SEA CHANGELinking Data about the Past through Geography

Rainer Simon @aboutgeoAustrian Institute of Technology

Leif Isaksen, Pau de SotoUniversity of Southampton

Elton BarkerThe Open University

December 11 2014 | DM2E Final Event, Pisa, Italy

Early Geospatial Documents

Maps and geographic writingpredating 1492.

The problem:Data is “semantically opaque”.Geographical context evident to humans,but not machines.

Two public workshops to• trial our geo-annotation tool RECOGITO• reach out to the community• turn some raw data into Linked Open Data…• …and have fun doing it!

RECOGITO Geo-Annotation Tool

http://pelagios.org/recogito/docs

Workshop #1

University of Heidelberg, October 31.27 students of Geography & Archaeology.

Workshop #1

University of Heidelberg, October 31.Classical & Medieval Latin texts, Medieval maps.

Some Numbers…

• 2.650 places identified in text• 2.500 places identified in maps• 830 map transcriptions• 140 gazetteer resolutions• 490 other actions (edits, comments, deletions,…)

6.620 contributions total on that day!

Ptolemy, Nicolaus Tedescho & Francesco Berlinghieri: Tabvla secvnda de Evropa (1482).

Workshop #2

University of Applied Sciences Mainz, December 4.22 students, mixed background (engineering/archaeology).

Workshop #2

University of Applied Sciences Mainz, December 4.Medieval travel writing & 14th/15thC. maritime maps.

More Numbers…

• 2.600 places identified in text• 3.200 places identified in maps !• 620 map transcriptions• 544 gazetteer resolutions !• 537 other actions (edits, comments, deletions,…)

7.511 contributions total on that day!

Workshops, Part II: Data Re-Use

Tutorials for using our data without our tools.Example 1: Exploring Medieval itineraries in GIS.

Workshops, Part II: Data Re-Use

Example 2: Hacking with our data – maps, timelines, networks.

So… What‘s Next?

Introducing PELAGIOS

• Linking Data about the past based on the notion of Place

• Connectivity through Common References

• 40+ partners from 6 countries

• Heterogenous resources: images, texts, databases, etc.

• De-centralized: publish your own data, share the principles

(and there’s some RDF involved, too…)

• We are currently working on an API for search & discovery

http://pelagios-project.blogspot.co.uk

So many ways to get involved :-)

• Download our data from Recogito• Experiment with our API (warning: unfinished)• Become a Recogito editor• Become a Pelagios partner!

Thank you for your attentionhttp://pelagios-project.blogspot.co.ukhttp://pelagios.org/recogitohttp://github.com/pelagios@pelagiosproject

Grateful acknowledgement to JISC, AHRC, the DM2E project, theAndrew W. Mellon Foundationand all Pelagios partners.