Pedro: Combining Rapid Data Modelling and Ontology Services

by Kevin Garwood

E-Science North West Centre

Manchester University

What it Does…

• renders data entry forms given an XML Schema

• people use the forms to create data files that conform to the data model

• users can mark up text fields with controlled vocabulary terms supplied by ontology services

Project History

• originally developed to suit the needs of COGEME, a proteomics consortium

• supported by COGEME and Manchester University’s ESNW Centre, later by the EBI

• first release almost immediately spilled into other domains such as genomics, security, distributed computing….

• COGEME used the tool to successfully promote a data model standard

• now tool is being used for data entry

Pedro Modelling Process

Validating Files against the Model

Q: “Could this data file been made using this model?”

Ontology Service = Source + Viewer

Provenance: Remembering where Terms Came From

Ontology Context: Providing More Relevant Terms

Enough Slides! Let’s Show It!