Getty Vocabularies LOD

http://vocab.getty.edu

• Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT): released Feb 2014
• Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN): released Aug 2014

Work continues with:

• Unified List of Artist Names (ULAN)
• Cultural Object Names Authority (CONA)
• Getty Museum data
• AATA bibliography

Museum and CONA are more complex, involves LIDO/CDWA-lite XML to CIDOC CRM (RDF)

Cultural Heritage LOD

Working at the center. (Shows thesauri only, not yet CONA/Museum data)

Ontotext Scope of Work

• Semantic/ontology development: http://vocab.getty.edu/ontology
• Contributed to ISO 25964 ontology (latest standard on thesauri). Provided implementation experience, suggestions and fixes
• Complete mapping specification
• Help implement R2RML scripts working off Getty's Oracle database, contribution to Perl implementation (RDB2RDF), R2RML extension (rrx:languageColumn)
• Work with a wide External Reviewers group (people from OCLC, Europeana, ISO 25964 working group, etc)
• GraphDB (OWLIM) semantic repository. Enterprise Edition (clustered for high-availability)
• Semantic application development (customized Forest user interface) and tech consulting
• SPARQL 1.1 compliant endpoint: http://vocab.getty.edu/sparql
• Comprehensive documentation (100 pages): http://vocab.getty.edu/doc
• Lots of sample queries, including charts, geographic queries, etc
• Per-entity export files, explicit/total data dumps. Many formats: RDF, Turtle, NTriples, JSON, JSON-LD (upcoming)
• Help desk / support
• Presentations, scientific papers

GVP LOD Architecture

Quite straightforward

Semantic Resolution & Content Negotiation

All GVP, AAT and TGN URLs resolve, returning human or machine readable content through content negotiation (303 redirect). Eg about the ontology:

Eg about an AAT subject

GVP Vocabulary Data

Scope includes:

• Subjects: Concepts but also non-concepts
• Terms as plain (SKOS) and rich (SKOS-XL) labels. Term characteristics
• Hierarchical relations: custom & standard, distinguish BTG,BTP,BTI
• Associative Relations
• Historic info on rels (rdf:Statement) and terms
• Obsolete subjects
• Alignment (exactMatch to LCSH)
• Sources (bibo:Document, bibo:DocumentPart with locator)
• Contributors (foaf:Agent)
• Revision history (prov:Activity)
• Thesaurus-specific data (for now: TGN place types, coordinates

Richer than any other SKOS thesaurus I've seen

AAT Relational Schema

AAT Conceptual Diagram

External Ontologies

Auxiliary Ontologies

Descriptive Info Ontologies

GVP Semantic Representation

GVP Semantic Representation (2)

GVP Subject Classes

• GVP Subjects include both Concepts and non-concepts (for organizing the hierarchy, not for indexing)

We handle "impedance mismatch" with

• SKOS: restrict skos:related, infer skos:broader
• ISO: infer iso:broaderGeneric/Partitive/Instantial

S=Standard, G=GVP common, A=AAT, T=TGN

Obsolete Subjects

• AAT obsolete subjects are 4.4% of valid subjects, which shows a good rate of editorial actions
• Obsolete subjects may have been used in client data. In order not to leave such data hanging, we publish minimal information:

aat:300123456 a gvp:ObsoleteSubject; # Was made non-publishable
  skos:prefLabel "Made up subject";
  skos:inScheme aat: ;
  schema:endDate "2012-12-31T12:34:56"^^xsd:dateTime.

aat:300386746 a gvp:ObsoleteSubject; # Was merged to a dominant Subject
  skos:prefLabel "Buncheong";
  skos:inScheme aat: ;
  dct:isReplacedBy aat:300018699; # Punch'ong
  schema:endDate "2012-12-31T12:34:56"^^xsd:dateTime.

Hierarchical Relations

Use iso:ThesaurusArray to allow Guide Terms below Concepts. Infer cross-threading SKOS/ISO broader relations

Key Values (Flags) Are Important

Excel-driven Ontology Generation™ (getty-codes.xls to getty-codes.ttl)
Key val can be mapped to Custom sub-class, Custom (sub-)prop, Ontology Value (eg <term/kind/Abbreviation>)

Associative Relations Are Valuable

More Excel-driven Ontology Generation™ (assoc-rels.xls to assoc-rels.ttl)

• Relations come in owl:inverseOf pairs (or owl:SymmetricProperty self-inverse)
• Should we make a subproperty hierarchy?

