RESTRICTED  
  
WT/BFA/W/581  
 
1 March 2022 
(22-1851) Page: 1/7 
Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration    
 
UPDATE ON  THE REPLACEMENT OF  DOCUMENTS ONLINE  (DOL)  
1  BACKGROUND  
1.1.  The background to this project was presented to the CBFA on 19 November 2020, bearing the 
reference WT/BFA/W/536.  
1.2.  The update of the project was presented to the CBFA on 25 May 2021, bearing the reference 
WT/BFA/W/549.  
1.3.  This document serves as an update on the progress of the project . The glossary of technical 
terms used in this document is available in the Annex . 
2  CURRENT SITUATION  
2.1  Phase 1: Development of taxonomy, thesaurus, ontology , and knowledge graph  
2.1.  Following recommendations from the first consultant (WT/BFA/W/549), the development of a 
common business vocabulary comprising controlled lists, multilingual thesaurus, kn owledge graph , 
and ontology is fundamental to address the intuitive search and information discovery needs 
expressed by the stakeholders.  These are referred to as "semantic assets " in this document.  
2.2.  In April 2021, a request for proposals was launched to id entify a provider of consultancy 
services with broad expertise in semantic asset s development  and management , ideally tried and 
tested by other international organizations and/or companies in the business of disseminating 
documents and facilitating their a ccess through an intuitive web interface.  
2.3.  More specifically , the Consultant was requested to:  
a. advise on the application of best practices and technologies, help in developing the 
semantic assets , and train the project team on development and maintenance ; 
b. analyse current controlled lists, suggest improvements and further developments following 
the best practices allied with international standards ; and  
c. provide expertise in establishing technical requirements  and assist in the procurement 
process to acquire suitable technology to manage these semantic assets . 
2.4.  The procurement process led to the selection of a firm of consultants (the " Semantic Asset  
Consultant") in June 2021. The consultan t stated work on 5 July 2021  and expected to complete by 
end of March 2022.  
2.2  Approach followed by the Semantic Asset  Consultant  
2.5.  The Semantic Asset Consultant used the following methodology  to develop semantic assets : 
 
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  2.6.  The existing controlled lists of Documents Online (DOL)  were analysed together with input 
received from  the initial phase  (WT/BFA/W/549 ) of the project through o rganised focus group 
sessions  and individual  interviews with Member s and Secretariat stakeholde rs.  
2.7.  In-depth brainstorming  workshops  were conducted with stakeholders  to questions  end-users 
expect the future DOL to answer.  These are referred to as "competency questions".  Councils for 
Trade in Goods and Services, Committee s on Agriculture, T rade and Environment, Market Access, 
Regional Trade Agreements, Rules, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Technical Barriers to 
Trade, Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation,  Trade Policy Review, and WTO Website team 
actively participated  in these activities . More than 250 competency questions were eventually 
collected . 
2.8.  By way of example, a competency question  asked : "In which documents can I find what was 
discussed in the las t committee X meeting?"  
2.9.  In addition , in October 2021, a training on DOL for delegates was delivered  by Language and 
Documentation Services Division (LDSD) together with the Institute for Training and Technical 
Cooperation  (ITTC) . A total of 158 delegates p articipated. The Secretariat used this opportunity to 
collect feedback through hands -on practice exercises during the meeting. Thirty  delegates show ed 
interest in participat ing in the DOL replacement  project . The Secretariat will continue to engage with 
the delegates during the development  phases  of the project .  
2.10.   One of the main pieces of feedback received is that the search functionality  in the current 
DOL system mainly depends on the document nomenclature  (symbo l) and the end -user's knowledge 
of the symbols assigned to documents.  As the nomenclature has evolved over the years and the 
approach to allocat ing symbols has varied across committees, the search has become  even more 
complex. The "competency questions " exercise showed that end -users need  intuitive document 
discovery through content regardless  of the documents symbol .  
2.11.   The needs mentioned above were analysed to identify the gap between the current DOL 
system and end -users' expectations . Input s from o ther organizations , such as  the European Union 
(Eurovoc), UNESCO, UNFC CC, and FAO, concerning semantic s were also reviewed.  
2.12.   Therefore, a n ew approach is required to promote and facilitate document discovery  and 
information retrieval. To achieve this, the u se of a WTO  common business vocabulary  by both the 
producers of documents and the stakeholders  is essential . 
2.13.   The graph below  illustrates  the situation when users are exposed to multiple terms having 
the same meaning  when searching for information. For example , consider the scenario of committees 
presenting meeting outcomes . On one side , there are committees preparing documents , such as  
meeting minutes, summary report s, and meeting report s. On the other  side, there are delegates 
looking for documents in which they can find information on what was dis cussed in the meeti ngs. 
The graph shows the difficulties delegates  face in looking for  information when  different terminology 
is used across the same  category of  documents. This situation implies that delegates need to know 
precisely the terminology used to be able to find the information they are looking for. The new 
version of DOL is meant to harmonize th e different vocabularies to simplify information retrieval.  WT/BFA/W/581  
 
