semantic web for the humanities

Seman&c  Web  for  the  Humani&es  

Albert  Meroño-­‐Peñuela,  Stefan  Schlobach,  Frank  van  Harmelen  

ESWC  PhD  Symposium  27/05/2013  Montpellier,  France  

Humani&es  Datasets  Humani&es  (semi-­‐)structured  datasets    •  Dutch  Historical  Censuses  (1795-­‐1971)  [Public  Historical  Sta&s&cal  Data]  

Longitudinal  queries  

?  

Towards  5-­‐star  Humani&es  Datasets  

Towards  5-­‐star  Humani&es  Datasets  

>1  year  ago  

1  year  ago  

Currently  

(1)  Format  Round-­‐tripping  hXp://www.cedar-­‐project.nl/resource/table/BRT_1889_12_T1  

GET  /resource/table/BRT_1889_12_T1  HTTP/1.1  Host:  cedar-­‐project.nl  Accept:  text/html  

GET  /resource/table/BRT_1889_12_T1  HTTP/1.1  Host:  cedar-­‐project.nl  Accept:  applica-on/rdf+xml  

(1)  Format  Round-­‐tripping  hXp://www.cedar-­‐project.nl/resource/table/BRT_1889_12_T1  

GET  /resource/table/BRT_1889_12_T1  HTTP/1.1  Host:  cedar-­‐project.nl  Accept:  text/html  

GET  /resource/table/BRT_1889_12_T1  HTTP/1.1  Host:  cedar-­‐project.nl  Accept:  applica-on/rdf+xml  

GET  /resource/table/BRT_1889_12_T1  HTTP/1.1  Host:  cedar-­‐project.nl  Accept:  applica-on/vnd.ms-­‐excel  

GET  /resource/table/BRT_1889_12_T1  HTTP/1.1  Host:  cedar-­‐project.nl  Accept:  applica-on/msaccess  

(1)  Format  Round-­‐tripping  hXp://www.cedar-­‐project.nl/resource/table/BRT_1889_12_T1  

GET  /resource/table/BRT_1889_12_T1  HTTP/1.1  Host:  cedar-­‐project.nl  Accept:  text/html  

GET  /resource/table/BRT_1889_12_T1  HTTP/1.1  Host:  cedar-­‐project.nl  Accept:  applica-on/rdf+xml  

GET  /resource/table/BRT_1889_12_T1  HTTP/1.1  Host:  cedar-­‐project.nl  Accept:  applica-on/vnd.ms-­‐excel  

GET  /resource/table/BRT_1889_12_T1  HTTP/1.1  Host:  cedar-­‐project.nl  Accept:  applica-on/msaccess  

pubby  

D2RQ  

hXp://github.com/Data2Seman&cs/TabLinker  

TabLinker  

TabLinker  

(1)  Format  Round-­‐tripping  hXp://www.cedar-­‐project.nl/resource/table/BRT_1889_12_T1  

GET  /resource/table/BRT_1889_12_T1  HTTP/1.1  Host:  cedar-­‐project.nl  Accept:  text/html  

GET  /resource/table/BRT_1889_12_T1  HTTP/1.1  Host:  cedar-­‐project.nl  Accept:  applica-on/rdf+xml  

GET  /resource/table/BRT_1889_12_T1  HTTP/1.1  Host:  cedar-­‐project.nl  Accept:  applica-on/vnd.ms-­‐excel  

GET  /resource/table/BRT_1889_12_T1  HTTP/1.1  Host:  cedar-­‐project.nl  Accept:  applica-on/msaccess  

pubby  

D2RQ  

hXp://github.com/Data2Seman&cs/TabLinker  

•  Circular  round-­‐trip  path  

•  RDF-­‐centric  •  1:1  comparison  •  Data  loss?  

(2)  Concept  Dria  

Upper ontologies (HISCO, AC, others?)

Year-dependent ontologies

1859 1869 1879

(2)  Concept  Dria  

Upper ontologies (HISCO, AC, others?)

Year-dependent ontologies

(2)  Concept  Dria  

Upper ontologies (HISCO, AC, others?)

Year-dependent ontologies

? ?

(2)  Concept  Dria  

•  Models drift over time •  Classes merge, split, change their properties

(beroepklassen) •  Although, some core meaning remains

(shoemakers) •  Can we automatically identify and align drifted

concepts? With what vocabulary/semantics?

? ?t1 t2 tn

(3)  Contextual  Knowledge  

Shoemaker   Schoemakers  

(3)  Contextual  Knowledge  

Shoemaker   Shoemaker  

Amsterdam   Leiden  

1889  1971  

Schoemakers  

(3)  Contextual  Knowledge  

Shoemaker   Shoemaker  

Amsterdam   Leiden  

1889  1971  

Vrowen  

Women  +  Men  

Works  with  leather  

Businessman  

Schoemakers  

(3)  Contextual  Knowledge  

Shoemaker   Shoemaker  

Amsterdam   Leiden  

1889  1971  

Vrowen  

Women  +  Men  

Works  with  leather  

Businessman  

Schoemakers  

Evalua&on  •  Exis&ng  (classical)  research  results  on  Humani&es  datasets  

•  We  use  them  as  gold  standards  •  Itera&ve  refinement  process  

Research  Ques&ons  We  aim  at  providing  algorithms,  formalisms  and  tools  to  disambiguate,  clean,  prepare,  normalize,  transform,  link  and  query  Humani&es  datasets,  conforming  a  framework  for  effec&ve  Humani&es  data  publishing  in  the  Seman&c  Web.    

•  Can  RDF  data  models  faithfully  represent  Humani&es  datasets?  Is  an  RDF-­‐based  format  round-­‐tripping  framework  possible?    

•  How  can  we  model  concept  dria?  Can  driaed  concepts  be  aligned?    

•  Can  we  infer  dynamic  concept  defini&ons  from  explicitly  formalized  contexts?  Can  these  contexts  help  solving  concept  dria?    

THANK  YOU  

hXp://www.cedar-­‐project.nl  @albertmeronyo  

(2)  Concept  Dria  

t1 t2 tn

(2)  Concept  Dria  

t1 t2 tn

(2)  Concept  Dria  

? ?t1 t2 tn

owl:sameAs  

skos:closeMatch  skos:exactMatch  

skos:narrower   skos:broader  skos:related