Context and Prosopography: Putting the 'Archives' Into LOD-LAM Corey A Harper SAA 2012 -...

Context and Prosopography: Putting the 'Archives' Into LOD-LAM

Corey A Harper

SAA 2012 - MDOR

2012-08-08

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Publish Publish Publish!

http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_berners_lee_on_the_next_web.html

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Linked Open Data

• Use URIs as names for things

• Use HTTP URIs so that people can look up those names.

• When someone looks up a URI, provide useful information.

• Include links to other URIs. so that they can discover more things.

http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html

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Linked Data

• Metadata as a Graph

• Typed “things”, named by URIs

• The relationships between those things, also built on URIs

• Ease of integration *across* data sources – “merging graphs”

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Examples

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Remodel to link

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And Link to Other Descriptions

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Semantic Web Terminology

• Resource: Any “thing”• Class: Abstraction of a type of thing• Individual: An instance of a class• Property: An attribute of an individual• Statement/Triple:

A Resource (subject) A Property (predicate / verb) A Value (object) - Nodes

• Graph: Visual Representation of statements• Ontology: A domain specific collection of

classes and properties

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Semantic Web Terminology

• Nodes: The Subjects and Objects in a Graph• Arcs: The Predicates in a Graph• Domains and Ranges: Constraints on Nodes

Domain: What things can be subjects Range: What things (or strings) can be objects

• Literals: Values as strings rather than things• Named Graphs: Graphs with URIs treated as

nodes.

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Open & Closed World Assumptions

• Closed World - Metadata patterns known, semantics implicit

• Open World - Continual integration of heterogeneous metadata Requires Self-Describing Data Linked Data Principles come in big here

http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/selfDescribingDocuments

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Library Systems are *Closed* World!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomgehrke/6950344619/

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Most Metadata *systems* are closed world

• Libraries, Archives, Museums• Publisher provided data• Other scholarly systems:

Even Open Access ones (OA != OW)

• Search Interfaces (even Google!)

• You manage what you have, and generally manage a closed set of metadata

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Social Networks of Archival Context

Image From: http://inkdroid.org/journal/2010/08/12/archival-context-on-the-web/

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Linking Lives – Screenshots from P. Johnston

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Linking Lives – Screenshots from P. Johnston

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So back to my title…

Prosopography

The study of an aggregate group based on systematic biographical study of

individuals

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopography

http://prosopography.modhist.ox.ac.uk/course_syllabuses.htm

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Context

Narrative

Story telling

The archive’s story, but also…

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Users’ stories

Adding context through recombinant metadata

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• Distributed information ecosystem Linking Data Focus on identification over description

• Create navigable, browsable information landscapes

• Relationships between resources weave context & enrich user experiences

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Thanks!

corey.harper@nyu.edu

212.998.2479

@chrpr

Questions?