Mapping Cultural Heritage Information to CIDOC-CRM

Mapping Cultural Heritage Information
to CIDOC-CRM
Maria Theodoridou
Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas
Institute of Computer Science

BM meet-up “Semantics and Cultural Heritage”, London, September 12, 2014
 X3ML
An interface for sustainable management of data mapping process
 Use Case
Mapping the dFMRÖ coin database to CIDOC-CRM
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Overview

X3ML
An interface for sustainable
management of data mapping process
Haridimos Kondylakis, Martin Doerr
FORTH-ICS
Gerald de Jong
Delving B.V.
Dominic Oldman
British Museum
3

Cultural Diversity and Data Standards
 Cultural information is more than a domain:
 Collection description (art, archeology, natural history….)
 Archives and literature (records, treaties, letters, artful works..)
 Administration, preservation, conservation of material heritage
 Science and scholarship – investigation, interpretation
 Presentation – exhibition making, teaching, publication
 But how to make a documentation standard?
 Each aspect needs its methods, forms, communication means
 Data overlap, but do not fit in one schema
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“One model to rule them all”
The CIDOC CRM
 The CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model
 A collaboration with the International Council of Museums
 An ontology of 86 classes and 137 properties for culture and more
 With the capacity to explain hundreds of (meta)data formats
 Accepted by ISO TC46 in September 2000
 International standard since 2006 - ISO 21127:2006
 Serving as:
 intellectual guide to create schemata, formats, profiles
 A language for analysis of existing sources for integration/mediation
“Identify elements with common meaning”
 Transportation format for data integration / migration / Internet
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Mappings
 Mapping Rule
“a sufficient specification for the transformation of each
instance of a source schema into an instance of a target
schema while preserving as much as possible its initial
‘meaning’ ”
 In practice mappings are produced manually by
Domain/IT experts
 Labor-intensive
 Error prone
 Time consuming
CIDOC-CRM
DB1 DB2 … DBn
Mappings
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Existing Mapping Approaches
 Enormous amount of work already developed
 Relational databases to RDF/S and OWL
models
 Files/XMLs to RDF/S
 However previous approaches lack
understanding of:
 the borders between semantics and
programming
 the semantic heterogeneity cases between
models
 the business process that should be part of it
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X3ML Workflow
Schema
Matching
CIDOC
-CRM
DB2
DB2
DB2
Domain
Experts
Schema Matching
Definition file
URI
generation
specification
IT Experts
Terminology
Mapping
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X3ML Mapping format
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X3ML – Additional Nodes
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X3ML - Intermediate Paths
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X3ML – Variables, Conditions, Info & Comments
Blocks
<if>
<exists>[xpath]</exists>
</if>
<if><not>
<if><exists>[xpath]</exists></if>
</not></if>
<if>
<equals value="[value-for-comparison]">[
xpath]</equals>
</if>
<if><not>
<if><equals value="[value-for-comparison]">[
xpath]</equals></if>
</not></if>
<x3ml>
<info>
... various fields describing the mapping ...
</info>
<namespaces/>
<mappings>
<mapping>
<domain>
<comments>
... various notes about the domain ...
</comments>
</domain>
<link>
<path>
<comments>
... various notes about the path ...
</comments>
</path>
<range>
<comments>
... various notes about the range ...
</comments>
</range>
</link>
</mapping>
</mappings>
<comments>
... various notes about the mappings ...
</comments>
</x3ml>
<entity variable="p1">
[generate the value]
</entity>
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Use Case:
Mapping the dFMRÖ coin database to
CIDOC-CRM
13
Martin Doerr, Maria Theodoridou
FORTH-ICS
Edeltraud Aspöck, Klaus Vondrovec
ÖAW

Advanced Research Infrastructure for Archaeological Dataset Networking in
Europe
FP7-INFRASTRUCTURES-2012-1 EU project , no: 313193
http://www.ariadne-infrastructure.eu/
Primary goals
 To integrate existing archaeological research infrastructures
 To enable the use of distributed datasets and services
 To develop new and powerful technologies as an integral component of the
archaeological research methodology
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 CIDOC-CRM was chosen as ARIADNE’s integration platform since its
primary role is to enable information exchange and integration between
heterogeneous sources of cultural heritage information.
 During the first year of ARIADNE, several mapping activities were initiated
trying to convert existing schemata of archaeological data to CIDOC-CRM
 Content providers were supported by FORTH
 ÖAW worked on the mapping of four data bases:
 dFMRÖ, a relational database of ancient Roman coin finds from Austria
and Romania
 UK Material Pool Database (Site DB)
 UK Thunau Database (Image DB)
 Franzhausen Kokoron Database (Cemetery DB)
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dFMRÖ
digitale FundMünzen der Römischen Zeit in Österreich
Austrian Academy of Sciences
Numismatic Commission
Klaus Vondrovec
klaus.vondrovec@khm.at
Access DB since 1999
MySQL DB online since 2007
http://www.oeaw.ac.at/numismatik/projekte/dfmroe/dfmroe.html
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dFMRÖ coin db: mapping Coin
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Target Domain:
E22 Man-Made Object
Source Domain:
//COIN
 Two approaches for defining Coin
 Introduce a specialization of E22 Man-Made Object:
Exx Coin subclass of E22 Man-Made Object
 Define the Type of E22 Man-Made Object:
E22 Man-Made Object. P2 has type: E55 Type = “Coin”
 To choose we need to answer the question:
Does the new class Coin have new properties that are not available in E22?
E55 Type
Coin

