CIDOC CRM Workshop

About the workshop

Welcome to the BærUt! network's workshop on CIDOC C(conceptual) R(eference) M(odel), a documentation standard developed by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and its international committee for documentation, CIDOC.

The model aims to provide an information standard that cultural heritage institutions such as museums, but also researchers, can use to describe their collections, thus improving information sharing between institutions.

The model can be used as a reference and standard for Semantic Web initiatives, as well as serve as a guide for more general data(base) modelling, mostly for software applications making use of XML and RDF.

The BærUt! workshop aims to introduce its participants to the concepts behind CIDOC-CRM and provide them with hands-on examples of how the model can be applied to actual datasets.

Additionally, the model aims to provide an information standard that cultural heritage institutions such as museums, but also researchers, can use to describe their collections, thus improving information sharing between institutions. The model can be used as a reference and standard for Semantic Web initiatives, as well as serve as a guide for more general data(base) modelling, mostly for software applications making use of XML and RDF.

Structure

The workshop will be led by Christian-Emil Ore, UiO, who is one of the international editors of the standard(s) and has long been involved in the development.

Morning session

The morning session will contain gentle introductions to:

1. Conceptual modelling and ontologies,

2. Event oriented modelling and data integration

3. CIDOC-CRM: background, purpose, design principles

4. CRMarchaeo, a model for archaeological excavation data

5. CRMtex aims to model information concerning ancient inscriptions (including coins, marks and stamps), papyri, medieval manuscripts, but also modern handwritten documents of any kind.

Depending on time the CMtex may be postponed to after lunch.

For each point there is a series of possible use-cases. The actual usecases will be selected based on the scholarly background and interests of the participants.

Afternoon session

The afternoon session focuses on practical applications of the models.

Invited speakers will give 20-minute presentations of how they implemented the standard into their data models.

Audience

The workshop is aimed at everyone who has heard of CRM and is considering whether to implement it in their own projects in the Humanities, especially different philologies and archaeology. The goal is to provide a solid introduction into the underlying concepts of CRM, combined with hands-on examples showing how the standard can be applied in practice, enabling participants to develop their own project implementation.

Requirements

Participants are expected to bring their own laptops. Prior knowledge of mark-up languages such as XML and data modelling in general is recommended, but not required. We would also appreciate participants providing a short description of the projects they would like to apply CRM to, and what they are aiming to achieve.

We also ask participants to provide information on the projects they are thinking of applying CRM to, and questions they would like to have answered during the workshop. 

Victuals

We will serve hot and cold beverages & nibbles. 

Lunched is in Eilert Sunds Cafeteria 1 PM - 2 PM.

Registration

Register for the workshop via our sign-up page.

How to find Undervisningsrom 209

Enter through the Science Library on the second floor of Vilhelm Bjerknes hus.

Once you're through the security detection systems to the library on the top of the stairs, walk to the left immediately. Walk past the lecturer's corner, and through the glass doors at the end of the room. Walk over the bridge and through the door on the other side of the bridge. Undervisningsrom 209 is just inside the door. If the door is locked someone will meet you there to let you in. 

Background for the workshop

In the cultural heritage research, the data found in information systems and represented by virtual reconstructions are to a large degree directly based on information deduced from the study of texts. In many cases, even if the texts are available electronically, the links from the deduced information to the original texts are not available and, in many cases, very costly to re-establish. Reproducibility of results is a core concept in text-based research as in all research. Thus, such links should be expressed explicitly in the systems and in accordance with the data standards developed in the fields of text encoding and conceptual modelling. To do this it is necessary to create a combined understanding of text encoding represented by the TEI guidelines and the understanding of conceptual models represented by initiatives like the CIDOCCRM and IFLA’s LRMoo (see also Ore & Eide 2009).

The CIDOC CRM ontologies (including LRMoo) are all based on event centric modelling. That is, event centric models focus on the common context objects occur in. For example, actors and objects can be linked via events they participate in or are present at. This is substantially different from models following the traditional philosophy that persons and objects are hubs around which the various pieces of information are organized. An event centric model makes it easy to model provenance in art history and text philology and opens for storytelling. A second innovation is that conceptual objects like the abstract motif of images (art history and photography) and the intellectual content of texts (philology) are treated as first class objects in the models, and this opens for documentation of the material found in libraries and archives.

All the CIDOC CRM ontologies are defined as hierarchies of classes and properties to enable data interchange and integration and can be used as semantic glue in linked (open) data applications, see for example the Finnish War Sampo (Hyvönen & al 2014,2024). War Sampo is an elegant example of an advanced and scalable Linked Open Data (LOD) application based on a common conceptual model designed for data integration. An analogue application could be a common gateway to literature and cultural life in the Nordic countries based on the real world information (persons, places, events, literary works) found in the large electronic text editions developed in the Nordic Countries the last 30 years. This could perhaps be a task for the Nordic Network of Text Philologists (Nordiskt Nätverk för Editionsfilologer).

The use of a common metadata schema like CIDOC CRM also supports the so-called FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable).  This has been demonstrated for European archaeological  datasets by the ARIADNE and ARIADNEplus projects and the newly established ARIADNE Research Infrastructure (ARIADNE 2024). 

