Context

The toponymic data of the National Geographic Institute (NGI) will soon be made available in the form of the BelgoNyms product, which will be published as Open Data. In order to enhance its interoperability, reuse, and integration within the international ecosystem of the Web of Data, the NGI wishes to establish a roadmap for its publication as Linked Open Data (LOD).

The consultant will work in close collaboration with the experts and data specialists of the NGI.

Assignment

The consultant will be responsible for carrying out a strategic and technical study aimed at preparing the conversion of BelgoNyms data into Linked Open Data (LOD).

This study will include the elements listed below.

Conceptual modeling

• Analysis of the BelgoNyms data and its structure.
• Identifying the domain entities, attributes, and relationships.
• Producing a documented conceptual model.
• Creating the necessary diagrams and graphical representations (UML, RDF or similar).

Semantic modeling

• Identifying relevant ontologies and vocabularies.
• Evaluating existing standards.
• Achieving alignment between the domain model and the selected vocabularies.
• Identifying the necessary semantic extensions.
• Defining a targeted semantic model.

Use cases and business needs

• Identifying the stakeholders.
• Facilitating workshops.
• Inventorying and prioritizing the use cases.
• Defining the domain questions (“competency questions”) to validate the model.

Reference data and interconnection

• Identifying relevant external reference data.
• Evaluating the possibilities for alignment with reference sources.
• Identifying opportunities for interconnection with reference data sources such as Wikidata, GeoNames or INSPIRE.
• Formulating recommendations regarding interoperability.

Governance of IDs

• Defining a governance strategy for URIs/IRIs.
• Recommending mechanisms that ensure the stability and sustainability of the IDs.
• Defining naming conventions and management rules.

Architecture and technologies

• Evaluating RDF modeling and transformation tools.
• Evaluating solutions for the publication and storage of data.
• Proposing a target architecture.
• Recommending the most suitable tools based on the context of the NGI.

Roadmap

• Defining the implementation phases.
• Identifying dependencies and risks.
• Drawing up an indicative schedule.
• Formulating the final recommendations.