# Review of Content Standard ISO/IEC TR 20943-3:2004

# Information Technology -- Procedure for achieving metadata registry (MDR) content consistency -- Part 3:Value domains

# January 2006

1.  This review is intended to assess the potential utility of content
    standards for use and potentially for inclusion in an ISO
    11179-based metadata registry. The review is directed primarily
    toward the utility of the standard itself, rather than to matching
    the standard with specific agency programs. The review covers issues
    such as the subject area, currency, quality, authority, and
    acceptance of the standards. These are factors that need to be taken
    into account no matter what the programmatic application of the
    standard may be.

## 1. Summary

ISO/IEC 11179 specifies the kind and quality of metadata necessary to
describe data, and it specifies the management and administration of
that metadata in a metadata registry (MDR). It applies to the
formulation of data representations, concepts, meanings, and
relationships between them to be shared among people and machines,
independent of the organization that produces the data. It does not
apply to the physical representation of data as bits and bytes at the
machine level.

In ISO/IEC 11179, metadata refers to descriptions of data. ISO/IEC 11179
does not contain a general treatment of metadata. ISO/IEC 11179-1:2004
provides the means for understanding and associating the individual
parts of ISO/IEC 11179 and is the foundation for a conceptual
understanding of metadata and metadata registries.

The purpose of this technical report is to describe a set of procedures
for the consistent registration of value domains and their attributes in
a registry. This technical report is not a data entry manual, but a
user\'s guide for conceptualizing a value domain and its components for
the purpose of consistently establishing good quality metadata. An
organization may adapt and/or add to these procedures as necessary.

## 2. Identification of Standard {#identification-of-standard .unnumbered}

### 2.1. Title

# Information technology \-- Procedure for achieving metadata registry (MDR) content consistency -- Part 3: Value domains

**2.2. Acronym**

MDR

### 2.3. Web page(s), Identifier, or Contact Information:

### 2.3.1 Web page(s)

Available free from:

http://isotc.iso.org/livelink/livelink/fetch/2000/2489/Ittf_Home/PubliclyAvailableStandards.htm

### 2.3.2 Identifier

ISO/IEC TR 20943-3:2004

### 2.3.3 Contact Information

Data management and interchange

Secretariat:
[ANSI](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/tc/tclist/TechnicalCommitteeContactPage.TechnicalCommitteeContact?COMMID=160&ACRONYM=ANSI)

Secretary: Mr. Douglas D. Mann

Chair: Mr. Bruce Bargmeyer (USA)

Participating countries:
[17](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/tc/tclist/TechnicalCommitteeParticipationListPage.TechnicalCommitteeParticipationList?COMMID=160)

### 2.4 Authority

**2.4.1 Creator**

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC 32 Data management and interchange

**2.4.2. Acceptance as authoritative**

Participating countries: 17

Observer countries: 6

Other ISO and IEC committees in liaison:

ISO 
[TC 37](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/tc/tclist/TechnicalCommitteeDetailPage.TechnicalCommitteeDetail?COMMID=1459),
[TC 37/SC 2](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/tc/tclist/TechnicalCommitteeDetailPage.TechnicalCommitteeDetail?COMMID=1469),
[TC 37/SC 3](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/tc/tclist/TechnicalCommitteeDetailPage.TechnicalCommitteeDetail?COMMID=1474),
[TC 37/SC 4](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/tc/tclist/TechnicalCommitteeDetailPage.TechnicalCommitteeDetail?COMMID=5393),
[TC 46](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/tc/tclist/TechnicalCommitteeDetailPage.TechnicalCommitteeDetail?COMMID=1757),
[TC 46/SC 4](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/tc/tclist/TechnicalCommitteeDetailPage.TechnicalCommitteeDetail?COMMID=1778),
[TC 46/SC 11](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/tc/tclist/TechnicalCommitteeDetailPage.TechnicalCommitteeDetail?COMMID=4718),
[TC 68](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/tc/tclist/TechnicalCommitteeDetailPage.TechnicalCommitteeDetail?COMMID=2183),
[TC 68/SC 2](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/tc/tclist/TechnicalCommitteeDetailPage.TechnicalCommitteeDetail?COMMID=2193),
[TC 127](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/tc/tclist/TechnicalCommitteeDetailPage.TechnicalCommitteeDetail?COMMID=3356),
[TC 154](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/tc/tclist/TechnicalCommitteeDetailPage.TechnicalCommitteeDetail?COMMID=3827),
[TC 184](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/tc/tclist/TechnicalCommitteeDetailPage.TechnicalCommitteeDetail?COMMID=4275),
[TC 184/SC 4](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/tc/tclist/TechnicalCommitteeDetailPage.TechnicalCommitteeDetail?COMMID=4299),
[TC 204](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/tc/tclist/TechnicalCommitteeDetailPage.TechnicalCommitteeDetail?COMMID=4559),
[TC 211](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/tc/tclist/TechnicalCommitteeDetailPage.TechnicalCommitteeDetail?COMMID=4637),
[TC 215](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/tc/tclist/TechnicalCommitteeDetailPage.TechnicalCommitteeDetail?COMMID=4720)

