Workshops

CIDOC

FieldMap

European Higher Education in Cultural Heritage Informatics

Policies, practices and research in Europe in the field of Cultural Heritage Informatics

The CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model - New Standard for Knowledge Sharing Workshops

Presenter:
Stephen Stead,
Vice Chair, CIDOC/ICOM.

Abstract: This tutorial will introduce the audience to the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model, a core ontology and proposed ISO standard (ISO/CD 21127) for the semantic integration of cultural information with library, archive and other information. The CIDOC CRM concentrates on the definition of relationships, rather than classes, in order to capture the underlying semantics of multiple data and metadata structures. This led to a compact model of 80 classes and 130 relationships, easy to comprehend and suitable to serve as a basis for mediation of cultural and other information and thereby provide the semantic 'glue' needed to transform today's disparate, localised information sources into a coherent and valuable global resource. It comprises the concepts characteristic for most museum, archive and library documentation.
The tutorial aims at rendering the necessary knowledge to understand the potential of applying the CRM - where it can be useful and what the major technical issues of an application are. It will present information integration by employing a core ontology of relationships, in contrast to the prescription of a common data format, as an approach applicable to other domains. In a real example, it will demonstrate the solution of typical cases of heterogeneity by intellectually mapping source data structures to the ontology. Participants with some background in information modelling should be able to use the CIDOC CRM in their applications after this course and some further reading.

Target audience: Ontology experts, digital library designers, data warehouse designers, system integrators, portal designers that work in the wider area of cultural and library information, but also IT-Staff of libraries, museums and archives, vendors of cultural and other information systems. Basic knowledge of object-oriented data models is required.

Max 25- 30

Duration: Half-day 10:00 – 14:00

FieldMap: Using the Digital Field Assistant

Presenters:
Nick Ryan, University of Kent, UK
Martijn van Leusen, Groningen University, NL

Abstract:
The workshop will demonstrate the practical use of the Digital Field Assistant during field walking surveys, and explain the archaeological theory and technical principles behind it.

Target audience:
Field archaeologists interested in starting new survey projects or in adopting new approaches to existing projects.

Notes:
1. For background information on the FieldMap software, see http://www.piranesi.dyndns.org/FieldMap/
2. Part of the workshop will be devoted to a practical data collection exercise, so the number of participants is limited to 15 by available equipment. Additional participants may be accommodated if they can bring a PDA running PocketPC 2003, a GPS receiver that can be connected to the PDA by cable or Bluetooth and, unless the PDA is an HP iPAQ 22xx or 41xx series device, a suitable cable/cradle to connect it to a PC.

European Higher Education in Cultural Heritage Informatics

Monday 21, 14:30-16:00

 

The workshop stems from the Epoch NoE activity on Training and Mobility, providing fellowships for staff and young researchers and promoting the advancement of training programs in Cultural Heritage Informatics.. The activity produces an annual bursary plan supporting attendance to specialized courses, with periodically issued calls. The program is based also on a survey carried on yearly on Training Needs and Offer in Europe in this field.

The first part of the workshop will be dedicated to the presentation of the 1 st year “training offer and needs” report (available on the EPOCH website www.epoch-net.org). It will be followed by a presentation of past and present courses sponsored by Epoch in 2004 and early 2005 and a description of the opportunities offered to young researchers by CHIRON, another EU project funding fellowships for longer trans-national training activity. The introduction will be concluded with the presentation of a draft proposal for curricula of an academic program in the field of Cultural Heritage Informatics.

It is expected that such results and proposals for future activity will be the object of a debate with the audience. Suggestions and advice will be provided to attendees for participating in the above mentioned funding initiatives. Communication of experiences in this area and contributions to the definition of curricula and other training programs are particularly welcome.

The workshop is organised by the EPOCH WP4.4 coordinators – Franco Niccolucci, Sorin Hermon, with the participation of EPOCH's previous course organizers.

Policies, practices and research in Europe in the field of Cultural Heritage Informatics

Monday 21, 16:30-17:30

This workshop will focus on the results of the survey on the State Of The Union (SOTU) in this area, performed by a team as part of EPOCH activity. The survey concerns most European countries, where local correspondents are involved, and has produced a preliminary version which will be presented here and discussed with participants. Availability for additional contributions, future updates and general comments is welcome.

The workshop is chaired by EPOCH WP4.5 coordinators and SOTU responsibles.