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Information ontologies and management in a digitised built environment The Network FOuNTAIN is inviting professionals in the AEC industry to participate in our survey that investigates the role of information ontologies and management for a digitised built environment. If you have experience in managing digital information, help us understand the level of adoption of information ontologies and information management activities and their relationship with performance outcomes. To access our survey please click here: https://lboro.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/network-fountain-survey. For comments and feedback please contact the Principal Investigator, Dr Peter Demian, at P.Demian@lboro.ac.uk.

hello as a masters student currently I'm doing my thesis related to digital twin, and I just proposed a cloud based tool that can control and monitor IoT device through cloud using BIM Model File. I've tested the tool and it is now working but my worry is which standard or ontology that states the relation between BIM and IoT device specially for Controlling? thanks in advance

We all know that Ontologies have a massive role to play in the realisation of the Information Management Framework and the wider National Digital Twin Programme. But damn(!), they can be hard to work with. Create an Ontology of any scale and the existing academic tools such as Protégé become pretty unmanageable pretty quickly. And that's before you try to explain your ontology to any sort of Normal Human. Even the most curated Ontology can be flabbergasting to the majority of people. If we are going to use Ontologies to define the logic behind Digital Twins, and crucially if we expect to be able to explain that logic to Normal Humans, then we need a better way of visualising, filtering, and editing our Ontologies. That's where OntoPop comes in. It's intended as a free-to-use, open source, non-proprietary Ontology visualisation tool. Highways England have funded the OntoPop MVP using innovation funding. Our hope is that we can expand its use across the other infrastructure owners and suppliers involved in the National Digital Twin programme, and use it to co-develop and own functionality that ultimately we are all going to need at some point. The MVP of OntoPop is now available to play with on the link below. Please visit https://ontopop.com/ and tell us what you think, all feedback is appreciated. We're particularly interested in if you would like to work on this project with us.

As part of research I'm doing in development of a Semantic Ontology for water systems, I came across an important international group working on blockchain for climate accounting. Hyperledger is coordianted by Linux Foundation and is Disributed Ledger Technology (DLT) which has published its first Ontology for climate accounting as a general ontology relevant to all 17 SDGs. They have recognised the important nexus between carbon and water and have factored the nexus into the current design. It has members drawn from around the world and a number of active WGs. If anyone is interested, there are as always a number of ways to get more involved via https://www.hyperledger.org/

In November 2020 the National Digital Twin programme programme published the Survey of Top-level Ontologies (TLO) and the Survey of Industry Data Models (IDM) and Reference Data Libraries (RDL). You can find these publications under Gemini Commons/IMF technical Documents. The technical part of the proposed pathway to an Information Management Framework comprises of three main elements: A Foundation Data Model A Reference Data Library, and An Integration Architecture which define a common structure and meaning for the consistent and integrated sharing of information. The pragmatic and technical requirements for the Foundation Data Model have now been developed and consideration has been given as to whether any existing Top-Level Ontologies could be used as a suitable start-point. There are four Top-Level Ontologies that meet all the technical requirements: BORO, IDEAS, HQDM and ISO 15926-2. They are distinct from the other Top-Level Ontologies in being 4-dimensionalist. These allow us to see individual objects as four-dimensional, having both spatial and temporal parts. We are therefore proceeding to develop the Foundation Data Model seed from these 4-dimensionalist Top-Level Ontologies. The Approach to Develop the Foundation Data Model for the Information Management Framework has been published here alongside the Surveys in the Gemini Commons/ IMF Technical documents. If you would like to ask any questions about the publication, the methods taken and choices made, head over to the IMF Community Network where the programme team are available to respond.

Hi IMF Community, You may find this workshop interesting: "4-Dimensionalism in Large Scale Data Sharing and Integration" Full details and Registration can be found at: https://gateway.newton.ac.uk/event/tgmw80 . The workshop will feature six presentations on state-of-the–art research from experts on 4-Dimensionalism in large scale data sharing and integration followed by a chaired Presenter's Panel. Each presentation will cover aspects of 4-Dimensionalism from the basics to Top Level Ontologies and Co-Constructional Ontology with each answering the question posed by the previous presentation.

