RESTRICTED  
  
WT/BFA/W/ 634 
 
1 May  2023 
(23-3041) Page: 1/4 
Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration    
 
UPDATE ON  THE REPLACEMENT OF  DOCUMENTS ONLINE  (DOL)  
1  BACKGROUND  
1.1.  Three presentations have previously been made to the CBFA regarding the replacement of 
Documents Online (DOL).1  
1.2.  This document serves as an update on the progress of the project .  
2  GLOSSARY OF TERMS  
2.1.  The table below defines certain terms used in the document.  
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 organization -wide when 
analyzing information across information resources.  
Semant ic Assets  Collections  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. ontology, thesaurus, taxonomies, controlled lists 
or vocabularies) . 
Controlled lis ts 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 as sociative relationships between those terms . 
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 composes a thesa urus. 
Enterprise Search  The practice of identifying and enabling specific content across the 
whole organization to be indexed, searched, and displayed to 
authorized users.  
 
3  CURRENT SITUATION  
3.1  Data Strategy  
3.1.  Improvement of semantic assets (development of ta xonomy, thesaurus, ontology, and 
knowledge graph) have been progressing well . The c urrent data model has been analysed , 
competency questions received from the focus group meetings  with Members  have been reviewed, 
 
1 WT/BFA/W/536 , WT/BFA/W/549 , and WT/BFA/W/581 . WT/BFA/W/ 634 
 
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  and identification of the gaps has been  completed . A set of semantic assets ha s been developed  to 
constitute the core of the WTO Common Business Vocabulary (CBV) : 
• Product dictionary : list of product names covering both agricultural products and non -
agricul tural products based on the Harmonized System classification with the aim of  
improv ing the capture, processing, and search of product -related information in the different 
WTO databases . 
• Thesaurus : standardized and structured indexing tool containing sets of keywords used to 
tag documents , developed from the existing list of DOL keywords . It covers all trade -related 
subjects and contains terms in the three WTO official languages.  
• Other c ontrolled lists : agreements and articles, bodies, serie s, symbols, document types, 
countries, country groups and territories, and organizations . 
• Knowledge graphs : developed as a proof  of concept by taking examples of two concepts 
such as "Fisheries  Subsidies  Agreement ". 
3.2  Proof of Concept  
3.2.  A "proof of concept" has been developed to showcase how the proposed future DOL  improves 
information retrieval  and answers some of the key competency questions raised by Members.  
3.3  Semantic Asset Coordination Mechanism  
3.3.  A coordination  core group  of WTO subject experts is working on how to manage the semantic 
assets , which constitute  the main elements of common business vocabulary  (CBV) . 
3.4.  The Secretariat is currently developing the collection of semantic assets and exploring options 
to fully integra te them with WTO systems.  
3.5.  A semantic assets management solution will be implemented to enable the collaborative 
maintenance of controlled vocabularies, thesauri, taxonomies, and other semantic assets that serve 
for the description of document records catal ogued and published in DOL.  
3.6.  Semantic assets are meant to evolve organization -wide to provide a single reliable information 
source (single source of truth) that can be linked to the WTO website, future enterprise search , and 
other information management systems to achieve seamless integration.  
3.4  DOL 2.0 Replacement  
3.7.  The following components have been identified for DOL replacement : 
a. SAMS – Semantic asset management  solution. 
b. Auto Classifier – to facilitate tagging of documents based on SAMS . 
c. Content Management System – to store documents in XML format to enable more 
sophisticated searches based on structure of content . 
d. DOL Back End – to manage publication workflow using a,  b, and c above . 
e. DOL Front End – Natural language search, document portal with pe rsonalization and 
subscription features . 
3.8.  To have a modern search engine feature in future DOL, i.e., one search box in which all 
searches can be performed, an underlying structure with defined keywords and tags  used to describe 
the document s is needed . Below are some examples of such a structure:  WT/BFA/W/ 634 
 
