Call for comment: Gene Ontology (GO) accepted by VCDE WS as a Vocabulary Standard for caBIG™

The VCDE WS has evaluated the Gene Ontology (GO) as a candidate vocabulary standard for caBIG™. The VCDE WS voted unanimously to accept the Gene Ontology as a Vocabulary Standard for caBIG™.

The VCDE WS asks the caBIG™ community to comment on this proposed Vocabulary Standard within 30 days of this notification (by June 24th). Your comments will be important in the final decision on the proposed standard. Please send all comments or questions to Brian Davis at: bdavis@3rdmill.com by June 24, 2007.

The Gene Ontology can be browsed at the Gene Ontology site:
http://www.geneontology.org/

and at the NCI Terminology Browser:
http://nciterms.nci.nih.gov/NCIBrowser/Dictionary.do

The VCDE WS evaluation of the Gene Ontology, including a powerpoint presentation and the criteria by which the vocabulary was evaluated can be found at the following GForge site:

http://gforge.nci.nih.gov/frs/?group_id=183

http://gforge.nci.nih.gov/frs/download.php/1421/EVRC_Final_Report.ppt

http://gforge.nci.nih.gov/frs/download.php/1384/VRC-Checklist2.0.doc

The uses of Vocabulary standards are addressed in the caBIG Compatibility Guidelines (see https://cabig.nci.nih.gov/guidelines_documentation/caBIGCompatGuideRev2_final.pdf).

The advantages of designating caBIG™ Vocabulary Standards include, but are not limited to:

• caBIG™-wide, re-use of the same standard vocabularies will increase interoperability
• developers will be encouraged to use Standard Vocabularies for concepts and value domains
• usage of standard vocabularies will ease compatibility reviews