say what you mean: how semantic tagging makes content more discoverable, more useful, and more...
TRANSCRIPT
Say What You Mean: How Semantic Tagging Makes Content More Discoverable, More Useful, and More Valuable
Stephen Rhind-Tutt, President, May 28, 2008
Alexander Street Press
Performing Arts, Drama, and Film
World Literature
Women’s History
Religion
CounselingMusic
Social and Cultural History
Sociology
Black Studies
American Civil War
Semantic Indexing
• Oriented towards secondary materials• Oriented towards print artifact (book, article, journal)• Some 80% of fields relate to publication • Flat file• Abstract and subject fields • Confusion between primary and secondary materials
Traditional Indexing
Improving access
• Semantic Indexing
• Tim Berners-Lee and James Hendler in Scientific American, May 2001
• “‘an extension of the current web in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation."
• A quantum shift in the way we look at digital objects
• ‘Extracting the science from scientific publications’
• ‘Extracting the history from history publications’
‘Semantic’ Indexing Overview
Collection
Series
Book or Volume
Chapter
Page
Word
Where ?
When ?
What ?
Who ?Traditio
nal indexing >
‘Semantic’ indexing >
Traditional vs. Semantic Indexing
Traditional Indexing Semantic Indexing
General History Drama Religion
What? Article, Book Event Scene Passage
Who? Author ParticipantsCharacter
s Author
Where? Where published Where occurred Where set -
When? When publishedWhen it
happened When set When written
• Give me articles from journal xxx prior to 1990
• Give me documents that discuss battles where more than 100 people were killed?
• Give me all scenes set before 1850 that portray lynching?
• Which authors cite Genesis most frequently?
The ‘real’ world
Play
Author
Production Stills
Playbills
ProductionVenueDirector
Lighting Set Designers
Theater
PerformanceLocation
Production Company
Producer
Texts
Criticism
Cast List
Performers
Posters
Ephemera
Scenes
Acts
Characters
Dramatis Personae
The virtual world…
Author
Birth dateDeath dateBirth PlaceDeath PlaceNationalityOccupationAwards(38 fields)
Theater
DistrictLocationCapacityStyleEtc…(18 fields)
Company
NameProductionsPerformersEtc…(14 fields)
Production
DirectorTheaterCast# of Perfs.LightingCostumesEtc…(47 fields)
Characters
PlaysAgeAuthorPerformerEtc…(30 fields)
Scenes
WhereWhenSettingSubjectEtc…(41 fields)
Resources
PlayDirectorTheaterProduction Co.CharacterSceneEtc…(45 fields)
Texts
KeywordAuthorDate WrittenDate PublishedProduction(67 fields)
The virtual world…
Author
Birth dateDeath dateBirth PlaceDeath PlaceNationalityOccupationAwards(38 fields)
Theater
DistrictLocationCapacityStyleEtc…(18 fields)
Company
NameProductionsPerformersEtc…(14 fields)
Production
DirectorTheaterCast# of Perfs.LightingCostumesEtc…(47 fields)
Characters
PlaysAgeAuthorPerformerEtc…(30 fields)
Scenes
WhereWhenSettingSubjectEtc…(41 fields)
Resources
PlayDirectorTheaterProduction Co.CharacterSceneEtc…(45 fields)
Texts
KeywordAuthorDate WrittenDate PublishedProduction(67 fields)
Give me scenes about AIDS written by South African authors in the past 5 years….
• 150,000 pages of materials pertaining to the ‘discovery’ and exploration of North America
• Published in 2001
Early Encounters in North America
• More than a way to answer questions• A framework by which users can be guided to
understand, explore, discover and learn.• A route-map to guide users through data - saving time and effort.• The intellectual fabric by which information should be
organized…• Delivers answers that cannot be asked elsewhere
• Discipline specific• Oriented towards the user and the content • At the ‘right’ level• Thoroughly controlled
Semantic Indexing…
Semantic Indexing…
Encounter Author Account Source
Where ?When ?Who ?DeathsLeadersEtc…
Birth ?Death ?Where ?When ?OccupationEtc…
DayEventEtc…
SourceEditorPublisherPlaceEtc…
DocumentTextAuthor IDEncounter IDSource IDDateSubjectAge writing
Nine controlled vocabularies reveal previously inaccessible knowledge:
• Compare the English and French relationships with the Huron between 1614 and 1616.• Detail all accounts of flooding on the Mississippi before 1750 • Examine the differences in tribal customs 100 years after first
contact• Examine naming conventions and lists in travel narratives• Give me an image of all North Carolina animals that were extinct by 1850
Early Encounters in North America
Semantic Indexing
Semantic Indexing
Search Functionality
Tagging
Counseling & Psychotherapy
Utility of information
• Interactive Tables• Graph Digitizer• Equation Plotter• Diagram Viewer
• Integrated Periodic Table• Unit Converter• Slide Show Viewer• Browsable Tables of Contents
Social Tagging – our experience…
Example – Dance in Video
Playlists
Playlists
Playlists
What works…
•Playlists on ASP’s music and video products – >20,000 users
•Over 120,000 playlists created so far
• 1,000 created by ASP
• 42,000 user created
• 80,000+ derivative playlists
Issues – user tagging
Tags
Philadelphia? Shirts? Women’s Rights? President?
Issues – granularity
Summary
• Semantic indexing is essential in the electronic world.
• Tagging can help – but it’s not a silver bullet• More on Tagging…
• Session: 1D: Tag, you’re it!• Tomorrow, 10:45 AM to 12:15 PM
www.alexanderstreet.com