Project Overview

NASA Taxonomy Development

Phase 1 – July to Sept 2002

Joseph Busch, Taxonomy Strategies

Jayne Dutra, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
February, 2003
 Purpose of the NASA
Taxonomy
Discover

Classify
HORSE-DRAWN
CAR PLANE SPACE SHUTTLE
CARRIAGE

Create WINGS

Site Maps
ENGINE

•
WHEELS

• Search Engine

• NASA Portals

• Logical &
Intuitive Filters
• Content
• Taxonomy
• Assets

Finding the right information at the right time

to solve the problem at hand
2 JPL Knowledge Management/ Ta
xonomy Strategies
 Project Benefits:
Enable Knowledge Discovery

• Make it easy for various audiences to find

relevant information from NASA programs
quickly
– Provide one stop shopping for NASA resources
through web space directories.
– Share knowledge by enabling users to easily
find links to databases and tools.
– Provide search results targeted to user
interests.

• Comply with E-Government Act of 2002.

• Be a leading participant in federal XML
projects.

3 JPL Knowledge Management/ Ta

xonomy Strategies
 Project Benefits:
NASA Taxonomy Best Practices

• Design process that:

– Incorporates existing federal and industry
terminology standards like NASA AFS, NAICS,
SOC, ACM Classification, and LOM.
– Provides for NASA XML namespace registry
(DISA).
– Complies with metadata standards like Z39.19,
ISO 2709, and Dublin Core.

• Practices increase interoperability and

extensibility.

4 JPL Knowledge Management/ Ta

xonomy Strategies
 Design Approach
Map the wealth of NASA content assets into logical
and intuitive groupings that allow users to intuitively
navigate to the content they need.

Audiences by
role types The Variety of
Document User Experience
Location
Projects
Topics

Content
Assets
Logical &
Intuitive Filters
5 JPL Knowledge Management/ Ta
xonomy Strategies
 Project Progress:
Initial Taxonomy Results

Phase 3
 Test & validate Taxonomy
 Test & validate XML
schemas
Phase 2  Integrate with applications
 Build community of practice
 Agree on comprehensive
branches & taxonomy detail
Phase 1
 Audit Content practices
 Identify & survey
stakeholder

6 JPL Knowledge Management/ Ta

xonomy Strategies
 Objectives of Phases 1-2

• Understand current strategies and

practices for creating, collecting, and
organizing information across NASA.
• Observe how information is used and
organized, the audiences for this
information, and the information needs of
these audiences.
• Elicit goals, hopes, and concerns for an
information architecture solution.
• Start building a community of interest.

7 JPL Knowledge Management/ Ta

xonomy Strategies
 Key Findings

• Most (70%) NASA content already has some

tagging or is categorized.
• Most (70%) owners add tag content with
metadata.
• Almost half (45%) use a standard metadata
schema, but many different standards are used.
• Most (60%) use a controlled vocabulary, but lots of
different controlled vocabularies are used.

 Different NASA constituencies care deeply about

what schemas are specified, and what vocabularies
are used because …

8 JPL Knowledge Management/ Ta

xonomy Strategies
 Audiences for NASA Content
are Diverse

Compliance Government External vendors,

officials and researchers, con-
managers tractors, grantees,
scientists, engineers
Accountability

NASA employees: engineers, mission

controllers, project and task managers,
program implementers, functional
process teams, contract specialists,
administrators, educators, etc.

General public Educators, education product

Perception

interested in developers, children 8-12 (and

space program their parents), students K-16+

Generalist Expertise Specialist

9 JPL Knowledge Management/ Ta

xonomy Strategies
 Audience Uses Vary Widely

Admin • Better understand the program in total, and obtain

scheduling information, project status and best practices.
• Access procurement rules and examples, and procurement
action synopses.
• Engineering specifications.
Sci Tech • Scholarly research, competitive intelligence, and general
aerospace research.
• Develop educational products, support current products,
Outreach learn, etc.
• Topic research and fact finding, topic background research,
and downloading curriculum support materials.
• In the classroom as stand alone items, hands-on learning
opportunities, class projects, to expand on a student’s
learning potential.
• Find NASA contact information on services, information
about student opportunities, information about career
opportunities, and latest educational news.

