Guiding questions

Understanding Scope & Semantics

Purpose: Define the key concepts and relationships that must be standardised to ensure semantic alignment across use cases.

  1. Which data products require semantic expression through a shared data model?

  2. Which concepts, entities, and relationships must be standardised for your use case?

Selecting or Creating Models

Purpose: Decide whether to reuse, extend, or develop new data models based on adoption, compatibility, and domain standards.

  1. Can existing data models be reused directly? If not, can they be extended rather than replaced

  2. Which standards organisations or communities maintain the most relevant models for your domain

  3. What factors (adoption level, integration compatibility, constraints) influence model selection?

Expressing the Models

Purpose: Choose meta-standards and reference vocabularies to ensure consistent, machine-readable representation of data models.

  1. Which meta-standards will be used to represent data models? (e.g., RDF/OWL, SKOS, JSON Schema, XML Schema, CSVW)

  2. What reference datasets or controlled vocabularies (e.g., EU vocabularies, ISO codes) will be linked?

  3. Does your dataspace use W3C as a recognized standards for Identity Management?

  4. Does Dataspace use JSON-LD type as a recognized standard of Identity & Access Management?

  5. Are vocabularies in RDF (Resource Description Framework OWL complaint?

Governance and Maintenance

Purpose: Establish processes for managing ownership, versioning, and stakeholder engagement around data models.

  1. Who will act as the data model provider for each model (e.g., Standards Development Organisation, The governance team, sectoral community)?

  2. How will versioning, change approval, and stakeholder engagement be managed?

  3. What processes will be in place for resolving conflicts or inconsistencies between models?

Tooling and Accessibility

Purpose: Provide accessible platforms and services to host, discover, and link data models with exchange schemas and APIs.

  1. Which Vocabulary Service platform will host the data models?

  2. How will models be made discoverable across other EU data spaces?

  3. How will models be linked to actual data exchange schemas and APIs?

  4. Does your dataspace have a browser-based UI & API?

  5. Does your dataspace provide a vocabulary service?

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