In recent years, scientists at the Austrian Institute of Technology have been involved in numerous projects in the digital humanities area. In this talk, Dr. Bernhard Haslhofer will present two of them, both having a strong focus on applying the Linked Open Data method on datasets produced throughout the project. The first is Maphub (http://maphub.github.io/), an open source Web application which allows users to create annotations on historical maps, link these annotations with other Web sources (e.g., Wikipedia), and share annotations as Linked Open Data following the Open Annotation model. The second is Pelagios (http://pelagios-project.blogspot.co.at/), a community initiative that aims to facilitate better linking between online resources documenting the past, based on the places they refer to. To date, Pelagios interconnects 900.000+ heterogeneous digital objects - literature, archaeology, epigraphy, cartography - from 40+ international partners. The current focus of the project is to annotate Early Geospatial Documents - documents that use written or visual representation to describe geographic space prior to the European discovery of the Americas in 1492, and make the annotations available as (Linked) Open Data.

1. Maphub und Pelagios
Anwendung von Linked Data in den Digitalen
Geisteswissenschaften
Digital Humanities Austria Tagung, ÖAW
3. Dezember 2014
Bernhard Haslhofer und Rainer Simon

2. Maphub
Semantic Tagging on Historical Maps
2

3. Source: Wien Museum (via Google, via http://habsburger.net)

4. The Elisabethbrücke
connected the districts
“Innere Stadt” and
“Wieden”until 1897
Source: Wien Museum (via Google, via http://habsburger.net)

5. The Elisabethbrücke
connected the districts
“Innere Stadt” and
“Wieden”until 1897
Source: Wien Museum (via Google, via http://habsburger.net)

6. Possible Benefits
• Engage people; let them tell their stories
• Collect knowledge; enhance metadata
records
• Connect digitized historical maps with other
Web resources (e.g., Wikipedia)
Web as Literature Conference, London, 2013
6

7. 7
http://maphub.github.com

8. Maphub Features
• Geo References + Map Overlays
• Semantic Tagging
• Multilingual Search
• W3C Open Annotation API
8

9. Geo References + Map Overlays
9

13. Comments + Semantic Tagging
13

14. Semantic Tagging in Maphub
http://dbpedia.org/resource/
Mediterranean_sea
There is a DBpedia/Wikipedia URI
behind each visual tag
14

15. Multilingual Search
15

16. W3C Open Annotation API
oa:
Annotation
rdf:type
http://
maphubdev.mminf.univie.ac.at/
annotations/1
oa:hasTarget
"bernhard.haslhofer@
cornell.edu"
foaf:mbox
uuid:1235
oa:annotator
http://maphubdev.
mminf.univie.ac.at
oa:generator
"behas"
foaf:name
"2012-07-18T02:
01:07Z"
oa:generated
"2012-07-18T02:
01:07Z"
oa:annotated
uuid:4567
http://
oa:hasSelector
samos.mminf.univie.ac.
at/maps/raw/
g3200.ct000725C.jp2
oa:Specific
Resource
rdf:type
oa:hasSelector
oa:hasSource uuid:2752
ct:ContentAs
rdf:type Text
image/svg
dcterms:
format
rdf:type
dcterms:StillImage
dc:format
image/jp2
oax:hasSemanticTag
Strait_of_Gibraltar
oa:hasBody
dbpedia:
uuid:2751
cnt:Content
AsText
rdf:type
"text/plain"
dc:format
In antiquity, the Strait of Gibraltar (which
connects the Atlantic Ocean with the
Mediterranean Sea) was also known by the
name "The Pillars of Hercules". This is the
reason for this inscription!
cnt:chars
dbpedia:
Pillars_of_Hercules
oax:hasSemanticTag
ct:chars <svg…..>
uuid:2753
ct:ContentAs
Text
rdf:type
application/wkt
dcterms:
format
POLYGON((5315
5639,5444….)
ct:chars
16

17. 17
2013

18. Pelagios
Linking
Data
about
the
Past
through
Geography

19. …or
any
other
online
resource
that
bears
a
relation
to
a
particular
ancient
place!
Inscriptions
Texts
Archaeological
Finds
Museum
Objects
Pelagios
Archaeological
Sites
|
Linking
Data,
Openly

20. How?
|
Don’t
Unify
the
Model
–
Annotate!
http://pleiades.
stoa.org/579885
http://ple iades.
stoa.org/570685

21. 4
The
Essential
Ingredient
|
URI-­‐based
Gazetteers

22. Pelagios
|
Connecting
Different
Knowledge
Domains
online
gazetteers
Pelagios
Ancient
World
Resources

23. Pelagios
1
&
2
|
The
Greco-­‐Roman
World

24. Pelagios
3
|
Early
Geospatial
Documents
▪ 2
year
project
(Sep
2013
–
Aug
2015)
▪ Funded
by
Andrew
W.
Mellon
Foundation
▪ Annotation
of
geographic
documents
(maps
and
texts)
predating
1492
Traditions
▪ Latin
▪ Greek
&
Byzantine
▪ Christian
Tradition
▪ Portolan
charts
&
portolanos
▪ Islamic
Tradition
▪ Chinese
Tradition

25. Pelagios
3
|
New
(and
Old)
Partners

26. Pelagios
3
|
Geo-­‐Annotation
with
Recogito

27. Pelagios
3
|
Geo-­‐Annotation
with
Recogito

28. Pelagios
3
|
Geo-­‐Annotation
with
Recogito

29. Pelagios
3
|
Geo-­‐Annotation
with
Recogito

30. New
in
Recogito
|
Maps
&
Image
Annotation

31. Places
Pelagios People
SNAP
Periods
&
Events
PeriodO,
ChronOntology
References
Canonical
Text
Services
Classification
Schemes
OCRE,
SENESCHAL
Trends
|
The
Concept
Scheme
Ecosystem

32. OHA
|
Recogito
in
Action
@
Heidelberg
▪ 2.650
toponym
identifications
in
text
▪ 2.500
toponym
identifications
on
maps
▪ 830
map
transcriptions
▪ 140
gazetteer
resolutions
▪ 490
other
actions,
such
as
corrections,
deletions
or
comments
2014

33. Grateful
acknowledgement
to
AHRC,
Google,
JISC,
The
Andrew
W.
Mellon
Foundation,
the
DM2E
project
and
all
Pelagios
partners
http://pelagios-­‐project.blogspot.com
http://pelagios.org/recogito
@Pelagiosproject

34. Interested in Open Data…(and Digital Humanities)?
http://okfn.at/arbeitsgruppen/arbeitsgruppe-open-glam/
http://okfn.at/partner-werden/

35. Questions?
http://maphub.github.io
bernhard.haslhofer@ait.ac.at
@bhaslhofer
http://pelagios-project.blogspot.com
http://pelagios.org/recogito
@Pelagiosproject
rainer.simon@ait.ac.at
@aboutgeo