The VRC Project
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Transcript of The VRC Project
The VRC ProjectTowards a cataloguing standard
for open data
Alick Macdonnel McLeanAugusto Palombini
fabrizio giudici
• Origins and philosophy of SUF Media Lab/VRC: open data, the community
• Commonality of interests between VRC original users and archaeologists
• Technical realization with open source tools
Agenda
temple of Diana, Cefalù, photo A.M. McLean
Origins and philosophy of SUF Media Lab/VRC: open data, community
• institutional origins of the VRC at SUF
• modest origins
• pool slide collections when digitizing
• catalog across disciplines
• each faculty agrees to share data and images with others
Origins and Philosophy
• extensible, rich cataloging blessing and challenge
• extend pool of catalogers by extending pool of users/institutions
• expand based on original model
• distribute program in exchange for user engagement in data community through cataloging and image contributions
Data community
Commonality of interests between VRC original users
and archaeologists
• Commonality of interest between VRC original users and archaeologists:
• public utility of open data and transparency of processes
• flexible classification as a powerful research tool
Common Interests?
Advantages:● diffusion of standard models
● easy queries on fields
Problems:● adapting the same model to different elements
● problems in defining standard chronological notations
Archaeological catalogation:the state of the art
Traditional approach: Forcingdifferent objects into a main
classification scheme
Another fundamental problem● “hard defined” relationships
among different attributes don't allow their changing through time
and the spread of new properties and classification criteria
Archaeological catalogation:the state of the art
Traditional approach: Forcingdifferent objects into a main
classification scheme
ontologic VS episthemologic aspect of classification.
Classification as euristhic tool
“L'eidos è un dato o un posto? lo trovo nella cosa o lo applico alla cosa per renderla intelligibile?” ...“Si è irrigidita l'esperienza in un modello; nulla dal punto di vista epistemologico interviene ancora per affermare o negare che l'esperienza contenesse anche gli aspetti che ne sono stati isolati, accanto a infiniti altri tipi di correlazione”
(U.Eco, la Strutttura assente, 1968)
Technical realizationwith open source tools
VRC - Structure
● Components:– Cataloguing core– Web interface– Modules for integration with rich-clients– Photographic module
● manages: metadata, “camera raw” formats, grid computing, etc...
● Entirely written in Java– Cross-platform, Linux-ready
Entities and Relations
● Art objects (paintings, sculptures, buildings,...)
● Agents (painters, sponsors, owners, ...)
● Locations (geographical, geopolitical, historical, ...)
● Materials● GPS tags● Other information
● Relates entities to entities and entities to files
● Basic relationships– “Made by”, “Owned
by”, “Located at”, ...● Temporal relationships
– Associated to date ranges
– Date precision: from d/m/y to century or era
Database vs Semantic Web
● DB: entity and relations– ad-hoc– local, not universal– different DB-based systems are “islands”
● Semantic Web– RDF: Resource Description Framework– Subject / Relation / Object– XML based– FLOSS resources: Jena,
SPARQL● RDF as a “lingua franca”● Peer-to-peer search
“Ontologies”
● Data models with relations– classes– attributes– relations
● OWL – Web Ontology Language● Standard ontologies● More can be defined
– Requires pool of expert, agreement
An example
• what does SUF need to go open source?
• sharing high-quality, vetted data for sites across Italy and the world
• extension of data across institutions, disciplines, geography and time
• how to structure data community?
• concerns of SUF
• concerns of all data community members
• how to express interest in VRC data community:
• write [email protected]
Concluding Remarks
Alick McLean and Emily Schiavone, media librarian
Villa Rossa & garden, Syracuse University in Florence
• Prof. Alick Macdonnel McLean
Syracuse [email protected]://www.syr.fi.it/study-abroad-florence-media-lab.php
• Dr. Augusto Palombini
CNR VHLab [email protected]
• Ing. Fabrizio Giudici
TidalWave / [email protected]