Australian Government Architecture Reference Models Version 3.0

The following are definitions for each of the concepts and relationships shown above.
Term Definition
Taxonomy
Structured Data
Resource
Topic
Digital Data
Resource
A Taxonomy is a collection of controlled vocabulary terms organised into
a hierarchical structure. Taxonomies provide a means for categorising or
classifying information within a reasonably well-defined associative
structure, in which each term in the Taxonomy is in one or more
parent/child (broader/narrower) relationships to other terms in the
Taxonomy. A common example of a Taxonomy is the hierarchical
structure used to classify living things within the biological sciences from
Carolus Linnaeus, as shown in the table below.
Relationships:
Category Value for Humans
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Class Mammals
Order Primates
Family Hominidae
Genus Homo
Species Sapiens
� A Taxonomy contains a Topic.
� A Taxonomy is represented as a Structured Data Resource 42.
Example: a taxonomy expressed in W3C Web Ontology Language (OWL)
format.
See the Data Description section.
A Topic is a category within a Taxonomy. A Topic is the central concept
for applying context to data. For example, an agency may have a
Taxonomy that represents their organisational structure. In such a
Taxonomy, each role in the organisational structure (e.g. CIO) represents
a Topic. Topic is often synonymous with ‘node’.
Relationships:
� A Topic categorises a Data Asset.
� A Topic may categorise a Digital Data Resource.
� A Topic may categorise a Query Point.
� A Topic may categorise an Exchange Package.
� A Topic participates in a Relationship with another Topic.
See the Data Description section.
42 Because a Taxonomy is represented as a Structured Data Resource and a Data Asset provides management context for a
Digital Data Resource, it follows that a Taxonomy may be stored and managed within a Data Asset.
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