Semantic Interoperability Framework for Estonian Public Sector ’ s E-Services Integration ∗

E-services, based on automated data exchange in distributed technological and organizational environment, are an effective way to build cross-border, controlled information services. Processes of creation, integration, management, reuse, discovery and composition of e-services are not very efficient without understanding the meaning of information resources. Creation and management of human and machine readable semantics of heterogeneous and distributed information resources are more complicated than coordinated documentation process, and require new interoperability principles, architecture and infrastructure. This paper outlines the idea and architecture of the Estonian semantic interoperability initiative in the public sector. The paper presents a collaborative ontology engineering toolset and repository as a part of interoperability infrastructure, built with Semantic Mediawiki, to manage the semantics of information resources.