Of possible interest....

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Matteo Romanello <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 4:00 PM
Subject: [LOD-LAM] "Linked Open Data for the Ancient World" at CAA 2012
To: [log in to unmask]


With apologies for cross-posting.

Dear digital classicists,

This is an invitation for submitting papers to the session "Linked Open
Data for the Ancient World" at the Computer Applications and Quantitative
Methods in Archaeology (CAA) conference to be held next year in Southampton
(26-30 March 2012).

This session aims to explore the opportunities, challenges and
methodological consequences related to the Linked Open Data approach for
the study of the ancient world.
We welcome multi-disciplinary submissions dealing with the following or
related aspects of Linked Open Data: URIs for Cultural Heritage
objects, methodological consequences of LOD, projects publishing data as
LOD, relevant tools and live applications based on LOD, digital libraries
and their content in relation to ancient world objects, other approaches of
making data interoperable and interlinked.

The abstract is attached below this email. You can download the complete
list of accepted sessions with abstracts from the conference website <
http://www.southampton.ac.uk/caa2012/submissions/CAA2012_proposed_sessions.pdf
>.

The deadline for abstract submission is 30 November. For more details and
to read the Call for Papers, see <
http://www.southampton.ac.uk/caa2012/submissions/index.html>.

Best regards,

Matteo Romanello (Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London
/ Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Berlin)
Dr. Felix Schäfer (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Berlin)
Dr. Prof. Reinhard Förtsch (CoDArchLab University of Cologne)


========================================
Linked Open Data for the Ancient World (abstract)
========================================

[session code: Data1]

The study of the Ancient World is by nature a rich soil for the adoption
and exploitation of the Linked Opden Data (LOD) approach. Indeed its long
tradition, the diversity of materials and resources as well as the high
level of disciplinary specialisation lead to a situation where silos of
knowledge, even when available online and under open access licenses, are
isolated from each other. This situation is also reflected by the
segmentation that the study of the Ancient World has reached with the
inevitable tendency to favour one single perspective in despite of others.
On the contrary, the LOD approach allows us to integrate heterogeneous
sources of information by means of links and persistent identifiers while
preserving the disciplinary specificity of data.

The recent adoption of the LOD principles by projects such as Pelagios [1],
SQPR [2] and the British Museum [3], in acceptance of the CIDOC-CRM’s
Linked Open Data Recommendation for Museums [4], are important steps
towards a future of interoperable data in archaeology and classics. There
is a variety of ways in which different resources are related to each
other: an inscribed stone, for instance, will be linked to the edition of
the text, to the building and location it belonged to, to different
photographs of the object, to a record in the museum catalog and to related
literature. Having those different pieces of information interconnected
would allow us to overcome to some degree the mentioned fragmented view on
antiquity by rendering a more wholistic image of the past.

In this session we shall discuss the advantages and disadvantages of LOD
for the study of the Ancient World, look at available data, existing tools
and live applications (beyond the status of being testbeds) and question
which steps should be taken to overcome existing obstacles to increase the
amount of LOD. Furthermore we welcome reflections on the opportunities,
challenges and methodological consequences for the disciplines involved. In
continuity with past sessions of the conference on related topics, this
section addresses issues including but not limited to:

* URIs for Cultural Heritage objects
* methodological reflections on consequences of LOD
* experiences of projects publishing their data as LOD
* discussion of relevant tools and live applications based on LOD
* digital libraries and their content in relation to Ancient World objects
* other approaches of making data interoperable and interlinked


[1] http://pelagios-project.blogspot.com/
[2] http://spqr.cerch.kcl.ac.uk/
[3] http://collection.britishmuseum.org/About
[4] http://www.cidoc-crm.org/URIs_and_Linked_Open_Data.html