Information from different data sources in conjunction accessible

Data sources from different organizations, for example in the cultural sector, can communicate with each other to ensure that the user easily has complete information available. This is evident from the doctoral research of Michiel Hildebrand, associate of the Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI) in Amsterdam.

Cultural organisations independently publish about their collections on the Internet. With current search methods there is a lack of consistency between them, with a lot of manual searching as a result. Hildebrand investigated how information from different data sources of our cultural heritage in correspondence can be made accessible. The results of his research can also be used in the music industry and at news agencies, according to the CWI.

A major challenge in using these data sources is the heterogeneity. This not only entails a great diversity of data sources, but also the way they are described. For example there is a great deal of different information available on Impressionism, such as painters work, specific materials, techniques, events and places. In addition, organisations pay attention to a famous impressionist painter as Monet in different ways.

From the perspective of the end user Hildebrand developed different types of search functionalities and presentation methods that can deal with heterogeneous information. He worked together with experts from the cultural heritage domain and used technology of the Semantic Web. In his research he used three central questions: What data are available and in what relationship do they stand to each other? What algorithms have the flexibility to search across heterogeneous sources? What presentation methods are suitable to support the search process for end users? It is the first time that research in this area includes all these aspects and is based on both data and algorithms and interaction with the end user.