1. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 Knowledge = Information in Context: on the Importance of Semantic Contextualisation in Europeana Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin / School of Library and Information Science stefan.gradmann@ibi.hu-berlin.de

2. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 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'

3. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 3 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 functional potential of an endeavour that has too often been characterised in terms of sheer quantity!

4. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 4 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.

5. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 5 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

6. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 6 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

7. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 7 DIKW: A Closer Look (2) Knowledge Information 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.

8. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 8 DIKW → DIKT Reduce complexity! Replace the rich but diffuse concept 'wisdom' with 'thinking' Mental activity we cannot (entirely) confer to machines Non-deterministic Semantic level in linguistics (‘wisdom’ would probably be on pragmatic level) DIKW → DIKT

9. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 9 DIKT: a Visualisation (1)

10. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 10 DIKT: a Visualisation (2)

11. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 11 DIKT: a Visualisation (3)

12. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 12 DIKT: a Visualisation (3)

13. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 13 DIKT in Practice: (Very dirty) data

14. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 14 DIKT in Practice: Data + Pattern: Information

15. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 15 DIKT in Practice: Information + Context: Knowledge..., 1941, 1943,, 1947, 1949,... 1939 -

16. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 16 DIKT in Practice: “Take Five”... and creative thinking http://itunes.apple.com/de/album/dave-brubecks-greatest-hits/id157427923

17. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 17 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

18. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 18 Semantic Contextualisation in Europeana: Class Model Context

19. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 19 Semantic Contextualisation in Europeana: Property Model Context

20. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 20 Basic Object Representation Modeling using Classes and Properties

21. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 21 Semantic Contextualisation in Europeana

22. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 22 Semantic Contextualisation in Europeana

23. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 23 Context Data DBpedia GND Geonames LCSH … And all this ends up in a huge datacloud: Linked Open Data

24. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 24 An Example: Thoughtlab (1)

25. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 25 An Example (2)

26. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 26 The Datacloud Behind the Example

27. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 27 An Example (3)

28. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 28 An Example (4)

29. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 29 An Example (5)

30. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 30 An Example (6)

31. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann: Knowledge = Information in Context ICDL 2010, New Delhi, 26 February 2010 31 An Example (7) Adam & Eve ∞

32. 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!)