Latest news

  • March, 2023

    The paper describes FastCat Catalogues, a Web application that supports researchers studying archival material, such as historians, in exploring and quantitatively analysing the data (transcripts) of archival documents. The application was designed based on real information needs provided by a large group of researchers, makes use of JSON technology, and is configurable for use over any type of archival documents whose contents have been transcribed and exported in JSON format.

    A preprint of the paper is available here. More information about FastCat Catalogues is available here.

  • January 17, 2023

    This paper proposes a workflow model for holistic data management in archival research; from transcribing and documenting a set of archival documents, to curating the transcribed data, integrating it to a rich semantic network (knowledge graph), and then exploring the integrated data quantitatively. The workflow is provenance-aware, highly-recursive and focuses on semantic interoperability, aiming at the production of sustainable data of high value and long-term validity. We provide implementation details for each step of the workflow and present its application in maritime history research. We also discuss relevant quality aspects and lessons learned from its application in a real context.

    A preprint of the paper is available here.

  • December 12, 2022

    In this paper, we describe the construction and use of the SeaLiT Ontology, an extension of the ISO standard CIDOC-CRM for the modelling and integration of maritime history information. We present the specification of the ontology, RDFS and OWL implementations, as well as knowledge graphs that make use of this data model for integrating information originating from a large and diverse set of archival documents. We also describe an application that operates over these knowledge graphs and which supports historians in exploring and quantitatively analysing the integrated data through a user-friendly interface. Finally, we discuss aspects related to the use, evolution and sustainability of the ontology.

    A preprint of the paper is available here.

  • December 6-9, 2022

    The 55th CIDOC CRM and 47th FRBR CRM meeting took place as an hybrid event hosted by Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH), University of Luxembourg, on 6-9 December 2022.

    Pavlos Fafalios (principal investigator of ReKnow) and Martin Doerr (supervisor in ReKnow), together with other members of the Centre for Cultural Informatics, participated in this meeting and discussed ongoing work and open issues about CIDOC-CRM and its compatible models.

    Pavlos Fafalios and Martin Doerr, together with other members of the community, discussed their ongoing work on the new version of CRMtex. This work is connected to the first ReKnow objective (design and development of semantic data models and processes).

    More information about the meeting is available here.

  • November 30, 2022

    This project officially ended on November 30, 2022.

    Check the project results in the 'resources' page!

    The web site will be being updated with any new ReKnow related results and activities!

  • October 30, 2022

    This book chapter describes the process and the tools used for building and exploring a rich semantic network of Maritime History data that integrates and consolidates information from a variety of historical archival sources, such as crew lists, civil registers and census data.

    The book chapter is available (under an Open Access license) at: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004514195_019.

  • October 27, 2022

    The principal investigator of ReKnow (Pavlos Fafalios) gave an invited (lunch) talk at Metaphacts. The title of his talk was "Workflow Model and Tools for Holistic Data Management and Semantic Interoperability in Archival Research". The context of this talk was the secondment (conducted remotely) of Pavlos Fafalios at Metaphacts.

    The slides of the presentation are available here.

  • September 13-16, 2022

    The 54th CIDOC CRM and 47th FRBR CRM meeting took place as an hybrid event hosted by Sapienza University of Rome on 13-16 September 2022.

    Pavlos Fafalios (principal investigator of ReKnow) and Martin Doerr (supervisor in ReKnow), together with other members of the Centre for Cultural Informatics, participated in this meeting and discussed ongoing work and open issues about CIDOC-CRM and its compatible models.

    At sessions 3.1 and 3.2, Martin Doerr and Pavlos Fafalios, together with other members of the community, discussed their ongoing work on extending CRMinf and CRMtex for modeling the main activities involved in the study of inscriptions. This work is connected to the first ReKnow objective (design and development of semantic data models and processes).

    More information about the meeting is available here.

  • July 25-29, 2022

    The principal investigator of ReKnow (Pavlos Fafalios) participated in the Digital Humanities 2022 conference and gave a talk on "Historical Research meets Semantic Interoperability: The Documentation System SYNTHESIS and its Application in Art History Research".

