Document and Integrate Ancient Linked Open (DIALOG)
DIALOG will employ Linked Open Data (LOD) principles to connect textual, visual and tabular documents that reference places in Ancient World research. It will do so by:
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Defining a Core Ontology for Place References (COPR);
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Documenting the processes by which different document types can align place references to Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places and publish Resource Description Framework (RDF);
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Developing neo-geographic Web services and tools that can make the published RDF available easily consumable by learners, educators, researchers and the public.
Conventional Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) are largely based on a Geographical Information System (GIS) paradigm that uses layers, re-projection and metadata to facilitate integration and discovery of spatial resources. It is less capable of relating non-spatial but geo-relevant documents (such as images, tables and text) that form the basis of Ancient World research (Archaeology, History, Classics, etc.). We can facilitate discovery and reuse of digital media by supplementing traditional SDI approaches with the concepts of place and reference.
DIALOG will employ Linked Open Data (LOD) principles to connect geo-situated textual, visual and tabular documents, which will dramatically empower learners, teachers and researchers in seeking to find and use geospatial data and services. These semantic annotations that relate documents to places, and vice versa, can be referred to as Linked Open Geodata (LOG). Although some research has been undertaken in geospatial semantics, much of it predates the emergence of the LOD approach and focuses largely on spatial and topological description rather than connecting documents with places.
DIALOG will demonstrate the feasibility and value of such an approach with a LOG-based, lightweight, community-specific SDI for Ancient World research and learning. It will enhance tools, services and resources available to users by harmonizing work undertaken by five established partner initiatives, GAP, The Perseus Digital Library, Arachne, DME and SPQR, who will be supported by three expert bodies, LUCERO, ACRG and Pleiades (see section 5 for details).
Project information
Project staff at CeRch: Mark Hedges
Lead institution: The Open University
Project partners: University of Southampton, New York University, Tufts University, University of Cologne, Austrian Institute of Technology
Funded by: JISC Infrastructure for Education and Research: Geospatial
Start date: 1 February 2011
End date: 31 October 2011
Related projects: Supporting Productive Queries for Research (SPQR)