SEA CHANGE Linking Data about the Past through Geography
Rainer Simon @aboutgeo Austrian Institute of Technology
Leif Isaksen, Pau de Soto University of Southampton
Elton Barker The Open University
December 11 2014 | DM2E Final Event, Pisa, Italy
Early Geospatial Documents
Maps and geographic writing predating 1492.
The problem: Data is “semantically opaque”. Geographical context evident to humans, but not machines.
Two public workshops to • trial our geo-annotation tool RECOGITO • reach out to the community • turn some raw data into Linked Open Data… • …and have fun doing it!
RECOGITO Geo-Annotation Tool
http://pelagios.org/recogito/docs
Workshop #1
University of Heidelberg, October 31. 27 students of Geography & Archaeology.
Workshop #1
University of Heidelberg, October 31. Classical & Medieval Latin texts, Medieval maps.
Some Numbers…
• 2.650 places identified in text • 2.500 places identified in maps • 830 map transcriptions • 140 gazetteer resolutions • 490 other actions (edits, comments, deletions,…)
6.620 contributions total on that day!
Ptolemy, Nicolaus Tedescho & Francesco Berlinghieri: Tabvla secvnda de Evropa (1482).
Workshop #2
University of Applied Sciences Mainz, December 4. 22 students, mixed background (engineering/archaeology).
Workshop #2
University of Applied Sciences Mainz, December 4. Medieval travel writing & 14th/15thC. maritime maps.
More Numbers…
• 2.600 places identified in text • 3.200 places identified in maps ! • 620 map transcriptions • 544 gazetteer resolutions ! • 537 other actions (edits, comments, deletions,…)
7.511 contributions total on that day!
Workshops, Part II: Data Re-Use
Tutorials for using our data without our tools. Example 1: Exploring Medieval itineraries in GIS.
Workshops, Part II: Data Re-Use
Example 2: Hacking with our data – maps, timelines, networks.
So… What‘s Next?
Introducing PELAGIOS
• Linking Data about the past based on the notion of Place
• Connectivity through Common References
• 40+ partners from 6 countries
• Heterogenous resources: images, texts, databases, etc.
• De-centralized: publish your own data, share the principles
(and there’s some RDF involved, too…)
• We are currently working on an API for search & discovery
http://pelagios-project.blogspot.co.uk
So many ways to get involved :-)
• Download our data from Recogito • Experiment with our API (warning: unfinished) • Become a Recogito editor • Become a Pelagios partner!
Thank you for your attention http://pelagios-project.blogspot.co.uk http://pelagios.org/recogito http://github.com/pelagios @pelagiosproject Grateful acknowledgement to JISC, AHRC, the DM2E project, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and all Pelagios partners.