dFMRÖ coin db: Identifiers
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Target Range:
E41 Appellation
Target Domain:
E22 Man-Made Object
Target Path:
P1 is identified by
Source Path:
ID
Source Domain:
//COIN
Source Range:
ID
E55 Type
Coin
Guideline: We map local identifiers in relational database tables explicitly only if these
identifiers are visible in the user interface and used in other documents as well.
Alternatively, we use the local database identifiers only for generating URIs for the
record instance, here the coin instance, and do NOT map the COIN.ID at all.

Mapping joins
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Target Range:
E4 Period
Target Domain:
E22 Man-Made Object
P108i was produced by
Source Path:
COUNTRY_ID == COYNTRY_ID
Source Domain:
//Coin
Source Range:
//COUNTRY
P10 falls within
E12 Production
p1

Mixing categorical and factual info
 Need to separate categorical and factual data
Inconsistent information:
 Find spot -> for a specific coin
 Historical facts -> for a category of coins
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Categorical production
23
P108i was
produced by
PC2 is example of
PC1 produced
things of type
 Need to extend the model in order to
support categorical production
(similar to FRBR R26 produced things
of type and R7 is example of)
 Type can take values such as
"AU from Rome, mint ..."
which characterize the "edition" of the
mint
that can be recognized to be outcome
of the same minting process.
 Typically we would assume that there
is a unique stamp used.
E12 Production
p1
E55 Type
AU from Rome
E22 Man-Made Object
MyCoin

P2 has type
P17 was motivated by
Needs specialization “gave order”
P108 has produced
P2 has type
E55 Type
AU from Rome,
mint …
Mixing categorical and factual info
PC1 produced
things of type
E55 Type
“AU”
(DENOMINATION)
E55 Type
Issuing
E22 Man-Made Object
MyCoin
E12 Production
p1
E7 Activity
ia1

Issuer
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Target Range:
E39 Actor
Target Domain:
E22 Man-Made Object
P108i was produced by
Source Path:
ISSUER_ID == PR_ID
Source Domain:
//COIN
Source Range:
//ISSUER
P14 carried out by
E12 Production
p1
"Issuer" is an accidental role, does not characterize
an actor independently from particular contexts of
activity. Therefore the Actor does not have the type
"Issuer" but the activity only has the type "Issuing"
P17 was motivated by
E7 Activity
ia1
E55 Type
Issuing

dFMRÖ coin db
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dFMRÖ coin db
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dFMRÖ coin db
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CIDOC CRM Mapping Repository
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Published schema matching definitions are available at:
http://139.91.183.3:9080/mapping_technology/
The schema matching definition (Version 1.0) format is available:
http://139.91.183.3:9080/mapping_technology/xsd/x3ml/x3ml_v1.0.xsd
The Mapping Memory Manager (3M) is available:
http://139.91.183.3:9080/3M/
Domain experts are able to easily understand & edit X3ML mapping files
You are kindly invited to send us your schema matching definition.

Lessons from mapping experiences
 Semantic Interoperability can be defined by the capability of mapping
 Mapping for epistemic networks is relatively simple:
 Specialist/primary information databases frequently employ a flat schema, reducing complex
relationships into simple fields
 Source fields frequently map to composite paths under the CRM, making semantics explicit
using a small set of primitives
 Intermediate nodes are postulated or deduced (e.g., “production” from “coin”, “birth” from
“person”). They are the hooks for integration with complementary sources
 Cardinality constraints must not be enforced= Alternative or incomplete knowledge
 Domain experts easily learn schema mapping
 IT experts may not understand meaning, underestimate it or are bored by it!
 Intuitive tools for domain experts needed:
 Separate identifier matching from schema mapping
 Separate terminology mediation from schema mapping
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Thank you!
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Mapping Cultural Heritage Information to CIDOC-CRM

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