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 Womens History Religion Counseling Music 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 ? Traditional indexing > Semantic indexing >

Traditional vs. Semantic Indexing Traditional IndexingSemantic Indexing General HistoryDramaReligion What?Article, BookEventScenePassage Who?AuthorParticipantsCharactersAuthor Where?Where publishedWhere occurredWhere set- When?When publishedWhen it happenedWhen setWhen 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 Production Venue Director Lighting Set Designers Theater Performance Location Production Company Producer Texts Criticism Cast List Performers Posters Ephemera Scenes Acts Characters Dramatis Personae

The virtual world… Author Birth date Death date Birth Place Death Place Nationality Occupation Awards (38 fields) Theater District Location Capacity Style Etc… (18 fields) Company Name Productions Performers Etc… (14 fields) Production Director Theater Cast # of Perfs. Lighting Costumes Etc… (47 fields) Characters Plays Age Author Performer Etc… (30 fields) Scenes Where When Setting Subject Etc… (41 fields) Resources Play Director Theater Production Co. Character Scene Etc… (45 fields) Texts Keyword Author Date Written Date Published Production (67 fields)

The virtual world… Author Birth date Death date Birth Place Death Place Nationality Occupation Awards (38 fields) Theater District Location Capacity Style Etc… (18 fields) Company Name Productions Performers Etc… (14 fields) Production Director Theater Cast # of Perfs. Lighting Costumes Etc… (47 fields) Characters Plays Age Author Performer Etc… (30 fields) Scenes Where When Setting Subject Etc… (41 fields) Resources Play Director Theater Production Co. Character Scene Etc… (45 fields) Texts Keyword Author Date Written Date Published Production (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…

Encounter Author Account Source Where ? When ? Who ? Deaths Leaders Etc… Birth ? Death ? Where ? When ? Occupation Etc… Day Event Etc… Source Editor Publisher Place Etc… Document Text Author ID Encounter ID Source ID Date Subject Age writing

Nine controlled vocabularies reveal previously inaccessible knowledge: Compare the English and French relationships with the Huron between 1614 and 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

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

What works… Playlists on ASPs 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? Womens Rights? President?

Issues – granularity

Summary Semantic indexing is essential in the electronic world. Tagging can help – but its not a silver bullet More on Tagging… Session: 1D: Tag, youre it! Tomorrow, 10:45 AM to 12:15 PM