I thought of the NDT and in particular the top-level ontology analysis when I received an invitation today to submit to: Special Issue "Data and Metadata Management with Semantic Technologies" to be published in the journal Information (http://www.mdpi.com/journal/information/, ISSN 2078-2489). Topics of interest include but are not limited to: Approaches to publish, harmonize, and consume (meta)data; Ontologies, metadata vocabularies, and standardization; In-use cases and lessons learned managing (meta)data in industrial and domain-specific applications (e.g., in relation to cultural heritage, e-government, education, environmental, health and medical data, among others). The manuscript submission deadline is 15 September 2021. For more details please visit the Special Issue website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/information/special_issues/Data_Semant_Technol

Hello all I took a question after the Gemini call this morning. Apologies for my naivety in not knowing the answer myself, but where are people in the TLO? Miranda

Hi Guys, after seeing the image of the high level ontology, can I ask, where does the human sit? Also can we get the definitions please?

It is proposed that the Information Management Framework (IMF) for the creating of a National Digital Twin will consist of three technical elements: the Foundation Data Model (FDM), Reference Data Library (RDL) and Integration Architecture (IA). The IMF will underpin the creation of an environment which supports the use, management and integration of digital information across the life-cycle of assets. The IMF will also enable secure, resilient information sharing between organisations and will facilitate better decision making across sectors. The National Digital Twin Programme has initiated work investigating this approach with a thin slice of the IMF for the Construction Innovation Hub, to support the development of CIH’s Platform Ecosystem. This thin slice of the IMF is called the FDM Seed. The FDM describes basic concepts such as space-time which are attributable across all areas of our industry. By developing this, the FDM provides a way to explore relationships between these different areas. The FDM Seed is an inception of the above concept and is proposed by starting smaller and watching the development grow - similar to a seed. The first steps of the FDM Seed project is to survey the landscape, to investigate what ontologies and Data models are already in use out there, what they can do, and their limitations, and assess what tools may be useful as a starting point for the FDM and the RDL. The starting point for the FDM is a top-level ontology, this contains the fundamental and generic types of things that exist and the fundamental relationships between them. The survey of Top-Level Ontologies (TLOs) uncovered a surprisingly high number of candidate TLOs with 40 being identified and reviewed, many more that we could have imagined. Fig 1.General classification of the TLO – taken from A Survey of Top-level Ontologies The final survey of top-level ontologies is, we think, the first of its kind. We were looking for an ontology that was rigorous, simple and with sufficient explanatory detail to cover our scope of interest, which is very broad. There are roughly two groups of TLOS, Foundational and Generic: The foundation are rigorous, principled foundations and provide a basis for consistent development and would be suitable for the FDM. The Generic tended to generalisations of lower level, rather than principled and lack a principled basis for extension, and therefore not suitable for the structure of the FDM, though likely to be use for the FDM generic lower levels. An RDL provides the classes and properties to describe the detail of an asset. The survey hoped to identify the most prominent of Industry Data Models and show the best starting point for the IMF RDL. There are many different RDLs in use across sectors. For the purpose of the FDM seed a limited analysis was carried out, but the list is open, and more candidates will be added for future consideration. Surveying and analysing the most commonly used RDLs will mean we are able to give guidance to organization when mapping their existing RDLs to the NDT. Next steps The Survey papers have now been published. We encourage you to engage with the National Digital Twin Programme to find out more about the approach, the results of the survey and the Assessments of the TLOs and Industry Data Models & RDLs. You can find these resources under the 'Files' tab. The Programme is now in the process of gathering their recommendations for the TLOs to use to start the work on the FDM Seed thin slice. We anticipate basing the FDM development on one of the TLOs, bringing in elements from others, based on the survey & analysis.