10 JPL Knowledge Management/ Ta

xonomy Strategies
 Taxonomy Basics

What is the NASA Taxonomy?

• The classification scheme is meant to encompass
all of NASA web content (NASA web space)
including internal as well as external material. It is
a means for tagging content so it can be used and
reused in different contexts.

How to Use the NASA Taxonomy

• This is a generic taxonomy from which
specializations can be derived for specific purposes.
– Not all Facets need to be used in each instance.
– A facet is repeatable.
– The taxonomy is modular and dynamic.

11 JPL Knowledge Management/ Ta

xonomy Strategies
 Taxonomy and Navigation

How does the NASA Taxonomy relate to site

maps?
• Three specializations (or mappings) to the NASA
Taxonomy have been completed.
– OneNASA Topics (derived from initial draft of the One
NASA topic breakdown),
– Inside JPL Topics (derived from the JPL intranet
portal), and
– Inside NASA Topics (proposed as a model for the
NASA intranet portal, and based heavily on the JPL
structure).

12 JPL Knowledge Management/ Ta

xonomy Strategies
 NASA Taxonomy Top Level

• Information
• Audiences
• Organizations
• Missions and Projects
• Industries
• Locations
• Functions
• Disciplines
• Chronology

http://eis.jpl.nasa.gov/~jedutra/NASA_Taxonomy_ver3/Index.htm

13 JPL Knowledge Management/ Ta

xonomy Strategies
 NASA Taxonomy detail
. Disciplines . Disciplines
. . Science . . Science
. . . Aeronautics . . . Aeronautics
. . . Computer Sciences . . . Computer Sciences
. . . Engineering . . . . Hardware
. . . Life Sciences . . . . Computer systems organization
. . . Mathematics . . . . Software
. . . Natural Sciences . . . . Data
. . . Space Sciences . . . . Theory of computation
. . . . Mathematics of computing
. . Social Sciences . . . . Information systems
. . . Behavioral Sciences . . . . Computing methodologies
. . . Business . . . . Computing applications
. . . Communications . . . . Computing milieu
. . . Economics . . . Engineering
. . . Education . . . . Aerospace engineering
. . . Human factors . . . . Electrical engineering
. . . Industrial relations . . . . Mechanical engineering
. . . Information Science . . . . Bioengineering
. . . Law . . . Life Sciences
. . . Planning . . . . Agriculture
… . . . . Biology
…
14 JPL Knowledge Management/ Ta
xonomy Strategies
 Taxonomy and XML

• Taxonomy is designed to support a namespace,

and handles for each concept in it.
• Relationships between concepts are specified by
using namespace handle combinations.

<SVTerm UID="NASA::1033079039069842">
<label xml:lang="en">Purposes</label>
<definition xml:lang="en">The purpose of classifying
this learning object. LOM IEEE
1484.12.1- 2002</definition>
<parent UREF="NASA::1031090120256850"/>
<child UREF="NASA::1033079070955810"/>
<child UREF="NASA::1033079087128921"/>
…
</SVTerm>

15 JPL Knowledge Management/ Ta

xonomy Strategies
 Taxonomy and XML (2)

• NASA Taxonomy provides controlled

vocabularies used to populate elements of
more complex metadata schema such as
the Dublin Core (www.dublincore.org)

• The taxonomy facets map to these schema

elements.

16 JPL Knowledge Management/ Ta

xonomy Strategies
 NASA Taxonomy –
Dublin Core Map (Draft)
Dublin Core Definition NASA Taxonomy Mapping
Elements
Creator Content maker. dc:creator
dc:creator.employee
dc:creator.organization
Subject Content topic. dc.subject.organization
dc:subject.missionsProjects
dc:subject.disciplines
Publisher Publisher of this dc:publisher.organization
manifestation.
Contributor Content contributor. dc:contributor
dc:contributor.employee
dc:contributor.organization
Type Genre. dc:type.information
Coverage Space, period, date, dc:coverage.locations
jurisdiction, etc. dc:coverage.chronology
Audience Content audience. dcTERM:audience
Non DC NASA missions and nasa:missionsProjects
projects.
Non DC Business functions. nasa:functions
Non DC Technical specialties. nasa:disciplines
17 JPL Knowledge Management/ Ta
Non DC Standard industry
xonomy Strategies naics:industries
categories.
 Encoding Metadata Using
NASA Taxonomy and Dublin Core