    He presented the documentation system Synthesis and its use by a large number of historians in the context of a large research project in the field of History of Art, called RICONTRANS.

    The slides of the presentation are available here.

  • July 10, 2022

    In this article, we identify the processes and tasks related to data management using CIDOC-CRM and survey the literature on applying Machine Learning (ML) techniques for reducing the costs related to compliance and interoperability based on CIDOC-CRM. We then describe a vision and provide concrete examples that showcase how ML could reduce the effort of various CIDOC-CRM processes.

    The article is available (under an Open Access license) at: https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage5030084.

  • June 28 - July 2, 2022

    The principal investigator of ReKnow (Pavlos Fafalios) participated in the 8th IMHA International Congress of Maritime History and gave a talk on "Advanced IT Tools for Historical Research with Archival Material".

    He presented the work done in the context of the projects SeaLiT and ReKnow, in particular the IT tools that have been developed for supporting historians of SeaLiT in managing and exploring their archival sources.

    The slides of the presentation are available here.

  • June 17, 2022

    The principal investigator of ReKnow (Pavlos Fafalios) gave a presentation at the Balic Connections 2022 conference on "Digital Seafaring: Digitising, Curating and Exploring Archival Sources of Maritime History".

    He presented the work done in the context of the projects SeaLiT and ReKnow, in particular the workflow model and the IT tools that have been developed for supporting historians of SeaLiT in digitizing, curating and exploring their archival material.

    The slides of the presentation are available here.

  • June 9-11, 2022

    The principal investigator of ReKnow (Pavlos Fafalios) gave a talk at the final conference of the SeaLiT project, presenting all the work done for supporting historians of SeaLiT in managing their archival sources. In particular, he presented the tools: FastCat (for data transcription), FastCat Team (for data curation), SeaLiT Ontology (for data integration), FastCat Catalogues and SeaLiT ResearchSpace (for data exploration), Ship Voyages (for data visualisation on map).

    The slides of the presentation are available here.

  • February 9-12, 2022

    The 53nd CIDOC CRM and 46th FRBR CRM meeting took place as an hybrid event hosted by FORTH-ICS on 10-13 May 2022.

    Pavlos Fafalios (principal investigator of ReKnow) and Martin Doerr (supervisor in ReKnow), together with other members of the Centre for Cultural Informatics, participated in this meeting and discussed ongoing work and open issues about CIDOC-CRM and its compatible models.

    More information about the meeting is available here.

  • April 14, 2022

    SeaLiT Knowledge Graphs is an RDF dataset of maritime history data that has been transcribed (and then transformed) from original archival sources in the context of the SeaLiT Project (Seafaring Lives in Transition, Mediterranean Maritime Labour and Shipping, 1850s-1920s). The underlying data model is the SeaLiT Ontology, an extension of the ISO standard CIDOC-CRM (ISO 21127:2014) for the modelling and integration of maritime history information.

    The knowledge graphs integrate data of totally 16 different types of archival sources, including crew lists, payrolls, employment records, sailors registers, students registers, naval ship register lists, and others. More information about the archival corpus is available through the SeaLiT website. Data exploration applications over these sources are publicly available: SeaLiT Catalogues, SeaLiT ResearchSpace.

    The dataset is available through Zenodo under a Creative Commons license (DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6460841).

  • March 1, 2022

    Pavlos Fafalios (principal investigator of ReKnow) will present the SYNTHESIS documentation system and its use in the context of a large European research project of Art History, called RICONTRANS. SYNTHESIS is Web-based, multilingual, and configurable for use in other digital humanities fields. It focuses on semantic interoperability and achieves this by making use of standards for data modelling (CIDOC-CRM). The aim is the production of data with high value, longevity and long-term validity that can be (re)used beyond a particular research activity.

  • February 9-12, 2022

    The 52nd CIDOC CRM and 45th FRBR CRM meeting took place as a virtual event on 9-12 February 2022.

    Pavlos Fafalios (principal investigator of ReKnow) and Martin Doerr (supervisor in ReKnow), together with other members of the Centre for Cultural Informatics, participated in this meeting and discussed ongoing work and open issues about CIDOC-CRM and its compatible models.