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Thanks to cross -divisional collaboration, the project team is reviewing, restructuring, extending , and 
developing the following semantic assets that will constitute the core of the WTO common b usiness 
vocabulary : 
 
• Thesaurus ( keywords) : developed from the existing DOL keyword s list, the thesaurus is a 
standardized and structured indexing tool containing sets of keywords used to tag 
documents. It covers all trade -related subjects and contains term s in the three  WTO official 
languages . 
 
• Product dictionary : list of product names based on the Harmonized System classification in 
the perspective to improve the capture, processing , and search of product -related 
information in the different WTO databases.  
 
• Other controlled lists  - agreements  and articles, bodies, series, symbols, document types, 
countries , country groups  and territories , organizations : restructuring and improving current 
controlled lists . 
 
2.14.   This approach  will enable intuitive search  and document discovery by (i) the  source  of 
document , e.g.   committee, Member , country group; (ii) the type of event, e.g. meetings; (iii) by 
"aboutness ", e.g. keyword s or products; in the new version of DOL. 
2.15.   The following indicative diagram shows the knowledge graph  that is currently developed to 
describe the different entities while creating semantic relationships between them.  
2.16.   At the centre of  the model  below  are Official Documents , such as  agreements, articles, 
minutes, reports, proposals, decisions, and communications. Document s can be revisions, 
correct ions, addend a to other existing official document s or simple citations inserted in those 
documents.  They are produced  by Members , committee s, chair s or secretar ies of committee s. They 
are documents of different types  and different sources ; their content is described thanks to keywords  
and can refer to products . They serve as input to a meeting  or output of a meeting . 
2.17.   The final aim of this knowledge graph is to allow the future DOL system to better understand 
and answer to the search queries.  
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2.18.   The c onsultancy  on developing semantic assets  is expected to end by M arch 2022. The 
Secretariat will be trained and will keep working on the development and improvement of these 
semantic assets.  
3  NEXT STEPS  
3.1  Proof of Concept  
3.1.  Once the semantic model is completed, the development of a "proof of concept " is planned to 
showcase t o stakeholders how the proposed  new system improve s information retrieval . This will  
help to verify that the semantic model is accurate and capable of answering the questions end -users 
expect to be answered by the future DOL system. Additionally, this is an opportunity for the 
Secretariat to collect information about the complexity and the effort  required for data preparation 
and migration in the perspective of the DOL system replacement.  
3.2.  To develop this "proof of concept" , a 17-day extension of contract has been approved with the 
same Semantic Asset Consultant considering the expertise, knowledge  acquired , and quality of 
deliverables received till date . 
3.2  Semantic Asset s Governance  
3.3.  A governance mechanism is essential to maintain the se WTO semantic assets to a high-quality  
standard . As they constitute the main elements of the common business vocabula ry, the  semantic 
assets  are meant to be under the responsibility of the whole Secretariat. Semantic asset s governance 
entails defining, implementing,  and monitoring strategies, policies , and collective decision -making 
concerning the management and use of semantic assets.  
3.4.  The envisaged structure of th is governance is described below :  
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3.5.  The project team is working with other colleagues in the Secretariat  to establish a governance 
group.  
3.3  Acquisition of Semantic Asset Management Solution  
3.6.  This is a tool to create and manage these semantic assets according to the governance policy . 
3.7.  In January 2022, a request for proposals was launched to select a software solution provider 
for a semantic assets management solution to enable the collaborative  maintenance of controlled 
vocabularies, thesauri, taxonomies , and other semantic assets  that serve for the description of 
document records catalogued and published in DOL. The procurement process is in progress . 
3.8.  Having a centralized managing application has also the advantage of facilitating the use of 
these semantic assets in the different WTO information management systems. This will constitute 
the first step to wards better integration and  interoperability between information silos.  
3.4  Semantic Automation  
3.9.  Once the knowled ge graph is designed, official documents need to be catalogued  with metadata 
to answer the "compe tency questions" . DOL has a huge repository of more than 184,000 WTO 
documents and 85,000 GATT documents , with a n average of 150 new WTO documents  (all language 
versions  included ) being published  daily. The cataloguing  process involves document content 
analy sis and requires information management and subject -matter expertise.  
3.10.   Artificial intelligence and data mining have significantly evolved over the years. The project 
team is also exploring ways to benefit from these  innovations to find automation alternatives . 
3.5  DOL 2.0 replacement  
3.11.   The project team is analyzing  the technical solution and sourcing strategy to ensure alignment 
with the existing WTO IT architecture . 
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  3.12.    The procurement process to acquire the components and the solution is expected to start by 
the third quarter of 2022 . 
 