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  a. Example 1:  the user type s in "minutes general council" or "minutes GC" , and the search 
system will be able to interpret that "general council/GC" is a body, "minutes" is a 
document type , as they have been identified in the SAMS , and retrieve the relevant 
documents.  
b. Example 2: the user types in "agriculture minutes",  and the search system will be able to 
interpret that "agriculture" is a Committee and "minutes" is  a document type , irrespec tive 
of how documents are described as "minutes/summary reports".  
c. Example 3 : the user types in "Kimberly waiver", and the system will be able to interpret 
context defined in SAMS and retrieve accurately all documents concerning this waiver and 
answer quest ions like "status of the waiver" or "countries/territories covered by the 
waiver" or "waiver timeline" based on the contextual information collected in SAMS.  
d. Example 4:  the user types in  "notification on medical devices", "pharmaceutical products", 
"food p roducts" etc, require identifying related documents. SAMS facilitates this.  
e. Example 5: Using the controlled vocabulary in SAMS, the DOL system can propose filters 
to narrow down the search results.  
3.9.  Artificial intelligence (AI) can help , to some extent , to make information retrieval more 
user-friendly for Members . However clearly defining vocabulary is a prerequisite  to teach and guide 
the AI  to ensure good quality of search . 
3.10.  Having the solution s outlined in  para. 3.7 above  will establish DOL as the authoritative source 
for official documentation . DOL will be able to integrate seamlessly with the WTO website and feed 
the future enterprise  search . 
3.11.  As part of the Proposed  Utilization of the 2021 Budgetary Surplus2, the Secretariat requested 
additional funding to acquire the components  necessary for completing the DOL replacement project . 
However, Members did not grant authority to the Secretariat to utilize the surplus, so the Secretariat 
does not have the resources at this time to complete the DOL replacement project. In the meantime, 
the Secretariat is  focussing on  work that does not require additional cash-out resources, such as  
starting to  develop vocabularies that can be used in for the future system. The project can be 
completed once the necessary funding becomes available.  
4  CONCLUSION  ON THE DOL PROJECT  
4.1.  In light of  the progress achieved on the DOL replacement project  so far , and subject to 
availability of necessary  resources,  the Secretariat will be able to deliver  DOL 2.0 , which  will be an 
authoritative, secure, well -designed , and intuitive information system, ser ving WTO Members  well 
into the future . 
5  MOVE TO ELECTRONIC DISTRIBUTION FOR OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS  
5.1.  At its me eting of 16 November 2017, the Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration 
approved a decision WT/INF/212 , according to which "the default method of distribution of all WTO 
documents, starting from 31 January 2018, be in electronic form". The Committee also "mandate[d] 
the Secretariat to  contact each Delegation during the transition period of five years to confirm its 
preference for the receipt of WTO documents (hard copy or electronic)". Finally, it "instruct[ed] the 
Secretariat to conduct more information sessions and outreach on the e -subscription system".  
5.2.  The transition period for printed  copies has now expired , and the only exception is special 
documentation which includes WTO/AIR, WT/LET, G/Secret, G/Secrete/HS, S/SECRET,  and 
JOB documents , which will continue to be distributed in hard copy.  
5.3.  Therefore, the Secretariat is aiming to discontinue  the distribution of printed copies to the 
remaining Members from 15 June 2023 . Members that wish to continue receiving printed copies 
should send a request  to the Secretariat  (docsonline@wto.org)  prior to th at date. This change will 
 
2 WT/BFA/W/614 . WT/BFA/W/ 634 
 
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  not affect other printing services, such as Document for Meetings packs, which can be requested 
from the Documentation desks. The distribution of printed copies for observers has already been 
discontin ued. 
5.4.  All WTO official documentation can be downloaded from DOL ( https://docs.wto.org/ ). There is 
also an e -subscription service that can be personalised  to have relevant documents  sent straight to 
a mailbox. Training on the use of DOL and e -Subscriptions can be provided on demand to any 
individual Member  by contacting docsonline@wto.org . 
5.5.  The aim of this change is to support the Organization 's effort s to go green and to reduce costs . 
For example,  as a result of such effo rts, it is expected that a black and white printer can be 
discontinued at the end of the year, yielding an annual saving of CHF 40,000. It will also make it 
possible to redeploy at least 1 staff member half time to other tasks.  
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