    At Session 4.1, Pavlos Fafalios and Athina Kritsotaki presented the SeaLiT Ontology, an extension of CIDOC-CRM for the modelling of Maritime History information. The presentation is available here.

    More information about the meeting is available here.

  • February 3, 2022

    We have published the first version of the SeaLiT Ontology, an extension of CIDOC-CRM for the modelling of Maritime History information. The definition of the ontology, together with an RDFS implementation, are available through Zenodo under a Creative Commons license (DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5964240).

    The ontology has been developed following a bottom-up process from primary data collected in the context of the SeaLiT Project. SeaLiT explores the transition from sail to steam navigation and its effects on seafaring populations in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea between the 1850s and the 1920s. The considered archival sources (around 20 different types of sources) range from ship logbooks, crew lists, payrolls and civil/student registers to employment records, account books and notarial deeds (gathered from relevant authorities in different countries).

    The (resolvable) namespace of the ontology is: http://www.sealitproject.eu/ontology/

  • October 26, 2021

    The principal investigator of ReKnow (Pavlos Fafalios) presented the paper "Towards Semantic Interoperability in Historical Research: Documenting Research Data and Knowledge with Synthesis" at the 20th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2021) .

    He presented the system SYNTHESIS and how it supports art historians working in the context of the RICONTRANS project (ERC Consolidator Grant) in documenting and managing their research data and knowledge.

    The slides of the presentation are available here. A video of the presentation is also available here.

  • October 12-15, 2021

    The 51st CIDOC CRM and 44th FRBR CRM meeting took place as a virtual event on 12-15 October 2021.

    Pavlos Fafalios (principal investigator of ReKnow) and Martin Doerr (supervisor in ReKnow), together with other members of the Centre for Cultural Informatics, participated in this meeting and discussed ongoing work and open issues about CIDOC-CRM and its compatible models.

    At Session 2.2, Pavlos Fafalios and Martin Doerr presented their ongoing work on extending CRM-INF for modeling the main activities involved in the study of inscriptions (slides here). This work is connected to the first ReKnow objective (design and development of semantic data models and processes).

    More information about the meeting is available here.

  • October 7, 2021

    The principal investigator of ReKnow (Pavlos Fafalios) gave a presentation at the Web seminar "Quantitative and Qualitative Data Analysis in Historical Research". The seminar, which was attended by around 40 participants, was organised in the context of APOLLONIS, the national (Greek) infrastructure that supports and promotes digital humanities and arts, and language technology and innovation in Greece. More information (in Greek) about the seminar is available here.

    The title of the presentation was "Semantic documentation of research data and knowledge in the field of Art History with the SYNTHESIS system". He presented the system SYNTHESIS and how it supports researchers of the RICONTRANS project in documenting and managing their data and the knowledge they produce.

    The slides of the presentation are available here.

  • July, 2021

    The paper presents the Synthesis documentation system and its use by a large number of historians in the context of an ongoing research project in the field of History of Art. The system is Web-based and collaborative, and makes use of existing standards for information documentation and publication (CIDOC-CRM, RDF), focusing on semantic interoperability and the production of data of high value and long-term validity.

    A preprint of the paper is available here.

  • June 30, 2021

    The principal investigator of ReKnow (Pavlos Fafalios) gave a presentation at the Data for History 2021 conference on "Challenges and solutions towards creating a semantic network of historical maritime data".

    He presented the methodology followed in the context of the SeaLit project for supporting historians in digitizing and exploring their unique information sources. He described a pipeline for building a semantic network of integrated maritime data, which includes i) developing tools that allow historians digitizing and curating the sources by maintaining at the same time the important information about the provenance of the curated data, ii) modeling and integrating the data using established standards, in particular CIDOC-CRM and its compatible models, for supporting data exchange, interoperability and long-term validity, and iii) offering exploration and visualization tools on top of the semantic network that enable historians take advantage of the digitization and integration of the original information sources. He further discussed the main challenges of each step of the process as well as related implementation issues.

    The slides of the presentation are available here. A video of the presentation is also available here.

  • June 22-25, 2021

    The 50th CIDOC CRM and 43rd FRBR CRM meeting took place as a virtual event on 22-25 June 2021.

