# Demo of taxonomy/terminology alignment tool

**URL:** https://forum.openreferral.org/t/demo-of-taxonomy-terminology-alignment-tool/604
**Category:** Technical
**Created:** [January 22, 2025, 7:15pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/demo-of-taxonomy-terminology-alignment-tool/604 "2025-01-22T19:15:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![bloom](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openreferral.org/bloom/32/103_2.png) [@bloom](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/bloom)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2025, 7:15pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/demo-of-taxonomy-terminology-alignment-tool/604/1 "2025-01-22T19:15:48Z")

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Hi folks – welcome @MBiezunski to the group. Michel has experience developing tools in support of semantic interoperability among overlapping terminology value sets.

This is a topic that’s technically out of scope of HSDS, but very relevant to many members of our community: how do we cope with overlapping taxonomies, for instance?

Michel has offered to give a demo of his tool and discuss his experience. I’ve offered to help schedule and facilitate a call about this.

Who would be interested in participating? Chime in here and then i’ll start scheduling.

Thanks!

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### Author: ![MBiezunski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MBiezunski](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/MBiezunski)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2025, 8:37pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/demo-of-taxonomy-terminology-alignment-tool/604/2 "2025-01-22T20:37:49Z")

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Thank you Greg for inviting me to this forum.  
I am the co-inventor of Topic Maps (ISO 13250), a standard architecture for managing knowledge graphs. I have been providing services to the IRS for more than 15 years, helping their call center assistors to navigate across ~8000 topics, that were dynamically created and connected. The Networker is a tool that helps create and ingest data from a variety of sources, for example tables, and has a curation interface that allows end users to tweak the results to make information as precise as possible. The features are presented at [https://networker.infoloom.com](https://networker.infoloom.com). I’d be glad to discuss whether this approach could be used to integrate and manage taxonomies.

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### Author: ![DrewW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DrewW](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/DrewW)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2025, 10:13pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/demo-of-taxonomy-terminology-alignment-tool/604/3 "2025-01-22T22:13:42Z")

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Sounds potentially super useful!

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### Author: ![sasha](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openreferral.org/sasha/32/149_2.png) [@sasha](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/sasha)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2025, 10:25pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/demo-of-taxonomy-terminology-alignment-tool/604/4 "2025-01-22T22:25:27Z")

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Welcome @MBiezunski! I’d love a demo.

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### Author: ![MBiezunski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MBiezunski](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/MBiezunski)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2025, 4:09pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/demo-of-taxonomy-terminology-alignment-tool/604/5 "2025-01-23T16:09:55Z")

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Hi @sasha and @DrewW, great to meet you. I am looking forward to show a demo soon. Could you describe what you are working on and/or particularly interested in?

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### Author: ![DrewW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DrewW](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/DrewW)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2025, 10:02pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/demo-of-taxonomy-terminology-alignment-tool/604/6 "2025-01-23T22:02:03Z")

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As Greg mentioned, we’re looking at how to do taxonomy mapping to align two similar term sets. So I’m using an open source service taxonomy (Open Eligibility) but many bigger providers use a subscription taxonomy (211 HSIS) which includes a lot more terms and details that overlap the simpler open source one. A strong taxonomy map would go far in being able to align information across platforms and identify data to share.

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### Author: ![iansingo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a587f6/32.png) [@iansingo](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/iansingo)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2025, 7:59am UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/demo-of-taxonomy-terminology-alignment-tool/604/7 "2025-01-29T07:59:47Z")

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Overlapping taxonomies sounds an issue we are starting to look at so I’d be interested in watching any demo.

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### Author: ![bloom](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openreferral.org/bloom/32/103_2.png) [@bloom](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/bloom)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2025, 3:22pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/demo-of-taxonomy-terminology-alignment-tool/604/8 "2025-02-04T15:22:41Z")

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Hi folks – given the spread of timezones, how about we aim for **11a Eastern, on any of the following days (tu/thur): Feb 11th, 13th, 18th, 20th?**

Let me know if any of these days wouldn’t work for you.

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### Author: ![sasha](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openreferral.org/sasha/32/149_2.png) [@sasha](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/sasha)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2025, 4:09pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/demo-of-taxonomy-terminology-alignment-tool/604/9 "2025-02-04T16:09:53Z")

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11am ET would work for me on any of those days except the 18th. Thanks, looking forward to it!

