Using OWL to Specify and Build Different Views over the Emigration Museum Resources
Flávio Xavier Ferreira (Universidade do Minho)
Pedro Rangel Henriques (Universidade do Minho)
Abstract:
This paper discusses the approach used to create the exhibition rooms of the virtual (Web-based) section of Portuguese Emigration Museum (Museu da Emigração e das Comunidades, MEC) founded by the Cultural Department (Casa da Cultura) of Fafe's Town Hall (Câmara Municipal de Fafe).
The museum's assets are made up of documents (paper or digital format) of more than 8 kinds, ranging from passport records to photos/cards or building-drawings. Each room is no more than a view over the information contained in those single or interrelated resources.
The information exhibited in each room is described by an ontology, written in OWL. That ontology is used to specify the information that is extracted from the resources and to provide a semantic-network navigator to the museum visitor.
That approach can be automatised to allow a very systematic way to deal with the huge and rich museum assets; we will also discuss some technical details concerning its complete implementation in the near future.
Keywords:
Semantic Web and Ontologies
