I’d like to propose a session that explores the potential use of semantic web technologies, such as the Resource Description Framework RDF, in supporting research and other projects in the humanities. Some initial questions to start the discussion include:

• What are these types of technologies used for?
• What kinds of activities in the humanities do they support?
• What are the kinds of problems that we’ve used these technologies to solve?
• What kinds of issues have been explored in using these types of technologies?
• Sharing thoughts on success stories, war stories and other experiences with these types of technologies.

To give my proposal some context:

I’m a software engineer currently working on the NeAT funded Aus-e-Stage project. This project is focused on developing three new services that expand on the existing services offered by the AusStage system. My current focus is on the construction of datasets that represent the artistic networks comprised in the AusStage dataset as part of the larger development effort on the Navigating Networks Service. The Navigating Networks Service, one of the three new services under development as part of the Aus-e-Stage project, uses an RDF based datastore to:

• More efficiently store, represent, and query the 1.6 million unique collaborations between contributors in the database
• Provide a bridge to other data formats required for graph visualisation such as GraphML
• Explore the uses of RDF and semantic web technologies in preparation for a larger project to produce an RDF based version of the entire AusStage dataset

An opportunity for thought provoking discussion would be most welcome.