Knowledge Representation and Research in the Real World

While research infrastructures have attracted a lot of attention, focus tends to be on their internal components and functions, rather than the form of information that flows in and out of them. Building community knowledge in open digital environments requires that information has meaning and context embedded. Open data itself does not address data and knowledge silos.

This seminar introduces an online humanities research environment (ResearchSpace project) that turns the tables on traditional information database systems by using contextualised data that stands independently of software. Software is used to simply expose the semantics of scholarly data and allow further enrichment of it under the direction of the subject expert. By doing so researchers can have better control over digital research. The seminar will include the project's latest developments.

Speaker

Dominic Oldman is a Law graduate who changed career to work in computing, later specialising in cultural heritage systems. He is the Head of ResearchSpace at the British Museum and a Senior Curator in the Collections Directorate (formerly Deputy Head of Information Systems) and specialises in digital historiography, knowledge representation and Semantic Web/Linked Open Data methods.