The National Digital Twin Programme has initiated work to create a thin slice of the IMF for the Construction Innovation Hub, to support the development of CIH’s Platform Ecosystem. This thin slice of the IMF is called the FDM Seed. Fig 1.General classification of the TLO – taken from A Survey of Top-level Ontologies The first steps of the FDM Seed project is to survey the landscape, to investigate what ontologies and Data models are already in use out there; what they can do, their limitations, and assess what tools may be useful as a starting point for the FDM and the RDL. The NDTp Commons Technical team have undertaken the landscape survey and have now published two reports: • A survey of Top-level Ontologies (TLOs) • A Survey of Industry Data Models (IDMs) and Reference Data Libraries (RDLs) The final survey of top-level ontologies is, we think, the first of its kind. To take part in the discussion on the surveys and their implications, we invite you to become a member of the Digital Twin Hub and join the Digital Twin Hub IMF Community Network What next? The Programme is now in the process of gathering recommendations for which TLOs to use to start the work on the FDM Seed thin slice. We anticipate basing the FDM development on one of the TLOs, bringing in elements from others, based on the survey & analysis.

The National Digital Twin programme is a national programme, built on consensus. As the open consultation on our proposed approach to an IMF draws to a close, Miranda Sharp IMF Engagement Lead at CDBB shares how the DT Hub members can continue to shape its development. We believe the IMF is the key to enabling secure, resilient data sharing between organisations and sectors in the built environment and want to work with you to devel0p it. Greater use of digital technologies and information in the built environment increases capacity, efficiency, reliability and resilience. This in turn enables existing assets to enhance service provision for people, as well as improving efficiency in design and delivery of new assets through a better understanding of whole-life performance of those assets already in place. We know that by working collaboratively with members of the DT Hub, who share in that vision, we will end up with a better end result. My role within the programme is to help make your voice heard, and to open conversations where you can ask the challenging questions we need to find answers to. During the next phase of the consultation we will be running in-depth interviews with practiti0ners to understand the challenges the proposed approach faces, and how these could be resolved. We want to know if the approach be top down or bottom up – or both? We want to hear your thoughts, ideas and reflections, both positive and negative. In working collaboratively to establish the IMF we will enable a National Digital Twin that is implementable and usable, in order to enable society to tackle the urgent and cross-silo challenges of achieving carbon reduction targets and effectively coordinate disaster response. We will also be able to derive the greater benefits of securely connecting our data assets. This process will require debate and deliberation along the way and invite many questions to which answers might not be immediate or clear. That is because our vision to create a digital built Britain is not complete or static; it is an evolving development emerging from multiple voices and viewpoints across a wide range of organisations – big and small, public and private, clients and contractors. Our webinar marking the publication of the report attracted a range of questions and this is precisely what is needed to interrogate the approach, to challenge its strengths, identify weaknesses and test resilience. Some people are keen to know if CDBB has started to build a prototype to demonstrate the framework but, as the pathway document explains, we must first build consensus on the prosed approach to an IMF – one cannot happen without the other. Work is underway to create a thin slice of an IMF to start to establish and test a common language and apply this early framework to a platform being developed by the Construction Innovation Hub (CIH) and put it under scrutiny. But first we need to map out the approach that will enable a demonstrable piece of the framework. The top-level academic contribution to the developing framework will also be studied closely to ensure it is robust and resilient, able to withstand change, to grow and expand. Challenge will simultaneously come from the bottom-up when organisations will input to test competency. The IMF is designed to make connections between digital twins and provide operators and decision-makers with resilient and secure verified data sharing to enable a wider view of the implications of decisions and insights that invite timely interventions and potentially better outcomes. The decision-making and the form it takes is the responsibility of organisations and businesses themselves and beyond the scope of this report – but we do want to hear your views. With that in mind we have created two new communities here on the DT Hub – Architects and Developers – dedicated to the discussion around the development of the IMF and the operational implementation of the Framework within organisations. Our Architects Community has been established for those involved in real-world application and implementation of information management. The group will test and calibrate the NDT programme’s approach to the IMF and provide a forum for discussion on challenges, opportunities and the practicalities for implementation. Our Developer Community, comprising information management, data science and integration specialists, is bringing scrutiny to the IMF approach and has been established to provide a rich discussion area for the core concepts, tenets and philosophies of the Framework and its constituent parts. If you have ideas, questions or observations about the Pathway document then please engage with us via these two new communities. Achieving alignment, interoperability, protocols, governance and standards to allow individual businesses to flourish while serving the interests of society needs engagement and contribution from as many of you as possible. It is time to collaborate at scale. I look forward to working together to shape an IMF to secure the sharing of data, enabling insight to drive informed decision-making is an essential process, unlocking value and delivering better outcomes for the greater good.

