1. Melbourne, October 13, 1998 1 Electronic Communication on Diverse Data - The Role of the oo CIDOC Reference Model - Martin Doerr (ICS-FORTH, Crete, Greece) Nicholas Crofts (DSI, Geneva, Switzerland) 18th General Conference of the INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF MUSEUMS Melbourne, Australia

2. Melbourne, October 13, 1998 2 Electronic Communication on Diverse Data Overview p Communication and diversity p Mediation - what can be done p What is the CIDOC Reference model p What can we do now p Conclusions

3. Melbourne, October 13, 1998 3 p What we want to serve: u curiosity,. education, research, statistics p What are the typical questions: u tell me something/everything about kinds or items u best example of u contexts, causality p getting out of u multiple documents, archives, collections u multilingual, heterogeneous, incomplete, complementary Electronic Communication on Diverse Data Communication and Diversity

4. Melbourne, October 13, 1998 4 p Activities in the field: u Web pages, RAMA, GRASP, CIMI, AQUARELLE a.o. u Z39.50, metadata, u … promote uniform access protocols u … use local translation of queries. p Heterogeneous access becomes reality p BUT : u one-view access only u need to serve diversity and depth u missing semantic coherence u missing formal domain knowledge Electronic Communication on Diverse Data Communication and Diversity

5. Melbourne, October 13, 1998 5 p Appreciating diversity: u autonomy of initiative u variety of views, interests, depth and coverage é Makes it richer, makes it cheaper p Need new understanding of standardisation for retrieval: u agreement (or not) on identity and correlation u instead of prescription and restriction Electronic Communication on Diverse Data Mediation - what can be done

6. Melbourne, October 13, 1998 6 p Solution in two parts: u Enabling technology : Mediation servers (becoming available) u The intellectual “glue” Consistent domain ontologies (see Helsinki Conference) Terminological knowledge = multilingual thesauri p The CIDOC Reference Model is a domain ontology u a “maximal” approach : an extensible analysis of entities and attributes u an object oriented formal model, ~60 entities so far u contains an interpretation of the Information Categories Electronic Communication on Diverse Data Mediation - what can be done

7. Melbourne, October 13, 1998 7 p The CIDOC Reference Model serves: u generation of schemata, formats, profiles u precise formal semantic analysis of existing sources u translation of queries (state of the art) u translation of data (merging,combining,processing gaps) p It addresses: u database and retrieval engine implementers u DTD, metadata & access profile creators u thesaurus editors p It is not a new data format ! Electronic Communication on Diverse Data What is the CIDOC Reference Model

8. Melbourne, October 13, 1998 8 Electronic Communication on Diverse Data The Role of the CRM What Who When Where Access profiles: Legacy systems Legacy systems Legacy systems Access Engines ? interprets generates incorporate

9. Melbourne, October 13, 1998 9 Electronic Communication on Diverse Data CRM Principles: Symmetry transferred title of Physical Object Recipient Deaccession of Physical Object Source Acquisition of tofrom Acquisition Actor transferred title of transferred title fromto New World Museum Lovely Museum deaccession 17-8-98 of TA527b, previous:I-372-Z1 Lovely Museum New World Museum acquisition 17-8-98 of to from transferred title from to I-372-Z1 TA527b, previous:I-372-Z1 acquisition 17-8-98 Lovely MuseumNew World Museum Data Schema Local Source 1Local Source 2CRM

10. Melbourne, October 13, 1998 10 Electronic Communication on Diverse Data CRM Principles: Extensible Granularity Physical Object Condition State Condition Assessment Richer SchemaPoorer SchemaCRM Physical Object Condition State Physical Object Condition State Condition Assessment assessed by has identified concerns (assessed by) has identified (identified by) has conditions (condition of) short cut

11. Melbourne, October 13, 1998 11 Electronic Communication on Diverse Data CRM Principles: Specialisation Physical Object IR539 Coins Database Physical Object Coins Type has type Type has type dimes has type inherited due to IsA : merged by IsA : Thesaurus Exchange Media dimes BT ! BT Generic Schema Specific Schema Data

12. Melbourne, October 13, 1998 12 Electronic Communication on Diverse Data CRM Principles: Specialisation

13. Melbourne, October 13, 1998 13 Electronic Communication on Diverse Data Part of a CRM data example

14. Melbourne, October 13, 1998 14 p Widen Engagement u Attract cooperations to work with and on the CRM p Experimentation and Consolidation: u Harmonize metadata, Z39.50 access profiles with CRM u link information categories with a DTD and CRM u Harmonize thesauri with CRM p Standardisation and Implementation u promote a consolidated form as standard u encourage creation of mediators for cultural databases Electronic Communication on Diverse Data What to do now?

15. Melbourne, October 13, 1998 15 pStandardisation for retrieval needs interpretation, rather than prescription pFormal Domain Ontologies can allow for a new quality of global electronic communication on diverse data pThe CIDOC Reference Model comes in time with the availability of new retrieval engines p We advocate a strong engagement of the community to promote and extend the CRM Electronic Communication on Diverse Data Conclusions