CF Standard Names as a global semantic resource

This presentation looks at the CF Standard Names as a key semantic resource whose value extends beyond the CF convention and whose value would be augmented from being semantically interoperable with other data standards. As part of its publication process, the CF Standard Names are published as SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organisation System) concepts on the NERC Vocabulary Server (NVS) in the SKOS collection http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P07/current/, in addition to being published as an XML formatted file. This presentation is inviting the CF community to consider the advantages and impact of adopting the SKOS version of the Standard Names as the official source of Standard Names as part of its new roadmap, and make full use of the functionality offered by Linked Data technology and the NVS, including semantic mappings, reasoning using SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language, version control at the collection and concept levels, and more, as well as the possibility to serve the concepts or the entire collection in different profiles and formats. One of these profiles is the I-ADOPT profile that has been implemented in the NVS and which can be used to support interdisciplinary semantic interoperability within and beyond the environmental science domain. Such decision could pave the way to developing more efficient data workflows and more efficient management of semantic overlaps between different scientific communities.