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### Author: ![DrewW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DrewW](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/DrewW)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2025, 4:37pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/demo-of-taxonomy-terminology-alignment-tool/604/10 "2025-02-04T16:37:53Z")

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13th and 20th would work for me.

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### Author: ![MBiezunski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MBiezunski](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/MBiezunski)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2025, 5:46pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/demo-of-taxonomy-terminology-alignment-tool/604/11 "2025-02-04T17:46:14Z")

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Actually, February 18 doesn’t work for me!  
Michel

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### Author: ![bloom](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openreferral.org/bloom/32/103_2.png) [@bloom](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/bloom)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2025, 4:42pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/demo-of-taxonomy-terminology-alignment-tool/604/12 "2025-02-05T16:42:10Z")

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OK thanks folks. I’m going to send out calendar holds for 11a ET on Thursdays 13th and 20th.

@iansingo @skyleryoung @SarahP anyone else want to let us know if you’re interested and if either of those work better than the other.

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### Author: ![skyleryoung](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openreferral.org/skyleryoung/32/212_2.png) [@skyleryoung](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/skyleryoung)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2025, 2:12pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/demo-of-taxonomy-terminology-alignment-tool/604/13 "2025-02-06T14:12:21Z")

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I can make either the 13th or 20th work. I’m very interested in this demo, please invite 🙂

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### Author: ![MikeThacker-iStandUK](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openreferral.org/mikethacker-istanduk/32/8_2.png) [@MikeThacker-iStandUK](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/MikeThacker-iStandUK)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2025, 2:28pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/demo-of-taxonomy-terminology-alignment-tool/604/14 "2025-02-07T14:28:23Z")

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> I can make either the 13th or 20th work. I’m very interested in this demo, please invite

I can no longer make 13 Feb. Do proceed without me if you want. I can make 20 Feb at present.

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### Author: ![bloom](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openreferral.org/bloom/32/103_2.png) [@bloom](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/bloom)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 1:53pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/demo-of-taxonomy-terminology-alignment-tool/604/15 "2025-02-20T13:53:01Z")

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We are hosting this conversation in a couple of hours – join us here:

> **[Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting](https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7179898140?pwd=dWk3bFBubngzWnpqWWZpS1RLQXFPZz09)**
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Meeting ID: 717 989 8140  
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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![bloom](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openreferral.org/bloom/32/103_2.png) [@bloom](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/bloom)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 6:59pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/demo-of-taxonomy-terminology-alignment-tool/604/16 "2025-02-20T18:59:10Z")

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Thanks for joining today!

Here’s the recording and other files via Adam Bard :

> **[Video Conferencing, Web Conferencing, Webinars, Screen Sharing](https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/QoQPJkcLX9rUI79skHvYlLkcCACTqzTXN3XupvsAI0_Pccai_5ng4mgU20lTjSy0.XXC98u4uKgciAM3o)**
>
> Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference...

Passcode: Dx@8x\*XG

Here are the materials presented (via @MBiezunski ):

Slides: [https://www.infoloom.com/media/presentations/OpenReferral.pptx](https://www.infoloom.com/media/presentations/OpenReferral.pptx)

Read-only version of the Mapping between 3 accounting/audit taxonomies: [https://rdm-r.infoloom.com/](https://rdm-r.infoloom.com/)

Read-only version of the NYC Greenbook (Directory of City Services): [https://greenbook-r.infoloom.com/](https://greenbook-r.infoloom.com/)  
This site is password protected. User Name: guest. Password: preview2023 (Case matters)

The features of the Networker are described at [https://networker.infoloom.com](https://networker.infoloom.com/)

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### Author: ![MikeThacker-iStandUK](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openreferral.org/mikethacker-istanduk/32/8_2.png) [@MikeThacker-iStandUK](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/MikeThacker-iStandUK)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2025, 3:32pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/demo-of-taxonomy-terminology-alignment-tool/604/17 "2025-02-21T15:32:10Z")

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@MBiezunski gave a truly inspiring presentation.

I can’t, at present, identify a funded project that would take on [InfoLoom](https://networker.infoloom.com/) but we have a number of initiatives providing similar tooling that has been hand-crafted in each circumstance and requires programmer or database expertise to maintain. InfoLoom could reduce that burden and make things simpler.

