terms – synonyms– Acronyms

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Content Project Phases

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DITA Glossary/Term Mechanism

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DITA Glossary Mechanism

• <glossentry> • <term>• <glossref>• Concept (sense) oriented• Synonyms• Acronyms

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<glossentry><glossentry> … <glossterm>voice mail</glossterm> <glossdef>Allows callers to leave voice messages.</glossdef> <glossBody> <glossAlt> <glossSynonym>answering machine</glossSynonym> <glossUsage>Older term</glossUsage> </glossAlt> </glossBody></glossentry>

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<term><task <taskbody> <prereq> <p>Your <term>voice mail</term> must be set up with a service provider, a password, and a greeting. </p> </prereq> … </taskbody></task>

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<glossref>• <p>Your <term keyref="voice_mail"/> must be set up with a

service provider, a password, and a greeting. </p>

• Needs a key definition.• <map>

<topicref href="/Content/Retrieve_voicemail_xi10005.xml"/> ... <topichead navtitle="Glossary> <glossref href="/Content/VoiceMail_xi10019.xml" keys="voice_mail“ linking="normal" toc="no" print="yes"/> <glossref href="/Content/SIMcard_xi10017.xml" keys="SIMcard“ linking="normal" toc="no" print="yes"/> ... </topichead></map>

• As shown in HTML…

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Abbreviated FormAdded to <glossentry> <glossBody … <glossSurfaceForm>phone screen (SCR)</glossSurfaceForm> <glossAlt> <glossAcronym>SCR</glossAcronym> </glossAlt> …

Used instead of <term><abbreviated-form keyref="phone_screen"/>

As shown in HTML…

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Thesaurus Index

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Thesauri

• A kind of taxonomy• Hierarchy of concepts – narrower, broader• Concepts are controlled and organized• Concepts have labels

– Some labels are preferred– Some labels are synonyms– There are links to related concepts– There can be labels for each language

• Getty Center example

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Getty Example

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Example SKOS thesaurus entry

prefLabel (en-US): in callsaltLabel: getting calleddefinition: In calls are those calls you receive when someone dials your number. broader: phonenarrower: voice mail

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Thesaurus Index

• A thesaurus with links to content

Phones

PartsCalling

Voice mail Screen

vmail.xml music.xml calls.xml photos.xml screen.xml

ThesaurusTree

Files

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Harvest Time!

• “As you sow, so shall you reap.”• Harvest Demo

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Managing the Thesaurus Index

• Managing concepts– Manual Harvest

• Managing concept links– Manual Harvest (where used?)– Manual Link to images (only for authors?)

• Consistency of thesaurus index and repository– Manual or fully synchronized?

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Thesaurus Standards

• W3C SKOS 2009: Simple Knowledge Organization System– Schema plus triples – in OWL

• ISO 25964-1 2011: Thesauri for information retrieval– Entity Relationship Model – works well for RDBs

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Thesaurus Index as links

• RDF or OWL2 statements “File vmail.xml is aboutTerm voice mail.”

vmail.xml voice mailaboutTerm

TermFile

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What about Subject scheme

<subjectScheme> <hasNarrower> <subjectdef keys="PhoneFeatures“ navtitle="Phone Features“> <subjectdef keys="VoiceMail" navtitle="Voice Mail" href=“GE_VoiceMail.xml"/> </subjectdef> </hasNarrower></subjectScheme>

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Subject to topic link

<map> <!-- ... --> <topicref href=“RetrievingVoiceMail.xml" > <topicsubject> <subjectref keyref="VoiceMail "/> </topicsubject> <!-- ... --> </topicref> <!-- ... --></map>

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Browse and Search

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Browse

• Authors browse by term (subject)– Single or multi facet

• Readers browse by term– Needs well known hierarchy– Or full text, then facets

• Dynamic generation of relationships

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Search

• Search the Thesaurus only– As in the Getty example

• Use Thesaurus in Full Text Search– Generate Synonym Ring (SynSet)

• Rank terms higher• Increases precision

– Maximize relevant/returned– Less false positives

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Demo Browse and Search

Author Browse: XDocs demoReader Browse: http://www.kayak.com/

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In Summary

• Identify and organize.• Use terms in DITA• Harvest into an index• Manage for accuracy.• Authors use index for findability• Readers use index for findability• Iterate as necessary

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Breaking the Silo – Linked Data

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ReferencesTitle Author ReferenceSKOS Reference August 18, 2009 W3C SKOS Reference

Information Standards Quarterly, Winter 2012, from ISO 2788 to ISO 25964.

ISO Evolution of Thesaurus Standards

DITA 1.2 Glossary and Terminology Specialization Feature Description

Kara Warburton https://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/34831/GlossarySpecializationBestPractice_Final.pdf

DITA 1.2 Specification Oasis http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.2/spec/DITA1.2-spec.html

Visual Thesaurus http://www.visualthesaurus.com

Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names® Online http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/tgn/

Online Thesauri and Authority FilesNote: Only some of these work.

http://www.asindexing.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3625

UNBIS ThesaurusUnited Nations Bibliographic Information System (UNBIS)

https://lib-thesaurus.un.org/LIB/DHLUNBISThesaurus.nsf

http://www.taxonomies-sig.org/about.htm American Society for Indexing

http://www.taxonomies-sig.org/about.htm