Title: “Representation Patterns for Cultural Heritage”

Abstract:
The World Wide Web has been an extremely successful way to share documents on a global scale, yet it contains an important flaw.  Documents on the Web can only be associated through hyperlinks that hide the relationships among them.  Although documents may contain a great deal of information, it is presented as unstructured data that can only be identified through significant effort.

Linked Data is an emerging paradigm for representing hidden knowledge and relationships in ways that work at Internet scale.  Libraries, archives, and museums are poised to take advantage of this new way of working, but must first navigate a shift from traditional document-oriented methods.

Dr. Richard Urban’s study will explore the benefits of design patterns – optimized solutions for common problems – in the development of cultural heritage Linked Data.  He will aim to identify patterns in contemporary standards and request comments from cultural heritage information professionals and amateurs using participatory design methods and semi-structured.  This research will serve as a foundation for understanding how professionals and amateurs participate in distributed knowledge communities, and how Linked Data can serve the information needs of libraries, archives, museums, and their audiences.