Available resources to learn more about DCAT-AP
Fecha del documento: 07-06-2018
The DCAT-AP application profile aims to describe, using metadata, the catalogs and datasets of European open data portals. For this, DCAT-AP is based on Data Catalogs Vocabulary (DCAT), published by W3C. In particular, the DCAT-AP is a specification that describes a series of restrictions (such as properties range) on the DCAT model.
In a context of continue economic, technological and social changes, this application profile is constantly evolving and improving to meet users demands. The organism in charge of managing the maintenance and evolution of DCAT-AP is JoinUp, a collaborative platform created by the European Commission and financed by the European Union through the ISA and ISA2 Programs. Through this tool, different versions of DCAT-AP and guidelines for their standard implementations have been published.
To help those organizations that have doubts about how to apply this profile, here there are the main DCAT-AP documents and resources available in JoinUp:
| Documents | Description |
|---|---|
| DCAT-AP versions | The different versions on the DCAT-AP profiles are shown through a timeline. In this way, you can easily access to latest one. |
| It includes a list of technical and organizational guidelines to facilitate the implementation of DCAT-AP, which includes examples of implementations that can help solve different challenges. In addition, users could share the tools they have developed (such as validators). | |
| Based on the DCAT-AP specification, each UE country has produced a series of adaptations to meet its own needs. This analysis covers these extensions, looking for repetitive patterns that could be used as an input for future versions of DCAT-AP. | |
| GeoDCAT-AP | An extension of DCAT-AP for the exchange of descriptions of geospatial datasets and services. |
| StatDCAT-AP | An extension of DCAT-AP for the exchange of descriptions of statistical datasets and services. |
| Documentation related to the changes that can be distinguished for DCAT-AP. It analyses 3 types of changes according to their implications for interoperability: bug fixed, minor semantic changes and major semantic changes. | |
| Tools library | Includes tools developed by SEMIC or the users to promote semantic interoperability. |
| Document library | On this page, they keep track of studies carried out under different actions of the ISA² Programme, grouped according different topics. |
In addition to these resources, there are force task that have developed reports applied to specific fields, such as research field. For their part, W3C itself has also published reports and tools to help users, such as this guide called dataset Exchange Use Cases and requirements, in this case focused on DCAT.
To be informed about all changes that take place and the documents that are published, users can subscribe to the GitHub project created to share experiences, challenges and suggestions of new features.
Datos.gob.es is also part of Joinup's collaborators network, so we actively participate in the dissemination of the contents and resources created to facilitate the implementation of DCAT-AP. If you want to know more about DCAT-AP application profile, we recommend the report: DCAT-AP and its extensions: Context and evolution.