GVP Ontology Documentation

http://vocab.getty.edu/ontology, LOV Entry (10 classes, 177 props)

GVP Ontology: a Class

ISO 25946: Latest Standard on Thesauri

Use of iso:ThesaurusArray in GVP

Use for ordered children. Novelty: if parent is Concept, use anonymous array. Careful crafting of URLs to make rdf:List

Contribution to ISO 25946

• Contributed to ISO 25946 ontology (LOV entry)
• First industrial use of ISO 25946
• Defined appropriate combinations of BTG, BTP, BTI relations (first formally defined in ISO).

On Compositionality of ISO 25964 Hierarchical Relations (BTG, BTP, BTI), V.Alexiev, J.Lindenthal, A.Isaac. Draft paper, Presentation at NKOS 2014 Workshop at DL 2014, London, 12 Sep 2014

Terms

Support multilingual labels: both SKOS (plain)…

aat:300198841 a skos:Concept , gvp:Subject , gvp:Concept ;
  skos:prefLabel "rhyta"@el-latn , "rhyta"@en , "rhytons"@es , "rhytons"@fr , "rytons"@nl ;
  skos:altLabel "rhyta"@es , "rhyton"@es , "rhyton"@en , "rhyton"@el-latn ...;
  skosxl:prefLabel aat_term:1000198841-en , aat_term:1000198841-el-Latn ...;
  skosxl:altLabel aat_term:1000198841-es , aat_term:1000297235-en ...

… and rich info in SKOS-XL:

aat_term:1000198841-en a skosxl:Label ;
  dc:identifier "1000198841" ;
  dct:language aat:300388277 , gvp_lang:en ; # owl:sameAs
  dct:contributor aat_contrib:10000000 , aat_contrib:10000131 , aat_contrib:10000088 ;
  skosxl:literalForm "rhyta"@en ;                #### with Qualifier if applicable
  gvp:term "rhyta"@en ;                          #### no qualifier
  gvp:displayOrder "1"^^xsd:positiveInteger ;
  gvp:termType <http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/term/type/Descriptor> ; #### Descr/AltDescr/UseFor
  gvp:termPOS <http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/term/POS/PluralNoun> ;   #### Part of Speech
  gvp:contributorPreferred aat_contrib:10000000 , aat_contrib:10000088 ;
  gvp:contributorNonPreferred aat_contrib:10000131 ;
  gvp:sourcePreferred aat_source:2000024811 , aat_source:2000051089-term-1000198841...;
  dct:source aat_source:2000024811 , aat_source:2000052946 , aat_source:2000049728...;
  gvp:sourceNonPreferred aat_source:2000052946 ;
  gvp:sourceAlternatePreferred aat_source:2000048328-term-1000198841 .

Languages

IANA Language Subtag Registry: 9000 registrations (broken down by Type and Scope):

• 7769 languages
• 227 extlangs, e.g. ar-auz (Uzbeki Arabic)
• 116 language collections, e.g. bh (Bihari languages)
• 62 macrolanguages, e.g. zh (Chinese), cr (Cree)
• 4 special languages, e.g. und (Undetermined)
• 162 scripts, eg Latn (Latin), Japn (Japanese)
• 301 regions, e.g. US (United States), 021 (Northern America)
• 61 variants
• 67 redundant
• 26 grandfathered

Custom Language Tags

Despite the richness of IANA tags, we had to define new tags, using several extension mechanisms:

• Private language, e.g.
  • x-byzantin-Latn: Byzantine Greek (transliterated)
  • x-khasian: Khasian
  • x-frisian (IANA/ISO has codes for predecessor Old Frisian and dialects West, Saterland and North Frisian)
• Private language used in specific region, e.g.
  • qqq-002: African language (not specified which)
  • qqq-142: Asian language (not specified which)
  • qqq-ET: Ethiopian (not specified which: Boro/Borna, Karo, Male…)
• Private modifier, e.g.
  • grc-Latn- x-liturgic: Liturgical Greek
  • ber-Latn- x-dialect: Berber Dialects (transliterated)
  • fa-Latn- x-middle: Persian, Middle (transliterated)
  • zh-Latn-pinyin- x-notone: Chinese (transliterated Pinyin without tones)

Future: publish lang tags (we now publish only ISO2 & ISO3 codes)

Sources

bibo:Document or bibo:DocumentPart

aat_source:2000051089 a bibo:Document;
  dc:identifier "2000051089"
  bibo:shortTitle "AATA database (2002-)";
  dct:title "Getty Conservation Institute (GCI). database of AATA Online... 2002-. ".
aat_source:2000051089-term-1000198841 a bibo:DocumentPart;
  dct:isPartOf aat_source:2000051089;
  bibo:locator "128257 checked 26 January 2012".

