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Layer 1 - Unique Skills
In this layer "skills" are aggregated, cleaned and normalized.
Skills (as we have mentioned in many others places), in IYS, is a loosely used term to include knowledge (of concepts, standards, methods etc.), expertise in tools and technologies, certifications, activities, contextual or domain experience, soft skills, and roles.
In the ‘unique skills’ layer, terms that are curated are added. These can be any term belonging to any type of skill. In the process of addition, care is taken to ensure there are no duplications. While adding a skill, users can also give a description to the term.
Some skills may be written differently but mean the same thing. For example, some write MS Word or Microsoft Word referring to the same thing. In the ‘unique skills’ layer, they can be connected and indicated as being the same thing. We call this ‘synonyms’.
Synonyms will have a role to play in ‘Skills Profiling’. For example, if two users type MS Word or Microsoft Word, they will be led to the same node. Other examples include DotNet and .Net, AI and artificial intelligence. This is one of the aspects of normalization of skills terminology.
The others are synonyms as we know them. A classic case is that the title of Software Developer for which people use different terms include Systems Analyst, Software Engineer, Software Development Engineer and such.
All these terms can be included in the ‘unique skills’ table (if we want to) and connect them as synonyms. Again, whichever term the user uses will lead them to the same primary node which may be Software Developer. Other examples of synonyms include Internet Marketing, which is also referred to as Digital Marketing, Web Marketing, Online Marketing.
The third aspect of normalization is acronyms. For example, human resources written as HR or artificial intelligence written as AI.
The ‘unique skills’ layer thus plays two roles; aggregation and normalization of terms.