The e-Government Metadata Standard, e-GMS, is the UK e-Government
Metadata
Metadata (or metainformation) is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data itself, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including:
* Descriptive ...
Standard. It defines how UK public sector bodies should label content such as web pages and documents to make such information more easily managed, found and shared.
The
metadata standard
A metadata standard is a requirement which is intended to establish a common understanding of the meaning or semantics of the data, to ensure correct and proper use and interpretation of the data by its owners and users. To achieve this common und ...
is an
application profile In the information sciences, an application profile consists of a set of metadata elements, policies, and guidelines defined for a particular application.
The elements may come from one or more element sets, thus allowing a given application to me ...
of the
Dublin Core Metadata Element Set and consists of mandatory, recommended and optional metadata elements such as title, date created and description.
The e-GMS formed part of the ''e-Government Metadata Framework'' (e-GMF) and
eGovernment Interoperability Framework (e-GIF). The standard helps provide a basis for the adoption of
XML
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing data. It defines a set of rules for encoding electronic document, documents in a format that is both human-readable and Machine-r ...
schemas for data exchange.
Metadata elements
The current standard defines twenty-five elements. Each has a formal description (taken from Dublin Core where possible) and an obligation rating of "mandatory", "mandatory if applicable", "recommended" or "optional":
# Accessibility ''(mandatory if applicable)''
# Addressee ''(optional)''
# Aggregation ''(optional)''
# Audience ''(optional)''
# Contributor ''(optional)''
# Coverage ''(recommended)''
# Creator ''(mandatory)''
# Date ''(mandatory)''
# Description ''(optional)''
# Digital signature ''(optional)''
# Disposal ''(optional)''
# Format ''(optional)''
# Identifier ''(mandatory if applicable)''
# Language ''(recommended)''
# Location ''(optional)''
# Mandate ''(optional)''
# Preservation ''(optional)''
# Publisher ''(mandatory if applicable)''
# Relation ''(optional)''
# Rights ''(optional)''
# Source ''(optional)''
# Status ''(optional)''
# Subject ''(mandatory)''
# Title ''(mandatory)''
# Type ''(optional)''
Each element also has a statement of purpose, notes, clarification, refinements (such as sub-elements), examples of use,
HTML
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets ( ...
syntax, encoding schemes and mappings to other metadata standards where applicable.
Development
The first version of the standard comprising simple Dublin Core elements was first published with the e-GMF. E-GMS was first published as a separate document by the
Office of the e-Envoy
The Office of the e-Envoy was set up by the British government of Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1999 and was replaced by the E-Government Unit in September 2004.
The first e-Envoy was Alex Allan. He was succeeded by Andrew Pinder in October 2 ...
in April 2002 and contained twenty-one elements.
[ ] Version 2 was released in December 2003 and added separate elements for Addressee, Aggregation, Digital Signature and Mandate.
[ (Also available a]
.doc
an
.rtf
. Version 2 also added further refinements and introduced the e-GMS Audience Encoding Scheme (e-GMSAES) and e-GMS Type Encoding Scheme (e-GMSTES). Version 3 was released in April 2004 and incorporated
PRONOM
PRONOM (Public Record Office and Nôm 喃) is a web-based technical registry to support digital preservation services, developed by The National Archives of the United Kingdom. PRONOM was the first and remains, to date, the only operational pub ...
within the format and preservation elements.
The most recent version, 3.1, was published in August 2006 by the
Cabinet Office
The Cabinet Office is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for supporting the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister and Cabinet ...
e-Government Unit
The e-Government Unit (eGU) was a unit of the Cabinet Office of the government of the United Kingdom responsible for helping various government departments use information technology to increase efficiency and improve electronic access to governme ...
following the closure of the Office of the e-Envoy.
It now forms part of the UK Government's ''Information Principles'', supporting the principle that "Information is standardised and linkable". Responsibility for maintenance and development of the standard has since moved from central to local government.
Subject metadata and the Integrated Public Sector Vocabulary (IPSV)
The Integrated Public Sector Vocabulary is a
controlled vocabulary
A controlled vocabulary provides a way to organize knowledge for subsequent retrieval. Controlled vocabularies are used in subject indexing schemes, subject headings, thesauri, taxonomies and other knowledge organization systems. Controlled v ...
for describing subjects and was first released in April 2005, building on developments of the subject element introduced with version 3.0 of e-GMS. It merged three earlier lists: the GCL (
Government Category List
The United Kingdom Government Category List (GCL) was a type of controlled vocabulary called a taxonomy, for use in choosing Subject metadata and keywords, primarily for indexing government web pages. The use of GCL terms in the metadata
Meta ...
), LGCL (
Local Government Category List
The Local Government Category List (LGCL), is a metadata standard controlled vocabulary of subject metadata terms related to local government, published in the UK. It has been superseded by the Integrated Public Sector Vocabulary (IPSV) but remai ...
) and the seamlessUK taxonomy. It had 2732 preferred terms and, 4230 non-preferred.
The current version, version 2, was released in April 2006. It is much bigger, with 3080 preferred terms and 4843 non-preferred terms, and covers internal-facing as well as public-oriented topics. The Internal Vocabulary was released as a separate subset containing 756 preferred terms and 1333 non-preferred terms. An abridged version of the IPSV was also released containing 549 preferred terms and 1472 non-preferred terms and remains compliant with the e-GMS.
The Public Sector Information Domain – Metadata Standards Working Group subsequently agreed to recommend this change to eGMS on the use of subject metadata from October 2012:
The standard has been discontinued in January 2019. The
Local Government Association
The Local Government Association (LGA) is the national membership body for local government in England, local authorities in England and Wales. Its core membership is made up of 317 English councils and the 22 Welsh councils through the ...
esd-toolkit has since continued hosting IPSV and current
URI
Uri may refer to:
Places
* Canton of Uri, a canton in Switzerland
* Úri, a village and commune in Hungary
* Uri, Iran, a village in East Azerbaijan Province
* Uri, Jammu and Kashmir, a town in India
* Uri (island), off Malakula Island in V ...
s will remain valid.
Mapping
E-GMS has been mapped to the
IEEE
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines.
The IEEE ...
/
LOM.
IPSV has been mapped to the Local Government Classification Scheme.
See also
Examples of UK government sponsored
GovTalk GovTalk was a UK government initiative sponsored by the Cabinet Office, designed to encourage efficient government through the use of the Internet and other modern electronic technologies. It included guidelines and advice on best practices for the ...
XML standards that use e-GMS include
*
NaPTAN
The National Public Transport Access Node (NaPTAN) database is a UK nationwide system for uniquely identifying all the points of access to public transport in the UK. The dataset is closely associated with the National Public Transport Gazette ...
*
TransXChange
TransXChange is a UK national XML based data standard for the interchange of bus route and timetable information between bus operators, the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency, local authorities and passenger transport executives, and others i ...
References
{{reflist, 2
Communications in the United Kingdom
E-government in the United Kingdom
Metadata standards