Applied to subject, term, scopeNote:

aat:300198841 # subject (rhyta)
  dct:source aat_source:2000030301-subject-300198841;
  dct:source aat_source:2000052378.
aat_term:1000198841-en # term "rhyta"@en
  gvp:sourceNonPreferred aat_source:2000049728;
  dct:source aat_source:2000051089-term-1000198841. 
aat_scopeNote:34904 # scopeNote
  dct:source aat_source:2000046502.

Contributors

foaf:Agent

aat_contrib:10000131 a foaf:Agent;
  dc:identifier "10000131";
  foaf:nick "CDBP-DIBAM";
  foaf:name "Centro de Documentación de Bienes Patrimoniales...".

Applied to subject, term, scopeNote:

aat:300198841 # subject "rhyta"
  dct:contributor aat_contrib:10000131;
  dct:contributor aat_contrib:10000000.
aat_term:1000198841-en # term "rhyta"@en
  gvp:contributorNonPreferred aat_contrib:10000131;
  gvp:contributorPreferred aat_contrib:10000000.
aat_scopeNote:34904 # scopeNote
  dct:contributor aat_contrib:10000000.

Historic Info

Includes dates of applicability, historicFlag, comment. Applied to terms; relations, place types (using rdf:Statement)

aat_term:1000002693-en a skosxl:Label;
  skosxl:literalForm "lambruscatura"@en ;
  gvp:historicFlag <http://vocab.getty.edu/historic/historic> ;
  schema:startDate "0900"^^xsd:gYear ;
  schema:endDate "1700"^^xsd:gYear ;
  rdfs:comment "Medieval term for wainscoting".

aat_rel:300020271-aat2812_followed-300020269 a rdf:Statement;
  rdf:subject      aat:300020271;        # Second Dynasty (Egyptian)
  rdf:predicate    gvp:aat2812_followed;
  rdf:object       aat:300020269;        # First Dynasty (Egyptian)
  rdfs:comment     "Second Dynasty began ca. 2775 BCE";
  schema:startDate "-2785"^^xsd:gYear;
  schema:endDate   "-2765"^^xsd:gYear.

tgn:7011179-placeType-300008347 a rdf:Statement;
  rdf:subject      tgn:7011179;          # Siena
  rdf:predicate    gvp:placeTypePreferred;
  rdf:object       aat:300008347;        # inhabited place
  rdfs:comment     "settled by Etruscans (flourished 6th century BCE)";
  schema:startDate "-0800"^^xsd:gYear;
  gvp:displayOrder "1"^^xsd:positiveInteger.

Provenance Ontology

• PROV considers that prov:Modify uses an unknown old entity ":input" and generates an unknown new entity ":output", both being specializations of the entity under consideration.
• Need to use prov:Generation so we can use prov:atTime and reflect that the modification is a prov:InstantaneousEvent.

Revision History

PROV is too complex, so we simplify:

aat:300018699
  skos:changeNote aat_rev:12345, aat_rev:12346, aat_rev:12347;
  prov:wasGeneratedBy aat_rev:12345;
  dct:created  "2014-01-02T01:02:03"^^xsd:dateTime;
  dct:modified "2014-01-03T01:02:03"^^xsd:dateTime;
  dct:issued   "2014-01-04T01:02:03"^^xsd:dateTime.
aat_rev:12345 a prov:Activity, prov:Create;
  dc:type "created";
  prov:startedAtTime "2014-01-02T01:02:03"^^xsd:dateTime.
aat_rev:12346 a prov:Activity, prov:Modify;
  prov:used aat:300018699;
  dc:type "term added";
  dc:description "leggings, puttee (1000248060)";
  prov:startedAtTime "2014-01-03T01:02:03"^^xsd:dateTime.
aat_rev:12347 a prov:Activity, prov:Publish;
  prov:used aat:300018699;
  dc:type "issued";
  prov:startedAtTime "2014-01-04T01:02:03"^^xsd:dateTime.

