A Semantic Web understanding of the factoid prosopography model John Bradley Department Digital Humanities King's College London Ontologies for Prosopography: Who's Who? or, Who was Who? Workshop, July 8, 2014 at the DH2014 conference, Lausanne Switzerland twitter: #KingsDH @kingsdh 1
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A Semantic Web understanding of the Factoid Prosopography model
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A Semantic Web understanding
of the factoid prosopography
model John Bradley
Department Digital Humanities
King's College London
Ontologies for Prosopography:
Who's Who? or, Who was Who?
Workshop, July 8, 2014 at the
DH2014 conference, Lausanne
Switzerland
twitter: #KingsDH
@kingsdh
1
Tim Berners-Lee on Linked
DataAll kinds of conceptual things, they have names now that start
with HTTP.
I get important information back. I will get back some data in a
standard format which is kind of useful data that somebody
might like to know about that thing, about that event.
I get back that information it's not just got somebody's height
and weight and when they were born, it's got relationships.
And when it has relationships, whenever it expresses a
relationship then the other thing that it's related to is given
one of those names that starts with HTTP.
Tim Berners-Lee: Linked Data presentation at TED 2009
2
Tim Berners-Lee on Linked
DataAll kinds of conceptual things, they have names now that start
with HTTP.
I get important information back. I will get back some
data in a standard format which is kind of useful data that
somebody might like to know about that thing, about that
event.
I get back that information it's not just got somebody's height
and weight and when they were born, it's got relationships.
And when it has relationships, whenever it expresses a
relationship then the other thing that it's related to is given
one of those names that starts with HTTP.
Tim Berners-Lee: Linked Data presentation at TED 2009
3
Ontologies and a
“prosopographical” domainVast amount of data is related to
people to various degrees: what is
most properly prosopographical?
Good Ontology design practice: a kind
of “Occam's Razor”.
So what information related to persons
is IN prosopography and what is
OUT?
4
Traditional Prosopography
5
SourcesPeople
From J.R. Martindale, The
Prosopography of the
Later Roman Empire, 3:
A.D. 527-641. Cambridge:
Cambridge University
Press. 1992.
Places
Prosopography and Identity of
PersonsAn important part of prosopography is in the identifying of personsWhat's constitutes an historical person's identity?
Formal URIs provide a part of the linked data answer.◦ http://db.poms.ac.uk/record/person/749/
However, historical identity, by its nature of being contestable, requires more than this:◦ Abraham, bishop of Dunblane (fl.1210×14-
1220×25) (id 749)6
Prosopography: more than “just”
person identificationHistorical persons survive for us through their
appearance in sources, and historians identify
them not only by their name, but also by what they
did and by other ways that they are described.
7
Information about persons is a
part of prosopography.Assertions about a person have traditionally formed the basis of prosopography.
One could argue that historical people from before the immediate past only "survive" in our memory through their presence in sources: what sources assert about them.
Arguments about their identity flow from what these sources say to us.
8
Identity as a Contestable
thingHistorical Prosopography must be contestable, since it deals in information which is often uncertain.
◦ About Person (I think your A is my (slightly different) B)
◦ About statements about a person (I think this statement belong to a different person, or mis-interprets the sources)
◦ After date/timing (I think this event happened at a different time)
Thus, simply naming a person A, and then simply asserting that s/he is different from someone else's person B is not sufficient!!
The identification has to not only be made, it has to be testable and contestable.
To make such assertions testable, one needs data about the person.
This is Berners-Lee's 2nd point!
9
Data in a standard format for
prosopography?"I get important information back. I will get back
some data in a standard format which is kind of
useful data that somebody might like to know about
that thing, about that event.“ (Berners-Lee: TED
2009)
What is the data in a "standard format"?
Mainstream Linked Data, take this to mean data in
RDF
◦ highly structured.
What is a representation about a person then that
is highly structured?
A set of Assertions10
Core structure for DDH’s
Prosopographical databases: "factoid
model"
Person
Assertion
(factoid)
Authority Lists
Assertion Type
Source
Location Possession
11
Instance of
Typed by
Connected toConnected to
Appears in
Connected to
Role / Name
Date
Structuring Prosopography: the
factoid
Pasin, Bradley (2011). Factoid-
based Prosopography and
Computer Ontologies: towards
an integrated approach
12
Factoid Assertions are …
Time dependant◦ PoMS's Abraham 749's identity seems to be
wrapped up in his having been Bishop of Dunblane.
◦ Even so, an assertion such as "Abraham (ID 749) was Bishop of Dunblane" is actually time dependant
Material about him might well exist from times before or after he was Bishop of Dunblane.
Source Driven:◦ The factoid model aims to present what the
sources are saying, and downplays what the modern day prosopographers, as historians, believe.