Extending metadata definitions by automatically extracting and organizing glossary definitions
Eduard H. Hovy, Andrew Philpot, Judith L. Klavans, Ulrich Germann, Peter T. Davis, Samuel Popper · 2003
Metadata descriptions of database contents are required to build and use systems that access and deliver data in response to user requests. When numerous heterogeneous databases are brought together in a single system, their various metadata formalizations must be homogenized and integrated in order to support the access planning and delivery system. This integration is a tedious process that requires human expertise and attention. In this paper we describe a method of speeding up the formalization and integration of new metadata. The method takes advantage of the fact that databases are often described in web pages containing natural language glossaries that define pertinent aspects of the data. Given a root URL, our method identifies likely glossaries, extracts and formalizes aspects of relevant concepts defined in them, and automatically integrates the new formalized metadata concepts into a large model of the domain and associated conceptualizations. 1. Background: The EDC System The Digital Government Research Center (DGRC) has been building a data delivery system called the Energy Data Collection (EDC) project (Ambite et al. 02; Philpot et al. 02; Hovy et al. 01). The system delivers to users data about the prices and volumes of petroleum product sales, as collected and recorded