3.6  Project timeline  
3.13.   The tentative timeline of the project  is revised based on the progress to date, and is described 
below.  
 
 
4  CONCLUSION  
4.1.  Replacing any technology can be daunting but based on the work done so far following  a clear 
roadmap , the Secretariat is confident  that DOL 2.0 will be an authoritative, secure, well -designed 
and intuitive application  that users expect from a forward -looking organization.  
4.2.  While the semantic assets are developed in the context of the DOL replacement project , they 
are meant to evol ve as organization -wide semantic assets to provide a single reliable information 
source that can be linked to WTO website  and other Information Management Systems (IMS)  to 
achieve seamless integration.  
5  ANNEX  
5.1  Glossary of Terms  
Term  Definition/Meaning  
DOL Documents Online , the Secretariat's online document repository for 
WTO official document consultation.  
Common business 
vocabulary  A list of business terms and their definitions that  the organization use s 
to ensure the same definitions are used organizatio n-wide when 
analyzing information  across information resources.  
Semantic Assets  Collectio ns of entities, their properties and the relationships between 
them, which aim at representing a knowledge domain, a concept or a 
real-world thing  (e.g. ontolog y, thesaur us, taxonomies, controlled lists 
or vocabularies ). 
Controlled lists  Small, discrete sets of values used to impose consistent description of 
document metadata . 
Thesaurus  A controlled and structured vocabulary with concepts represented by 
terms (keywords)  with a hierarchical structure of broader and narrower 
terms  and associative relationships between those terms . 
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  Term  Definition/Meaning  
Ontology  The formal specification of a knowledge domain. It can be seen as a 
database schema but is not application -specific. It can also be referred 
to as "data model" and defines the structure of the knowledge graph.  
Knowledge Graph  A knowledge graph represents a network of real -world entities  i.e. 
objects, events, situations, or concepts  and illustrates the relationship 
between them . 
Keyword  A keyword is a  word or concept of great significance , used to describe 
the content of a document in the context of information management. 
It is the first  basic element that compose s a thesaurus , for example.  
 
 
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