Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 Knowledge = Information in Context: on the Importance

Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in ContextICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010

Knowledge = Information in Context:

on the Importance of Semantic Contextualisation

in Europeana

Prof. Dr. Stefan GradmannHumboldt-Universität zu Berlin / School of Library and Information [email protected]

Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in ContextICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 2

Overview

Europeana: To Which End?

Knowledge: a Challenging Concept

DIKW / DIKT in Practice: “Take Five”

Europeana in the DIKT Continuum

Semantic Contextualisation in Europeana

From 'Connecting' to 'Thinking'


Europeana: to Which End?A first approximation

„Europeana.eu is about ideas and inspiration. It links you to 6 million digital items.“ (http://www.europeana.eu/portal/aboutus.html)

Evokes conceptualisation, reasoning, semantics …

… but on its own remains too vague and imprecise to capture the functionalpotential of an endeavour that has too often been characterised in termsof sheer quantity!


Europeana: to Which End?Opening Statement

Europeana is much more than a machine for mechanical accumulation of object representations!

One of its characteristics will be to enable the generation of knowledge pertaining to culture!

The rest of the paper deals with

the implications of this initial statement in terms of information science;

the way we technically prepare to implement the necessary data structures and functionality;

the ‚semantic‘ functionality Europeana will offer using these elements to go well beyond the 'traditional' digital library paradigm.


Knowledge: a Challenging Concept … too challenging for some

„There are thing[sic!] we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know. So when we do the best we can and we pull all this information together, and we then say well that's basically what we see as the situation, that is really only the known knowns and the known unknowns. And each year, we discover a few more of those unknown unknowns.“Donald Rumsfeld on „analysis on intelligence information“, 6th June 2002

No consensual definition – but a hierarchical continuum (DIKW)“Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” (T.S. Eliot, "The Rock", Faber & Faber 1934)

Information Science has added Data to the hierarchy


DIKW: A Closer Look (1)

The stages are not discreet but form a continuum! No binary transitions!

Data

discrete, atomistic, small portions of 'givens' without inherent structure or necessary relationship between them.

Data have no meaning in themselves.

Phonetical level in linguistics

Information

Data + patterns

Meaningful data

Phonological / lexical level in linguistics


DIKW: A Closer Look (2)

KnowledgeInformation as part of a context and useful in this context

Social or semantic context

Contextualisation enables (simple!) interpolative and deterministic reasoning.

Syntactic level in linguistics

Wisdom, facets of (Rowley & Slack, 2008)is embedded in or exhibited through action;

sophisticated and sensitive use of knowledge;

is exhibited through decision making;

exercise of judgement in complex real-life situations;

requires consideration of ethical and social considerations;

builds on intuition, communication, and trust.


DIKW → DIKT

Reduce complexity!Replace the rich but diffuse concept 'wisdom' with 'thinking'Mental activity we cannot (entirely) confer to machinesNon-deterministicSemantic level in linguistics (‘wisdom’ would probably be on pragmatic level)DIKW → DIKT


DIKT: a Visualisation (1)








DIKT in Practice: (Very dirty) data


DIKT in Practice:Data + Pattern: Information


DIKT in Practice:Information + Context: Knowledge

..., 1941, 1943, , 1947, 1949, ...

1939 -


DIKT in Practice: “Take Five”... and creative thinking

http://itunes.apple.com/de/album/dave-brubecks-greatest-hits/id157427923


Europeana in the DIKT Continuum

Definitely not a huge data agglomeration (even though building on one)!

Neither a huge information repository (even though building on many of them, again)!

High volume aggregation of digital representations of cultural artefacts together with rich contextualisation data and embedded in a Linked Open Data architecture.

Enabling knowledge generation …

… and maybe even speculative thinking


Semantic Contextualisation in Europeana: Class Model Context


Semantic Contextualisation in Europeana: Property Model Context


Basic Object RepresentationModeling using Classes and Properties






Context Data•DBpedia•GND•Geonames•LCSH•…

And all this ends up in a huge datacloud: Linked Open Data


An Example: Thoughtlab (1)


An Example (2)


The Datacloud Behind theExample


An Example (3)


An Example (4)


An Example (5)


An Example (6)


An Example (7)

Adam & Eve

∞

Conclusion: from 'Connecting' to 'Thinking'

Thank you for your patience and attention!

And this transition in turn positions Europeana nicely in the DIKT continuum!

Europeana enables a crucial transition (as illustrated in its changing logos!)

Documents

Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 Knowledge = Information in Context: on the Importance