1Melbourne, October 13, 1998

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

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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

3Melbourne, October 13, 1998

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

Electronic Communication on Diverse Data Communication and Diversity

4Melbourne, October 13, 1998

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

Electronic Communication on Diverse Data Communication and Diversity

5Melbourne, October 13, 1998

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

Electronic Communication on Diverse Data Mediation - what can be done

6Melbourne, October 13, 1998

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

Electronic Communication on Diverse Data Mediation - what can be done

7Melbourne, October 13, 1998

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 !

Electronic Communication on Diverse Data What is the CIDOC Reference Model

8Melbourne, October 13, 1998

Electronic Communication on Diverse Data The Role of the CRM

WhatWhoWhenWhereAccess

profiles:

Legacy systems

Legacy systems

Legacy systems

Access Engines

?

interprets generates

generates

gene ratesincorporate

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Electronic Communication on Diverse Data CRM Principles: Symmetry

transferred title of

Physical Object Physical Object

Recipient

Deaccession

of

Physical Object

Source

Acquisition

of

tofrom

Acquisition

Actor

transferred title of

transferred titlefrom to

New World Museum

Lovely Museumdeaccession 17-8-98

of

TA527b,previous:I-372-Z1

Lovely Museum

New World Museumacquisition 17-8-98

of

tofrom transferred titlefrom to

I-372-Z1TA527b,

previous:I-372-Z1

acquisition 17-8-98

Lovely Museum New World Museum

Data

Schema

Local Source 1 Local Source 2CRM

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Electronic Communication on Diverse Data CRM Principles: Extensible Granularity

Physical Object

Condition State

Condition Assessment

Richer Schema Poorer SchemaCRM

Physical Object

Condition State

Physical Object

Condition State

Condition Assessment

assessed by

has identified

concerns(assessed by)

has identified(identified by)

has conditions

has conditions (condition of)

short cut

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Electronic Communication on Diverse Data CRM Principles: Specialisation

Physical Object

IR539

Coins

Database

Physical Object

Coins

Typehas type

Typehas type

dimeshas type

inheriteddue to IsA :merged

by IsA :

Thesaurus

Exchange Media

dimes

BT !

BT

BT

GenericSchema

SpecificSchema

Data

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Electronic Communication on Diverse Data CRM Principles: Specialisation

13Melbourne, October 13, 1998

Electronic Communication on Diverse Data Part of a CRM data example

custody_changed_byTransfer of Epitaphios GE34604 (entity Transfer of Custody, Acquisition)

custody_surrendered_byMetropolitan Church of the Greek Community of Ankara (see above)

transfers_title_fromMetropolitan Church of the Greek Community of Ankara (see above)

custody_received_byMuseum Benaki (see above)

transfers_title_toExchangable Fund of Refugees (entity Legal Body)

has typenational foundation

carried out byExchangable 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

nationrepublic

falls withinEurope (entity Place)

has typecontinent

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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

Electronic Communication on Diverse Data What to do now?

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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

Electronic Communication on Diverse Data Conclusions