International organizations in liaison:

[CISAC](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/liaisonorglist/LiaisonOrgDetailPage.LiaisonOrgDetail?ACRONYM=CISAC),
[INTELSAT](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/liaisonorglist/LiaisonOrgDetailPage.LiaisonOrgDetail?ACRONYM=INTELSAT),
[ITU](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/liaisonorglist/LiaisonOrgDetailPage.LiaisonOrgDetail?ACRONYM=ITU),
[Infoterm](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/liaisonorglist/LiaisonOrgDetailPage.LiaisonOrgDetail?ACRONYM=Infoterm),
[SWIFT](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/liaisonorglist/LiaisonOrgDetailPage.LiaisonOrgDetail?ACRONYM=SWIFT),
[UN/ECE](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/liaisonorglist/LiaisonOrgDetailPage.LiaisonOrgDetail?ACRONYM=UN/ECE),
[WMO](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/liaisonorglist/LiaisonOrgDetailPage.LiaisonOrgDetail?ACRONYM=WMO)

### 2.5 Publisher

**USA (ANSI)**\
American National Standards Institute\
1819 L Street, NW\
WASHINGTON, DC 20036\
*Postal address/Adresse postale*\
25 West 43rd Street, Fourth Floor\
NEW YORK, N.Y. 10036\
\
Tel.         + 1 212 642 49 00\
Fax         + 1 212 398 00 23\
E-mail     <info@ansi.org>\
Web        [www.ansi.org](http://www.ansi.org/)

### 2.6 Language(s)

English

###  3. Content description

### 3.1 Subject area of content and area of application

The exchange of metadata between metadata registries based on
International Organization for Standardization/International
Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) 11179 *Information technology ---
Metadata registries (MDR)*, depends not only on registry software that
conforms to the standard, but also on metadata contents that are
comparable between registries. While the standard has provisions for
data specification and registration, there are pragmatic issues
pertaining to populating the registries with content.

This Technical Report is based ISO/IEC 11179-3 of the six-part ISO/IEC
standard that describes the organization of a registry for managing the
semantics of data. The standard specifies the structure of a registry in
the form of a conceptual model. The conceptual model is not intended to
be a logical or physical data model for a computer system.

Based on the experiences of organizations that are implementing the
standard, technical reports to explore content issues will help current
and future users.

Metadata registries can be used to register data elements, value
domains, other objects, and associated attributes for many kinds of
organizational data resource collections. Metadata registries can store
information describing value domains used to specify the allowed values
of a data element, the codes in a standard list, and classification
schemes.

This technical report is based on ISO/IEC 11179-3:2003 of the six-part
ISO/IEC 11179 International Standard that describes the organization of
a registry for managing the semantics of data. The standard specifies
the structure of a registry in the form of a conceptual model. The
conceptual model is not intended to be a logical or physical data model
for a computer system. ISO/IEC 11179-3:2003, models a value domain and
an associated conceptual domain. Conceptualization and articulation of
rules and relationships are needed in the creation of conceptual domains
and value domains.

Reuse of value domains should be enabled and regularized. *Elementarily
equivalent domains* have a relationship between their values that needs
to be captured in a metadata registry. Some *conceptually equivalent
domains* have relationships between their values, too. These also need
to be captured. This Technical Report describes how this can be
accomplished.

