Transcript Authority services Interthesaurus correlations

Electronic Communication on Diverse Data
- The Role of the oo CIDOC Reference Model Martin Doerr (ICS-FORTH, Crete, Greece)
Nicholas Crofts (DSI, Geneva, Switzerland)
18th General Conference of the
INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF MUSEUMS
Melbourne, Australia
Melbourne, October 13, 1998
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Electronic Communication on Diverse Data
Overview

Communication and diversity

Mediation - what can be done

What is the CIDOC Reference model

What can we do now

Conclusions
Melbourne, October 13, 1998
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Electronic Communication on Diverse Data
Communication and Diversity
 What we want to serve:

curiosity,. education, research, statistics
 What are the typical questions:

tell me something/everything about kinds or items

best example of

contexts, causality
 getting out of

multiple documents, archives, collections

multilingual, heterogeneous, incomplete, complementary
Melbourne, October 13, 1998
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Electronic Communication on Diverse Data
Communication and Diversity
 Activities in the field:




Web pages, RAMA, GRASP, CIMI, AQUARELLE a.o.
Z39.50, metadata,
… promote uniform access protocols
… use local translation of queries.
 Heterogeneous access becomes reality
 BUT :




one-view access only
need to serve diversity and depth
missing semantic coherence
missing formal domain knowledge
Melbourne, October 13, 1998
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Electronic Communication on Diverse Data
Mediation - what can be done
 Appreciating diversity:



autonomy of initiative
variety of views, interests, depth and coverage
Makes it richer, makes it cheaper

Need new understanding of
standardisation for retrieval:

agreement (or not) on identity and correlation

instead of prescription and restriction
Melbourne, October 13, 1998
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Electronic Communication on Diverse Data
Mediation - what can be done
 Solution in two parts:


Enabling technology :
Mediation servers (becoming available)
The intellectual “glue”
Consistent domain ontologies (see Helsinki Conference)
Terminological knowledge = multilingual thesauri
 The CIDOC Reference Model is a domain ontology

a “maximal” approach : an extensible analysis of entities and
attributes

an object oriented formal model, ~60 entities so far

contains an interpretation of the Information Categories
Melbourne, October 13, 1998
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Electronic Communication on Diverse Data
What is the CIDOC Reference Model
 The CIDOC Reference Model serves:




generation of schemata, formats, profiles
precise formal semantic analysis of existing sources
translation of queries (state of the art)
translation of data
(merging,combining,processing gaps)
 It addresses:



database and retrieval engine implementers
DTD, metadata & access profile creators
thesaurus editors
 It is not a new data format !
Melbourne, October 13, 1998
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Electronic Communication on Diverse Data
The Role of the CRM
?
Access Engines
Access What
Who
profiles:When
Where
gene rates
Legacy
Legacy
Legacy
systems
systems
systems
Melbourne, October 13, 1998
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Electronic Communication on Diverse Data
CRM Principles: Symmetry
Local Source 1
CRM
Physical Object
of
Schema
Physical Object
Physical Object
transferred title of
of
Acquisition
from
Acquisition
from
transferred title
Source
Deaccession
to
to
Actor
TA527b,
previous:I-372-Z1
of
Data
Local Source 2
TA527b,
previous:I-372-Z1
Lovely Museum
Melbourne, October 13, 1998
I-372-Z1
of
transferred title of
New World Museum
acquisition 17-8-98
from
Recipient
Lovely Museum
deaccession17-8-98
acquisition 17-8-98
from
transferred title
Lovely Museum
to
New World Museum
to
New World Museum
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Electronic Communication on Diverse Data
CRM Principles: Extensible Granularity
Richer Schema
CRM
Physical Object
Physical Object
assessed by
Condition Assessment
has identified
Condition State
Melbourne, October 13, 1998
concerns
(assessed by)
Poorer Schema
short
Physical Object
cut
Condition Assessment
has identified
(identified by)
Condition State
has conditions
has conditions
(condition of)
Condition State
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Electronic Communication on Diverse Data
CRM Principles: Specialisation
Database
Generic
Schema
Physical Object
Type
inherited
due to IsA :
merged
by IsA :
Specific
Schema
has type
Thesaurus
Physical Object
BT !
Exchange Media
Coins
has type
Type
BT
Coins
BT
Data
Melbourne, October 13, 1998
IR539
has type
dimes
dimes
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Electronic Communication on Diverse Data
CRM Principles: Specialisation
Melbourne, October 13, 1998
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Electronic Communication on Diverse Data
Part of a CRM data example
custody_changed_by
Transfer of Epitaphios GE34604 (entity Transfer of Custody, Acquisition)
custody_surrendered_by
Metropolitan Church of the Greek Community of Ankara (see above)
transfers_title_from
Metropolitan Church of the Greek Community of Ankara (see above)
custody_received_by
Museum Benaki (see above)
transfers_title_to
Exchangable Fund of Refugees (entity Legal Body)
has type
national foundation
carried out by
Exchangable Fund of Refugees (see above)
has time-span
- (entity Time-Span)
begins at
1923 (entity Date)
ends at
1928 (entity Date)
took place at
Greece (entity Place)
has type
nation
republic
falls within
Europe (entity Place)
has type
continent
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Electronic Communication on Diverse Data
What to do now?
 Widen Engagement
 Attract cooperations to work with and on the CRM
 Experimentation and Consolidation:
 Harmonize metadata, Z39.50 access profiles with CRM
 link information categories with a DTD and CRM
 Harmonize thesauri with CRM
 Standardisation and Implementation
 promote a consolidated form as standard
 encourage creation of mediators for cultural databases
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Electronic Communication on Diverse Data
Conclusions
Standardisation for retrieval needs interpretation, rather
than prescription
Formal Domain Ontologies can allow for a new quality of
global electronic communication on diverse data
The CIDOC Reference Model comes in time with the
availability of new retrieval engines
 We advocate a strong engagement of the community to
promote and extend the CRM
Melbourne, October 13, 1998
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