    Pavlos Fafalios (principal investigator of ReKnow) and Martin Doerr (supervisor in ReKnow), together with other members of the Centre for Cultural Informatics, participated in this meeting and discussed ongoing work and open issues about CIDOC-CRM and its compatible models.

    At Session 1.2, P. Fafalios and M. Doerr discussed their ongoing work on extending CRM-INF for modeling the main activities involved in the study of inscriptions. This work is connected to the first ReKnow objective (design and development of semantic data models and processes).

    More information is available here.

  • June 8, 2021

    The principal investigator of ReKnow (Pavlos Fafalios) gave an invited talk at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG). The title of his talk was "Digital Seafaring - Digitising, Curating and Exploring Archival Sources of Maritime History". The context of this talk was the secondment of Pavlos Fafalios at MPIWG, conducted remotely in June-July 2021.

    The slides of the presentation are available here.

  • June 1, 2021

    The workshop aimed at offering a platform for exchanging ideas and experiences concerning the challenges and the current status of the development of digital infrastructures. The principal investigator of ReKnow (Pavlos Fafalios) participated in this workshop. The context of his participation was the secondment of Pavlos Fafalios at MPIWG, conducted remotely in June-July 2021.

    More information about the workshop is available here.

  • April, 2021

    This article presents FAST CAT, a collaborative system for assistive data entry and curation in Digital Humanities and similar forms of empirical research. We describe the overall methodology we follow for supporting semantic interoperability and long-term data validity, and discuss the use of FAST CAT by a large number of historians in the context of the SeaLiT project.

    A preprint of the article is available here.

  • March 8-11, 2021

    The 49th CIDOC CRM and 42nd FRBR CRM meeting took place as a virtual event on 8-11 March 2021.

    Pavlos Fafalios (principal investigator of ReKnow) and Martin Doerr (supervisor in ReKnow), together with other members of the Centre for Cultural Informatics, participated in this meeting and discussed ongoing work and open issues about CIDOC-CRM and its compatible models.

    More information is available here.

  • March, 2021

    In this interdisciplinary article we describe how we support maritime historians of the SeaLiT project in digitizing, curating and visualizing their unique archival sources.
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.51829/Drassana.28.649
    PDF available here.

  • Oct 20-23, 2020

    The 48th CIDOC CRM and 41st FRBR CRM meeting took place as a virtual event on 20-23 October 2020.

    Pavlos Fafalios (principal investigator of ReKnow) and Martin Doerr (supervisor in ReKnow), together with other members of the Centre for Cultural Informatics, participated in this meeting and discussed ongoing work and open issues about CIDOC-CRM and its compatible models.

    More information is available here.

  • Sept 24, 2020

    The ReKnow project supported the organisation of the interdisciplinary web seminar "Information Systems for the Documentation of Scientific Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences", which took place on 24 September 2020 (10:00 - 17:00). More information (in Greek) about the seminar is available here.

    The seminar was attended by a total of over 120 participants, from more than 30 organizations (Universities, Companies, Research Centers, etc.) of different disciplines (including Computer Science, Social Sciences, Humanities).

    The principal investigator of ReKnow (Pavlos Fafalios) gave a presentation on "Documentation of Scientific Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences - The European projects SeaLiT, RICONTRANS and ReKnow" (slides in English, slides in Greek, video presentation). Amongst others, he described the research focus, the objectives, and the vision of the ReKnow project. Also, Yannis Tzitzikas (main supervisor in ReKnow) gave a presentation on "Semantic Data Access Services" and Martin Doerr (supervisor in ReKnow) a presentation on "The International Standard CIDOC-CRM".

    All seminar presentations are available here and a brief report here.

  • June 23-26, 2020

    The 47th CIDOC CRM and 40th FRBR CRM meeting took place as a virtual event on 23-26 June 2020.

    Pavlos Fafalios (principal investigator of ReKnow) and Martin Doerr (supervisor in ReKnow), together with other members of the Centre for Cultural Informatics, participated in this meeting and discussed ongoing work and open issues about CIDOC-CRM and its compatible models.

    More information is available here.

  • June 1, 2020

    The project started on 1 June 2020.