The fundamental principle for the CIDOC CRM is that the model is based on observed, real documentation practices. To avoid a huge single model, the development strategy is that CRMbase is kept as unchanged as possible, and scholarly groups are invited to develop extensions. There are currently 11 compatible extensions. The library extensions FRBRoo and LRMoo is a result of a long-term collaboration with IFLA beginning in 2003. Other extensions are CRMarchaeo  (archaeological excavation),  CRMgeo (geo information),  CRMsci (scientific observation) and CRMtex (epigraphy).

Selected readings and references

• ARIADNE 2024: ARIADNE Research Infrastructure AISBL https://www.ariadne-research-infrastructure.eu/ Accessed 2024/04/12
• Berners-Lee, T. (2009) Linked Data. Available at: https://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html Accessed 2024/04/12
• Berners-Lee, T., Hendler, J., and Lassila, O. (2001) 'The Semantic Web', Scientific American, 284 (May), pp. 34–43. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0501-34. Available at : https://www.scientificamerican.com/issue/sa/2001/05-01/ Accessed 2024/04/12
• Bush, Vannevar (1945) As We May Think, The Atlantic, July 1945.
• CIDOC-CRM  Available at: http://www.cidoc-crm.org  
• CRMarchaeo Available at: https://www.cidoc-crm.org/crmarchaeo/fm_releases%20.  Accessed 2024/04/12
• CRMtex Available at: https://www.cidoc-crm.org/crmtex/fm_releases. Accessed 2024/04/12
• Conklin, J. (1987) 'Hypertext: an introduction and survey', Computer, 20 (9), pp. 17–41. doi: 10.1109/MC.1987.1663693.
• FAIR principles 2024 Available at: https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/,  Accessed 2024/04/12
• Felicetti A., Murano, F. Ce qui est écrit et ce qui est parlé. CRMtex for modelling textual entities on the Semantic Web Semantic Web 12 (2021) 169–180 IOS Press DOI 10.3233/SW-200418. Available at:  https://content.iospress.com/articles/semantic-web/sw200418  Accessed 2024/04/12
• Hyvönen, E., Tuominen, J., Alonen, M., and Mäkelä, E. (2014) ‘Linked Data Finland: A 7-star model and platform for publishing and re-using linked datasets’, in Presutti. V., Blomqvist, E., Troncy, R., Sack, H., Papadakis, I., and Tordai, A. (eds) The Semantic Web: ESWC 2014 Satellite Events. Anissaras, Crete, Greece, May 25–29, 2014. Revised Selected Papers. Springer International Publishing Switzerland, pp. 226–230.  Series; Lecture Notes in Computer Science 8798. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-11955-7_24. Available at https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-11955-7_24.  Accessed 2024/04/12
• Hyvönen & al 2024 : WarSampo Data Service and Semantic Portal for Publishing Linked Open Data About the Second World War History, DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-34129-3_46. Available at https://seco.cs.aalto.fi/projects/sotasampo/en/  Accessed 2024/04/12
• Riva,P.,  Žumer, M., Aalberg, T.  LRMoo, a high-level model in an object-oriented framework available at https://repository.ifla.org/bitstream/123456789/2217/1/144-riva-en-paper.pdf  Accessed 2024/04/12
• LRM = Library Reference Model, Available at https://www.ifla.org/publications/node/11412,  Accessed 2024/04/12
• Marketakis, Y., Minadakis, N., Kondylakis, H., Konsolaki, K., Samaritakis, G., Theodoridou, M., Flouris, G., and Doerr, M. (2017) 'X3ML mapping framework for information integration in cultural heritage and beyond', International Journal on Digital Libraries, (June), pp. 1–19. doi:10.1007/s00799-016-0179-1. Available at (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00799-016-0179-1/fulltext.html)  Accessed 2024/04/12
• Oldman, D., Doerr, M., and Gradmann, S. (2016) ‘Zen and the art of Linked Data: new strategies for a Semantic Web of humanist knowledge’, in Schreibman, S., Siemens, R., and Unsworth, J. (eds) A new companion to digital humanities. Chichester, UK: John Willey & Sons, Ltd, pp. 251–273. doi: 10.1002/9781118680605.ch18.
• Ore, C.-E. (1998) ‘Making multidisciplinary resources’, in Burnard, L., Deegan, M., and Short, H. (eds) The Digital Demotic. Selected papers from DRH97, Digital Resources for the Humanities conference, St Anne's college, Oxford, September 1997. London: Office for Humanities Communication, pp. 65–74. Series; Office for Humanities Communication, King's College, London, Publication 10.
• Ore, C.‐E., and Eide, Ø. 2009. TEI and cultural heritage ontologies: exchange of information? Literary and Linguistic Computing 24 (2), 161–72. doi:10.1093/llc/fqp010
• Ore, C-E. 2017. Edisjonsfilologi, fjernlesning og digitale utgaver. I Henrikson, Paula; Malm, Mats & Söderlund, Petra (Red.), Textkritik som analysemetod. Bidrag till en konferens anordnad av Nordiskt Nätverk för Editionsfilologer 2-4 oktober 2015.  Svenska vitterhetssamfundet. ISSN 978-91-7230-187-0. s. 26–44. Available at: https://www.nnedit.org/vol/nne_vol_12.pdf Accessed 2024/04/12
• Richie, I. (2011) The day I turned down Tim Berners-Lee. Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/ian_ritchie_the_day_i_turned_down_tim_berners_lee/transcript?language=en   Accessed 2024/04/12
• TEI = Text Encoding Initiative P5: www.tei-c.org,  Accessed 2019/05/23

Questions?

Send an email to the BærUt! project leader, Annika Rockenberger.