Use cases include:

1. mapping between different taxonomies for the same type of concept, e.g. from local taxonomies to a central one for a central database that aggregates many local HSDA feeds. This could address both equivalence and broader/narrower terms.
2. mapping from one type of concept to another in an application e.g. mapping from a taxonomy of “needs” to “service types” against which services are tagged. See the [Local Government Business Model](https://standards.esd.org.uk/?tab=lgbm) and the slides with live links in [Por30105 - Needs to Service mappings and ORUK](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1hlthf00nXectJjIxMzlfS6eMDmLcPPCVkwM5C2PK47A/edit?usp=sharing). I’ve recorded [this short Loom (no relation) video](https://www.loom.com/share/5be3761727614afbb4a50f06ad42ddce) to illustrate such mappings.
3. using InfoLoom (as mentioned by @skyleryoung to express other types of relationship such as the HSDS relationships between entities and their properties (in ERD terms these are tables and fields). In the UK we express such things diagrammatically with bespoke programming such as the API Query tool visualisation of data for a service. See [example by clicking on “Visualise” from a service in this live list](https://tools.openreferraluk.org/ApiQuery/?endpoint=https://bristol.openplace.directory/o/ServiceDirectoryService/v2&execute=true) (the visualisation will not be maintained in the new site from April 2025) and the [SAVVI Logical Model](https://coda.io/@savvi/welcome/the-full-logical-model-298)

As discussed:

- UK Government policy is to apply [persistent resolvable identifiers](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-standards-for-government/persistent-resolvable-identifiers) (URIs) and we must have those. You can see this, for example, in our Community Services List (URI [Standards | LG Inform Plus](http://id.esd.org.uk/list/communityServices)) and service type 178 (URI [Standards | LG Inform Plus](http://id.esd.org.uk/service/178)). Such URIs are supported by HSDS 3 taxonomy and taxonomy term entities
- we also implement SPARQL ([see here](https://standards.esd.org.uk/?uri=list%2FcommunityServices&tab=linked)) for Linked data queries but that’s not really used except for illustration by academics

I’m happy to talk this through with @MBiezunski and others and will try to find time to explore InfoLoom online.

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### Author: ![MBiezunski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MBiezunski](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/MBiezunski)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2025, 7:38pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/demo-of-taxonomy-terminology-alignment-tool/604/18 "2025-02-21T19:38:47Z")

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Thank you Mike for your feedback and for providing the links describing your activity. I’d be glad to continue this conversation and schedule another meeting where we could talk more in detail about your requirements. I was thinking also that if there is an interest, I could present the work we did with the Internal Revenue Service, a project called Tax Map, which was active between 2002 and 2019, a dynamic collation of updated publications and documents for their call centers and the public, featuring around 8000 topics that were automatically generated, with the possibility for IRS experts to act on the knowledge base.

Obviously, I am interested by any future possibility of funding for a project that involves deploying the Networker. Just the maintenance requires a significant investment and I am looking for ways to make it a higher priority in my current workload, until I am able to build a team to support it.

Speaking of SPARQL, the Networker application at [https://kgc20-r.infoloom.com](https://kgc20-r.infoloom.com/) was acquired from a RDF/Turtle file that was provided by the organizers of the Knowledge Graph Conference. There are ways to import and export RDF from the Networker to connect with the Semantic Web/RDF universe. But I agree with you, Mike, that this is mostly interesting for an academic audience.

Best,

Michel

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### Author: ![MikeThacker-iStandUK](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openreferral.org/mikethacker-istanduk/32/8_2.png) [@MikeThacker-iStandUK](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/MikeThacker-iStandUK)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2025, 2:06pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/demo-of-taxonomy-terminology-alignment-tool/604/19 "2025-02-23T14:06:29Z")

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> [@MBiezunski](#):
>
> Obviously, I am interested by any future possibility of funding for a project that involves deploying the Networker.

Just to clarify, I am seeing InfoLoom as an online product/service to which organisations might subscribe rather than anything requiring a high proportion of development or needing a single client to cover a high proportion of deployment costs. I may be being overly cautious here and there may be other opportunities but I don’t want to oversell UK opportunities.

I’ll contact you regarding how we might demo some of what we do in the UK in InfoLoom. 🙏

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### Author: ![MBiezunski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MBiezunski](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/MBiezunski)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2025, 12:20pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/demo-of-taxonomy-terminology-alignment-tool/604/20 "2025-02-24T12:20:20Z")

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Thank you Mike. I am looking forward to talking to you.

[Next page](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/demo-of-taxonomy-terminology-alignment-tool/604.md?page=2)