Encoding Attribute Required/

Optional
Namespace Required
<dc:subject.missionsProject
UID="NASA::103280732233894">
Concept label Optional
<label xml:lang=“en”>ERBS</label>
Additional information, e.g., aliases Optional
<alt>Earth Radiation Budget
Satellite</alt>

<dc:subject.missionsProject UID="NASA::103280732233894">
<label xml:lang="en">ERBS</label>
<alt>Earth Radiation Budget Satellite</alt>
</dc:subject.missionsProject>

18 JPL Knowledge Management/ Ta

xonomy Strategies
 Next Steps in Development

Test and validate NASA taxonomy

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

Alpha taxonomy Beta taxonomy Application

Scoping
• Analyze needs • Draft outline • Fill in hierarchies • Demonstrate use
• ID data • Elicit comments • Elicit comments
• ID stakeholders • Revise • Revise
• ID evaluation

… in one or more targeted production portals

19 JPL Knowledge Management/ Ta
xonomy Strategies
 Project Outcomes:
NASA Taxonomy Benefits
… at the NASA Level
• Metadata specification for all NASA content publishers
• Development of XML schema in accordance with DISA
Registry (reuse where appropriate)
• Enhancement of Agency Web publishing processes
• Integration with OneNASA portal content
management system for:
– Reduced publishing cycles
– Coordinated message themes by the Agency
– Better quality of Web materials
• Integration with NASA Search Engine, Web Site
Registration System
• Application in many technical areas, including
engineering and science disciplines (STEP and science
data dictionaries)

20 JPL Knowledge Management/ Ta

xonomy Strategies
 Project Outcomes:
NASA Taxonomy Benefits

… at the Federal Level

• NASA taxonomy development leadership role in
accordance with e-Gov Act of 2002
• Integration with FEA at the DRM level
• Increased interoperability with other federal
agencies through common data models and
standards
• Better interoperability with industry partners for
increased speed of mission development
• Enhanced results in First Gov search engine
• Readiness to actively participate in E-Gov
initiatives

21 JPL Knowledge Management/ Ta

xonomy Strategies
 E-Government Applications

The Federal Enterprise Architecture is a business-focused

framework for cross-agency, Government-wide improvement

The Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) is providing OMB and Federal

agencies with a new way of describing, analyzing, and improving the
Federal Government and its ability to serve the citizen

The FEA will eliminate the organizational obstacles that have historically
hindered improvement without forcing reorganization

The FEA is a business-focused approach and is not just for IT

The FEA provides a common framework for improving a variety of key

areas:

Business Line Focus: Citizen Centered:

- Budget allocation
- Horizontal and vertical information
sharing
- Performance measurement and
budget/performance integration
- Component Based Architecture
- Cross-agency collaboration
- Improved service to the citizen
- e-Government
- Process integration
- Call center convergence
- and more

22 JPL Knowledge Management/ Ta

xonomy Strategies
 NASA Taxonomy and the
Federal Enterprise Architecture Model

The taxonomy addresses the Data Reference Model

Layer and enables standardization and mediation
Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA)
by permission of Bob Haycock, OMB

Performance Reference Model (PRM)

• Government-wide Performance Measures & Outcomes
• Line of Business-Specific Performance Measures & Outcomes
Business-Driven Approach

XML and Web Services

Business Reference Model (BRM)
• Lines of Business
• Agencies, Customers, Partners

Service Component Reference Model (SRM)

• Service Layers, Service Types
• Components, Access and Delivery Channels

Data Reference Model (DRM)

• Business-focused data standardization
• Cross-Agency Information exchanges
Technical Reference Model (TRM)
• Service Component Interfaces, Interoperability
• Technologies, Recommendations

23 JPL Knowledge Management/ Ta

xonomy Strategies