On Monday 3rd August, Matthew West, the Technical Lead for the NDTp, gave a presentation to the extended CDBB staff about the first steps the NDTp is taking towards an Information Management Framework (IMF), the FDM Seed. We thought it might be helpful to share it here so you can see how the current work fits with our wider goals. https://youtu.be/NyWfbocL1es

One of the things that we discovered here at Highways England shortly after starting work on our Ontology (see previous post) was that there isn't a huge provision of COTS tools to help you visualise your Ontology, and consequently human readability suffers once you move past a few dozen entities and relationships. Moreover, a key Ontology-building tool (WebProtege) isn't really a commercial offering at all, and as such will probably never be Enterprise-ready (and indeed could go down at any moment!). Other tools such as WebVOWL seem to have paused at the 'nice idea' stage of development, and in general the real development in the market appears to be in the graph database space (Neo4j, Grakn, Stardog) rather than the Ontology-building space. There certainly isn't, as I had hoped, a fully configured GUI where you can filter and dynamically edit your Ontology as you would a mind map without having to resort to form-filling. If we want our Ontology to function as a schema for a graph database, and that graph database in turn to provide the data storage and logical underpinning of the Digital Twin (and the interface between twins) then limitation to the visualisation and management of our Ontology will consequently limit the functionality and acuity of our Digital Twin. Key to making this logic work is being able to clearly visualise and edit Ontologies because that will in turn dictate the relationships that it’s possible to model in the Twin. There isn’t really a COTS product that fully fits this brief at the moment, but we have undertaken some research (attached) to assess the market and identify where some investment in products could fill this gap (and indeed wrote some code to make our current tool of choice, Web Protégé, work slightly better). It would make sense to me that if we are seeking alignment in how we create and interface Ontologies, then it makes sense that we also work towards a common toolkit for their creation, maintenance, and visualisation. The attached PowerPoint describes our market evaluation to date, including where we feel that there is opportunity to augment WebProtege, as well as the obvious opportunity posed by Neo4j Bloom. It seems to me that if we, as a sector, are investing in the creation of Digital Twins, then we should think about how we can work together to build capability in the market to make these tasks easier and more scalable. A common toolkit will reduce our individual investments, whilst maximising the value that we obtain from development. What do you think? Ontology_Visualisation_Proof_of_Value_(HE).pdf

Development of common Ontologies and Taxonomies will be key to interoperability and data exchange between Digital Twins. So who's actively developing them? At Highways England we are actively developing a Domain Ontology to serve as the basis for our data modelling and information sharing within and outside our organisation. I'm keen to solicit as much input to this as possible, as well as learn from the efforts of other organizations. Protégé users (it's free) can review the Ontology as it develops by requesting access to: https://webprotege.stanford.edu/#projects/0b3be685-73bd-4d5a-b866-e70d0ac7169b/edit/Classes Let me know your username (you can reach me at ian.gordon@highwaysengland.co.uk) and I'll give you access. Feedback is much appreciated.