
The module studies the involvement and application of semantics in Digital Preservation and focuses on two different but potentially interrelated approaches: (a) vectors, matrices, and vector fields; (b) graph-based structures and ontologies.
The material presented in this course is based on the results of the EU-funded research project PERICLES: Promoting and Enhancing Reuse of Information throughout the Content Lifecycle taking account of Evolving Semantics.
Understand the difference between vectors, matrices, vector space, vector field. Understand bicomponential theories of word meaning. Get a grasp of term weighting to distribute content in vector space. See the link between distributed content vs. lexical fields in semantics.
Get a grasp of how to represent word meaning in vector space, and how to compare two words or two documents if their meaning is similar.
Familiarize yourself with theories of word meaning compliant with a representation by vectors and matrices to enable advanced access to collections.
Get exposed to the idea that if collections evolve, their content dynamics can be modeled on vector fields, the next step in understanding semantics.
We finish off this part by going back to Aristotle to invite physics as a metaphor to model context-dependent evolving content.
Get a grasp of the benefits offered by the Semantic Web when compared to today’s traditional Web and gain a deeper understanding of the underlying architecture and technologies.
Be introduced to ontologies, a rapidly emerging approach for knowledge representation, and their role in revolutionizing today’s Web.
Get a better understanding of the problems and risks faced by Digital Preservation today and get introduced to the notions and risks of semantic ageing and cultural ageing.
Get introduced to the advanced notions of evolving semantics, semantic drift, ontology evolution and be acquainted with a methodology for quantitatively measuring the evolution of ontologies over time.
Together we’ll explore the involvement and application of semantics in Digital Preservation. We will look at the difference between sentence and word meaning as well as how semantic decay endangers access to digital objects over time. We will also explore the shared concerns of philosophy, semantics, semiotics, logic, and information science to model and understand semantic drifts that endanger future access to preserved content.
This course will familiarize you with core ideas for representing word meaning by vectors, including a respective match between linguistics and information science. Together we will explore open-ended research questions and an ongoing effort to model semantic change on a vector field as well as the emerging paradigm of the Semantic Web and the core underlying technologies. We will also introduce technologies related to Digital Preservation as well as notions of evolving semantics and semantic drift.
The material presented in this course is based on the results of the EU-funded research project PERICLES: Promoting and Enhancing Reuse of Information throughout the Content Lifecycle taking account of Evolving Semantics.