This presentation was given at the SemWeb meetup in NYC on 31 May 2012. For more info: http://www.meetup.com/semweb-25/

1. Agora:
interpretation & representation of
historical events online
Lora Aroyo
31 May 2012 Semantic Web Meetup NYC
Thursday, May 31, 12

2. Thank you
• The Agora research team: Chiel
van den Akker, Lourens van der Meij,
Marieke van Erp, Susan Lêgene, Jacco
van Ossenbruggen, Guus Schreiber,
Roxane Segers & Bob Wielinga
• The CH partners: Johan Oomen &
Geertje Jacobs
• The Semantics of History team:
Piek Vossen & Agata Cybulska
Thursday, May 31, 12

3. 7/4/11 Venue
Thursday, May 31, 12

4. Observations
• Amount of cultural heritage data made
available online has increased
dramatically & single objects often lose
their context and meaning
• Metadata differ in quality & it is not easy
for users to find what they are looking for
31 May 2012 Semantic Web Meetup NYC
Thursday, May 31, 12

5. what many do
step 1: object metadata enrichment
7 Dec 2011 DISH2011
Thursday, May 31, 12

6. 7 December 2011 DISH2011
Thursday, May 31, 12

7. Introducing Links
mili<a place:
Amsterdam,
1625
to
1650
studentOf:
Pieter
Lastman
self-­‐portrait
teacherOf:
style:
Baroque Gerrit
Dou
The
Night
Watch
7 December 2011 DISH2011
Thursday, May 31, 12

8. Networked Heritage
?
7/4/11 MW2011
Thursday, May 31, 12

9. what we did
step 2: enrichment with events
7 Dec 2011 DISH2011
Thursday, May 31, 12

10. Extracting Events
• objects (digitized
artworks and artifacts)
• events (concrete
particulars)
• entities (actors,
locations, periods)
• narratives
(organization of events)
31 May 2012 Semantic Web Meetup NYC
Thursday, May 31, 12

11. date Venue
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12. were present at…
date Venue
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13. date Venue
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14. Location is...
date Venue
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15. date Venue
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16. role is…
date Venue
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17. date Venue
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18. 31 May 2012 Semantic Web Meetup NYC
Thursday, May 31, 12

19. New Links
7/4/11 MW2011
Thursday, May 31, 12

20. what we did further
step 3: generation of historical narratives
7 Dec 2011 DISH2011
Thursday, May 31, 12

21. Bringing Context
• What happened before/after?
• Who does what, when, and where?
• All bomb attacks in the 1950s
• In what events did Indonesia participate?
• ‘Grand narratives’
7 December 2011 DISH2011
Thursday, May 31, 12

22. 31 May 2012 Venue
Thursday, May 31, 12

23. The Royal Netherlands East Indies Army
The Royal Netherlands East Indies Army
31 May 2012 Venue
Thursday, May 31, 12

24. Semantic Search
• suggesting relevant/related events of
interest, e.g., in the same location, with the
same actor, during a related period
• finding related stories/narratives of interest
• based on current interests in events
finding artworks in different collections by
the same creator, or on similar events
31 May 2012 Semantic Web Meetup NYC
Thursday, May 31, 12

25. Digital Hermeneutics
the online understanding of cultural heritage
31 May 2012 Semantic Web Meetup NYC
Thursday, May 31, 12

26. Digital Hermeneutics*
• theory of interpretation: relation parts of
wholes
• encounter of hermeneutics & the Web
• context to think about providing access
to and interpretation of online collections
*Capurro, 2010
31 May 2012 Semantic Web Meetup NYC
Thursday, May 31, 12

27. http://agora.cs.vu.nl
http://agora.cs.vu.nl/demo
@agoraproject @laroyo
31 May 2012 Semantic Web Meetup NYC
Thursday, May 31, 12

28. http://agora.cs.vu.nl
http://agora.cs.vu.nl/demo
@agoraproject @laroyo
31 May 2012 Semantic Web Meetup NYC
Thursday, May 31, 12