Cantabria´s Cultural Heritage Ontology
General Description
One of the objectives of the Marcelino Botin Foundation is bringing research results and scientific discoveries to society by means of sponsoring collaborative initiatives. The aim of this project is to build and run, using the Web, a complete ontology of eleven types of cultural heritage in the region of Cantabria, Spain, from bibliographic elements to industrial heritage industrial, as well as pre-historic digs.
The problem
The information that currently covers this heritage is scattered, heterogeneous, fragmented and at different stages of digitalisation. For example, there are documents belonging to the government, others published in books or cultural exhibitions, some are digitalised, others are conceptualised in databases... This situation complicates access to the information, causing serious integration problems and making placing this information on the Net more expensive. Whatismore, by nature, the Cultural heritage domain has very dense relationships between each element, making its correct use impossible.
The solution
The solution consists of using Semantic Web Technology to intelligently integrate information relating to Cantabria´s Cultural Heritage. The project has designed, built, stocked and operates the Cultural Heritage ontology, as well as developing a methodology for stocking and running ontologies for use in other regions. The information is accessed using a Semantic Portal that aggregates various applications.
The ontology is based on various existing standards, such as the Reference Conceptualisation Model, developed by the International Committee for Documentation for the International Museum Council, which became an ISO international standard in 2006 (ISO 21127 Information and documentation -- A reference ontology for the interchange of cultural heritage information); the Dublin Core (ISO Standard 15836) for describing resources; and the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Registries (FRBR) model, a conceptual entity-relationship model developed by the International Association of Bookshops and Institutions (IFLA).
Stocking the ontology is achieved semi-automatically using various sources, including structured web pages, spreadsheets, Marc21 bibliographic XML registries, generic XML documents and related databases. The ontology’s content is published in real time on the internet, using filters to take maximum advantage of the relationships between each element(‘serendipity’).
An interactive map (see picture 2). Because an ontology contains geo-referenced locations for both resources and places, and in most cases the location has some relevance, we can locate the system’s heritage content on a map. The interactive map lets us display conceptual layers on the map, for example significant buildings, or churches or cellars...
E-Learning. This application creates formative objects in SCORM format usable by existing eLearning platforms. The objects are organised in courses determined by a syllabus. For example, by selecting a specific person we can build a course focussed on the life and work of that individual.
Tourist Applications. Several tour operators create added value for their trips by offering cultural experiences related to the location. The cultural ontology is perfectly able to extend this value (via web services) to on-line agencies that offer thematic cultural routes, by celebrities, era, work, etc....
Semantic Wikipedia. Allows skilled users to add or alter the ontology.
Main Benefits of using Semantic Web Technology
The main benefits of the Botin Foundation’s project include:
- An integrated and co-ordinated repository of the cultural heritage of Cantabria, making cultural knowledge accessible to society in an economical and scalable way.
- A single point of access for all those interested in Cantabria’s cultural information.
- The ontology guarantees the inter-relation of different applications, allowing for easy incorporation of new applications.
- Because the ontology is based on market standards, it can inter-operate and federate with other repositories.
- The possibility to export knowledge and applications to other regions.
