ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΙΤΕ 11/5/20051 Information design for cultural documentation Chryssoula Bekiari 1, Panos Constantopoulos 1,2, Martin Doerr 1 1 Institute of Computer Science, FORTH 2 Athens University of Economics and Business DELOS Workshop on Digital Repositories: Interoperability and Common Services Heraklion, Crete, 11-13/5/2005

ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΙΤΕ 11/5/20052 Digital cultural inventory Cultural goods Physical and informational objects Digitization Document and image scanning Digital photography Conversion of analog audio and video recordings Digital transcription Digital surrogates Born digital cultural objects Digital information recordings Digital cultural inventory

ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΙΤΕ 11/5/20053 Virtually unified digital space Generated by virtue of the capability for unified access to independent digital collections Value multiplier Realization conditions –syntactic and semantic interoperability Preservation –procedures, metadata

ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΙΤΕ 11/5/20054 Creating a Greek digital cultural inventory Current main framework Information Society Operational Programme, Measure 1.3 Highlights of previous actions POLEMON National Monuments Record System MUSE and ARISTIDES systems, Peloponnesian Ethnographic Foundation POLYDEUKES term thesaurus, Ministry of Culture, on-going Byzantine monuments recording system, European Centre for Byzantine and Post-byzantine Monuments Historical documents management system, Vikelea Library Open access thematic databases, Foundation for the Hellenic World (e.g., genealogies, Olympic Games, Greek History, etc.)

ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΙΤΕ 11/5/20055 Challenges Expected results: –Very large aggregate digital material –Infastructures –Organizational and technical experiences Challenges: –Massiveness and decentralization –Most institutions involved lack adequate experience –Heterogeneity (organizational and informational) Criteria – quality indices: –validity, accuracy and completeness of data –ease of access –interoperability of the various information repositories –preservability of the inventory

ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΙΤΕ 11/5/20056 Support actions Develop a common set of general guidelines for the design and implementation of digitization and documentation projects, and for promoting common practices. Digitization methods and procedures Organization, integration and preservation of information Web design and educational applications Intellectual property rights management

ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΙΤΕ 11/5/20057 The FORTH-ICS project Objective: Develop a guide for designing and applying information structures for cultural documentation and for supporting the preservation and interoperability of digital information Unit in charge: Centre for Cultural Informatics Project leader: Prof. Panos Constantopoulos Editors: Chryssoula Bekiari, Panos Constantopoulos, Martin Doerr

ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΙΤΕ 11/5/20058 Content and contribution Focus: Interoperability Approach: Employ common ontological layer Results: –Normative framework: recommendations and suggestions for conformance with standards and guidelines –Documentation: a family of digital record types with respective XML DTDs to support recording, description and conservation of physical and informational objects Digital preservation Publication of digital material –Interoperability: Guidelines for applying an ontology for cultural documentation technologies and standards for interoperability, information resource access technologies and standards for terminology management Novelty: –A new, comprehensive, common XML DTD for moveable objects and site monuments compatible with the ontology provided by the CIDOC CRM. –First edition of CIDOC CRM (ISO/DIS 21127) in Greek.

ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΙΤΕ 11/5/20059 Documentation: from objects to data recording, description digitization physical and informational objects digital repositories recording, description data (digital) metadata digital surrogates records photos designs analog recordings...

ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΙΤΕ 11/5/ General structure of an object documentation record Record identification Metadata concerning the record as a digital object in itself. Object identification The minimum data necessary to identify the object and uniquely refer to it independently from any particular context. Scientific documentation –Description of the object as it is in our hands Classifications, physical constituency and condition, symbolic content, etc. –History of the object as reported by witnesses or inferred from traces and evidence Descriptions of events and activities, such as construction, use, discovery, conservation, etc., in which the object took part. –Associations of the object with other objects (e.g., similarity) and events. Administration Data pertaining to the current handling of the object in a museum or collection, e.g. acquisition, location, exhibition, loan, etc., and which may later be regarded as relevant to the object history or not. References Metadata about sources of documentation and related bibliography.

ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΙΤΕ 11/5/ Nature of documentation data - 1 They describe Entities –Physical: the object being documented and, possibly, others related to it. –Conceptual: they appear in the context of their relation to the object being documented. Events –Determined by their kind, persons, organizations and objects involved in specific roles, their limits in place and time, and constituency from other sub-events. –An important specialization of events are activities, which are further characterized by actor, purpose and technique. –Events are only recorded in the context of their relationship to the object being documented. Associations –Represent comparisons between objects (e.g. similarity) or cultural context (e.g. joint use of objects, depiction or copy making, witness).

ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΙΤΕ 11/5/ Nature of documentation data - 2 Temporal validity permanent : unlimited validity volatile : limited over a specific time interval –data should normally be tagged with their validity time

ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΙΤΕ 11/5/ Nature of documentation data - 3 Information in a record as a set of logical propositions May refer to –specific situations or occurrences the pen with which Eleftherios Venizelos signed the Protocol of the Sevres Convention the necklace worn by Queen Amalia on her wedding –categories wedding dress, flag carried in the battlefield, clay pot May convey –part of the history of a particular object –a frame of hypotheses about part of the history of an object, which refers to categories of events and other entities –categorical knowledge, i.e. knowledge about the kinds of objects and events, not about a particular object

ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΙΤΕ 11/5/ Information patterns Information of the same nature may be contained in –different parts of an object record –different records even concerning objects of different kinds e.g. time, place, object composition, event, etc. Information patterns: specializable types of information units Designing documentation records –Reduced to designing a set of information patterns and a general, flexible record structure –Design and conformance with relevant standards much better controlled

ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΙΤΕ 11/5/ Examples of information patterns Date from until Object composition number of parts part name kind code or cardinal number Chronology within throughout cultural period social time justification Place name code cadastral number kind geopolitical hierarchy address coordinates values reference point precision of measurement geodesic coordinate system link to design Dating chronology time measurement value method laboratory Event name kind chronology place description persons involved organizations involved objects involved comprises events Person name biographical data communication data role / capacity / social group Organization title legal address communication data department role / capacity / social group

ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΙΤΕ 11/5/ Data entry Naturally follows the sequence of object handling acts, but certain autonomy of the data entry process is desirable Data entry rule –necessaryvalue omission disallowed –compulsoryvalue must be entered if it exists and is known –optional –Favours breadth over depth Value uncertainty –Conventional policy: least binding Date unknown or before 1900 AD –Effective policy: most precise values within the limits of the documenters knowledge A personal computer of unknown production date could be safely dated after 1980 AD Value multiplicity : multiple values by default, unique if specified

ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΙΤΕ 11/5/ Object record types In practice desirable to have a controlled variety of records thus supporting uniform documentation practices. Criteria for record type definition: Intended useObject type registration description administration conservation digital preservation publication of digital material site monuments moveable objects text documents audio pictures (still, moving) digital surrogates inherently digital objects

ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΙΤΕ 11/5/ Integration of the digital cultural inventory The digital cultural inventory is required to: –remain available and safe despite future failures of equipment or technological changes (preservation objective) –support integrated access and use (integration objective) Economic dependencies: –preservation : costs of recovery, re-creation and permanent loss of information –integration : costs of access and re-use of distributed and heterogeneous information Decisive technical factors: –portability across platforms –data and system interoperability among repositories –Web access Syntactic and semantic interoperability

ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΙΤΕ 11/5/ Syntactic interoperability Common external data represenations Individual repositories maintain the freedom to use different encodings for internal representation and processing XML

ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΙΤΕ 11/5/ Semantic interoperability Employ a common conceptual model in formulating semantic descriptions of objects and digital resources to support uniform access to them

ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΙΤΕ 11/5/ Semantic interoperability ontology digital resources semantic resource descriptions

ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΙΤΕ 11/5/ Ontology for semantic interoperability ICOM/CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model, ISO/CD –An ontology for the cultural domain, which formally describes the concepts and relations involved in cultural documentation –Provides a common base for the interpretation of various forms of documentation –Does not dictate the documentation elements Use of the ontology: –framework for designing information structures for documentation systems –communication medium, at the semantic level, between heterogeneous systems CIDOC CRM plays an indispensable role in building an integrated digital cultural inventory.

ΙΝΣΤΙΤΟΥΤΟ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΗΣ ΙΤΕ 11/5/ Conclusion An approach to developing and employing information structures for cultural documentation and for the integration and preservation of a digital cultural inventory aiming at long-term validity and exploitation. Dual strategy –propose specific standard (meta)data structures for specific application areas –all those structures are related to the common core ontology of the CIDOC CRM, which provides semantic interoperability in the long term Finding aids, such as Dublin Core, can be incorporated at schema level.