The eOTD was developed to allow ECCMA members to improve the quality of their Master Data and their descriptions.
It also serves as a common mapping table between classifications. The dictionary includes classes
(also known as item names or noun qualifiers) and properties (also known as attributes or characteristics)
as well as units of measures, currencies and controlled values (days of the week for example).
If you search the eOTD you will see a lot of duplication and this is because the eOTD collects together terminology
from many standards and industry consortia.
The eOTD (ECCMA Open Technical Dictionary), is ISO 22745 compliant and similar to a normal dictionary with the exception
that each concept, term and definition is given a unique public domain identifier by ECCMA. This identifier allows companies
to communicate accurately.
The ECCMA assigned identifier is also in the public domain and this means that when it is incorporated with your data
you preserve your sole ownership in the data and it does not become a "joint work" as is the case with proprietary
classifications or proprietary metadata. While inherently simple, the eOTD is actually fulfilling a function that is very
similar to music notation and engineering symbols. To someone who can read music and to an engineer, the symbols below are
easy to understand; one is a representation of the musical note "lower C," and the other a representation of an antenna.
In the eOTD a unique identifier is assigned to a concept such as table (0161-1#01-089388#1), chair (0161-1#01-086445#1),
weight (0161-1#02-018635#1), length (0161-1#02-005808#1), Monday (0161-1#07-2776601#1), and kilogram (0161-1#05-001122#1).
Just as with music notation and engineering symbols, the eOTD concept identifiers are simply used to communicate more accurately.
For anyone who has experience in Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) they will instantly recognize the eOTD as a code table and
understand the benefits of encoded data. Because there can be many terms in many languages mapped to a single concept identifier
the eOTD is very useful in creating multilingual descriptions and in mapping concepts across languages as in the example below.
The fundament all purpose of the eOTD is to allow companies
to create and maintain their Corporate Business Language (CBL)
by creating their own subset of the eOTD. This is the first
step in creating quality master data and quality description.
As a member of ECCMA we can help you select the right concepts
for your CBL and show you how to develop this into your corporate
ontology.