TGN Specifics: Concept-Place Duality

Duality between Concept and its denotation (ala VIAF, UK BL, FR BnF, SE KB…)

TGN Semantic Representation

Adds place types (TGN->AAT), Concept-Place duality, coordinates

Inference

Hierarchical Relations inference (GVP->Standard):
blue=standard, black=GVP, bold=closure, red=restriction. Numbers refer to doc sections

Extended Property Constructs

• TGN is much bigger: AAT: 10M, TGN: 94M (explicit statements)
• We infer 60M statements (1.58x expansion ratio)
• To do this quickly (on biweekly refresh), we decided to use OWLIM Rules
• While OWL2 has very powerful class constructs, its property constructs are quite weak
• Extending OWL2 Property Constructs: several extensions that we found useful

pN = premises, r = restriction (just another premise), tN = types, q = conclusion

• p1 / p2: property chain (more efficient than owl:propertyChainAxiom and owl:TransitiveProperty)
• p & r: property conjunction (restriction): holds between two nodes when both properties connect the same nodes
• [t1] p [t2]: type restriction: holds when source has type t1 and target has type t2 (shown inside the node)

Extended Property Constructs (2)

name	prop path	construct	illustration
PropChain	q <= p1 / p2	Chain of fixed length 2
PropRestr	q <= p & r	Conjunction (restriction by property)
PropChainRestr	q <= (p1 / p2) & r	Chain and restriction by property
TypeRestr	q <= [t1] p [t2]	Restriction by two typechecks
PropChainType2	q <= p1 / p2[t2]	Chain and typecheck

Reduced SKOS Inference

Eliminate redundant props (World has 1.2M narrowerTransitive, 2.4M semanticRelation). Break inference at red ovals

Construct Query: Get & Cache All Data for Subject

Semantic Resources, Dumps

• All data for every independent resource (Subject, Source, Contributor) is extracted
• Using CONSTRUCT queries like above (the ones for Source, Contributor are much simpler)
• Entity files are cached, thus served very quickly
• Entity files are served in RDF/XML, N3/Turtle, NTriples, JSON, soon JSON-LD
• explicit.zip: R2RML-generated statements, NTriples (you need to do the Inferencing)
• full.zip: all statements, concatenated from entity files, NTriples

Documentation

Doc Production

Edit in Word. Spellcheck, link check (below). Print as PDF. Save as Compact HTML, HtmlTidy, rewrite with original images.

Benefit: printable PDF and linkable HTML

Sample Queries

Lots of them! The (!) says "read the documentation first". As part of helpdesk support, we're tracking usage and adding samples.

Sample Query: Bar chart with SPARQL

Number of members of the UN per year. See doc or jsfiddle with it

Sample Query: Geo chart with SPARQL

When each nation joined the UN. See doc or jsfiddle with it.

Sample query: Overseas Possessions of the Netherlands

# 5.3.20 Places Outside Bounding Box (Overseas Possessions)
select ?place ?name ?lat ?long {
  ?place skos:inScheme tgn: ;
    foaf:focus [wgs:lat ?lat; wgs:long ?long];
    gvp:prefLabelGVP [xl:literalForm ?name];
    gvp:broaderPartitiveExtended [rdfs:label "The Netherlands"@en]
  filter (!(50.787185 <= ?lat && ?lat <= 53.542265 && 3.389722 <= ?long && ?long <= 7.169019))}

GVP LOD Usage

People started using AAT and TGN right after their release

• AAT Concept selection (usually by autocompletion): EADitor, xEAC, VRA Editor, MODES, DIGIMUS, Drupal Web Taxonomy
• TGN Place selection: same as above; Portable Antiquities (finds.org.uk), Nomisma, Kerameikos
• Visualization: Hierarchies with d3js, LOD with lodlive.it
• Semantic enrichment: Europeana (Rijksmuseum, Museo Galileo, Erfgoedplus.be), Partage Plus (Art Nouveau to Europeana)

Usage Stories

Usage Stories (internal confluence)

Thanks for your time!

If you have any questions or suggestions for improvement, please don't hesitate to contact me: vladimir.alexiev@ontotext.com