While metadata registries can be used for storing information about a
variety of metadata items, this Technical Report addresses only value
domains, conceptual domains, and their associated attributes and
relationships. The goal of this paper is to ensure that there is a
common understanding of the content of the value domain attributes so
that metadata can be shared between registries, despite their
differences.

### 3.2 Kind of content

An ISO/IEC 11179-based metadata registry (MDR) (hereafter referred to as
a \"registry\") is a tool for the management of shareable data; a
comprehensive, authoritative source of reference information about data.
It supports the standardization and harmonization processes by recording
and disseminating data standards, which facilitates data sharing among
organizations and users. It provides links to documents that refer to
data elements and to information systems where data elements are used.
When used in conjunction with an information database, the registry
enables users to better understand the information obtained.

A registry does not contain data itself. It contains the metadata that
is necessary to clearly describe, inventory, analyze, and classify data.
It provides an understanding of the meaning, representation, and
identification of units of data. The standard identifies the information
elements that need to be available for determining the meaning of a data
element (DE) to be shared between systems.

The purpose of this Technical Report is to describe a set of procedures
for the consistent registration of value domains and their attributes in
a registry. This Technical Report is not a data entry manual, but a
user's guide for conceptualizing a value domain and its components for
the purpose of consistently establishing good quality metadata. An
organization may adapt and/or add to these procedures as necessary.

The scope of this Technical Report is limited to value domains,
conceptual domains, and their associated attributes and relationships.
Examples are used throughout the TR to illustrate the concepts
described. There is a choice when registering value domains in an MDR.
Some Registration Authorities treat these sets as value domains, and
others treat them as data elements. For the purposes of this Technical
Report, the choice will always be to treat the sets as value domains
unless explicitly stated. This choice is made to help illustrate the way
to register many different kinds of value domains.

### 3.3 Audience(s)

Business users and others who need to manage their metadata, and vendors
who will develop tools for this purpose.

### 3.4 Related Standards/3.5 Standards Dependencies

See the Cmap "MDR Standards Relationships."

ISO/IEC 11179 is six part standard. Each part is devoted to addressing a
different aspect of the needs listed above. The parts and a short
description follow:

Part 1 -- *Framework* -- Contains an overview of the standard and
describes the basic concepts

Part 2 -- *Classification* -- Describes how to manage a classification
scheme in a metadata registry

Part 3 -- *Registry metamodel and basic attributes* -- Provides the
basic conceptual model, including the basic attributes and
relationships, for a metadata registry

Part 4 -- *Formulation of data definitions* -- Rules and guidelines for
forming quality definitions for data elements and their components

Part 5 -- *Naming and identification principles* -- Describes how to
form conventions for naming data elements and their components

Part 6 -- *Registration* -- Specifies the roles and requirements for the
registration process in an ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registry

**3.6 Content Quality**

High.

### 4. Currency of Content

### 4.1 Date

20040224

### 4.2 Versions, Updates

This is the first edition.

**4.3 Currency**

See above.

**5. Acceptance**

### This TR is used by implementers of ISO/IEC 11179 to assist in the development of standard-based registries.

### 6. Content details

### 6.1 Size statistics (estimated)

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                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Price

     [ISO/IEC TR 20943-3:2004 paper version                                                                                                                                                                                                                                CHF 126,00
     (en)](javascript:basketMini('https://store.iso.org/isostore/public/basketmini?action=addItem&itemId=000000000000057550-PRAT1&language=en&fromUrl=http://www.iso.org/iso/en/CatalogueDetailPage.CatalogueDetail?CSNUMBER=35339&ICS1=35&ICS2=40&ICS3=','Bask )          
  -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- --- ----------

The paper version has 35 pages.

### 6.2 Format / Schemas(s)

Paper from ISO; downloadable from:

http://isotc.iso.org/livelink/livelink/fetch/2000/2489/Ittf_Home/PubliclyAvailableStandards.htm

### 6.3 Media / Download

See above.

### 6.4 Licensing Issues

This is an ISO Technical report and subject to copyright.

### 6.5 Documentation

Abstract at:

www.iso.org