Core Public Event Vocabulary: Are we talking about the same event?

Pavlina Fragkou, Programme Manager, Interoperability Unit, Directorate General for Informatics, European Commission

Open government data are a valuable source of information that is publicly available to anyone for analysis and reuse. However, even though governmental data are open, they are often represented and published in an unstructured way without following any specific guidelines. The ISA² Programme has developed a solution, e-Government Core Vocabularies, to help public administrations bring structure in their data. 

What are Core Vocabularies?

Core Vocabularies are ‘simplified, reusable, and extensible data models that capture the fundamental characteristics of an entity in a context-neutral manner’. They are used – among others – to assist public administrations in exchanging information on a basis of a context-specific data model, as well as to integrate data that come from different data sources. 

One of the Core Vocabularies is the Core Public Event Vocabulary (CPEV). It aspires to become a common data model for describing public events (conferences, summits, festivals, exhibitions, etc.) in the European Union. CPEV, as all Core Vocabularies, benefits from the fact that it is context-neutral. It means that the vocabulary can be used in different domains which are dealing with event modelling such as tourism, culture, scientific or business meetings, etc. 

Core Public Event Vocabulary is taking shape

The work on CPEV started in January 2018. The development followed an open and collaborative process involving data model experts from various European public administrations. The first draft version of the Core Public Event Vocabulary was released on 7 May 2018. Today, the CPEV provides public administrations with a data model for event information allowing them to describe event-related data in a way that can be exchangeable in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. The vocabulary is further developed with the aim to promote it as a well-established standard. 

Experimenting with public events data models 

In our webinar on the CPEV, which took place on 24 September, Italian and Japanese public administrations illustrated the way they are modelling public events and how the CPEV can bring value to their work.

In case of Italy, the Core Public Event Vocabulary has been incorporated into so-called Ontopia. It provides a general platform for controlled vocabularies aiming at facilitating data exchange as well enabling (open) standardisations. Japan’s example is a living proof of the diversity of cases in which the CPEV is used and benefits citizens in their every-day life. The Italian and Japanese experts recognised the CPEV as a key enabler for public administrations to efficiently capture event information and suggested its uptake by the information systems of public administrations. 

If you are interested in learning more about Japan’s and Italy’s experience with modelling public event information, have a look at the relevant presentations on the webinar event page.

Get involved

Do you want to contribute to the further development of the CPEV? Contact us at contact@semic.eu.