Formal description and automatic generation of learning spaces based on ontologies

Tese de Doutoramento em InformaticsA good Learning Space (LS) should convey pertinent information to the visitors at the most adequate time and location to favor their knowledge acquisition. This statement justifies the relevance of virtual Learning Spaces. Considering the consolidation of the Internet and the improvement of the interaction, searching, and learning mechanisms, this work proposes a generic architecture, called CaVa, to create Virtual Learning Spaces building upon cultural institution documents. More precisely, the proposal is to automatically generate ontology-based virtual learning environments from document repositories. Thus, to impart relevant learning materials to the virtual LS, this proposal is based on using ontologies to represent the fundamental concepts and semantic relations in a user- and machine-understandable format. These concepts together with the data (extracted from the real documents) stored in a digital repository are displayed in a web-based LS that enables the visitors to use the available features and tools to learn about a specific domain. According to the approach here discussed, each desired virtual LS must be specified rigorously through a Domain-Specific Language (DSL), called CaVaDSL, designed and implemented in this work. Furthermore, a set of processors (generators) was developed. These generators have the duty, receiving a CaVaDSL specification as input, of transforming it into several web scripts to be recognized and rendered by a web browser, producing the final virtual LS. Aiming at validating the proposed architecture, three real case studies – (1) Emigration Documents belonging to Fafe’s Archive; (2) The prosopographical repository of the Fasti Ecclesiae Portugaliae project; and (3) Collection of life stories of the Museum of the Person – were used. These real scenarios are actually relevant as they promote the digital preservation and dissemination of Cultural Heritage, contributing to human welfare.Um bom Espaço de Aprendizagem (LS – Learning Space) deve transmitir informações pertinentes aos visitantes no horário e local mais adequados para favorecer a aquisição de conhecimento. Esta afirmação justifica a relevância dos Espaços virtuais de Aprendizagem. Considerando a consolidação da Internet e o aprimoramento dos mecanismos de interação, busca e aprendizagem, este trabalho propõe uma arquitetura genérica, denominada CaVa, para a criação de Espaços virtuais de Aprendizagem baseados em documentos de instituições culturais. Mais precisamente, a proposta é gerar automaticamente ambientes de aprendizagem virtual baseados em ontologias a partir de repositórios de documentos. Assim, para transmitir materiais de aprendizagem relevantes para o LS virtual, esta proposta é baseada no uso de ontologias para representar os conceitos fundamentais e as relações semânticas em um formato compreensível pelo usuário e pela máquina. Esses conceitos, juntamente com os dados (extraídos dos documentos reais) armazenados em um repositório digital, são exibidos em um LS baseado na web que permite aos visitantes usarem os recursos e ferramentas disponíveis para aprenderem sobre um domínio espec ífico. Cada LS virtual desejado deve ser especificado rigorosamente por meio de uma Linguagem de Domínio Específico (DSL), chamada CaVaDSL, projetada e implementada neste trabalho. Além disso, um conjunto de processadores (geradores) foi desenvolvido. Esses geradores têm o dever de receber uma especificação CaVaDSL como entrada e transformá-la em diversos web scripts para serem reconhecidos e renderizados por um navegador, produzindo o LS virtual final. Visando validar a arquitetura proposta, três estudos de caso reais foram usados. Esses cenários reais são realmente relevantes, pois promovem a preservação digital e a disseminação do Património Cultural, contribuindo para o bem-estar humano

Formal Description and Automatic Generation of Learning Spaces Based on Ontologies

AbstractA good virtual Learning Space (LS) should convey pertinent learning information to the visitors at the most adequate time and locations to favor their knowledge acquisition.Considering the consolidation of the internet and the improvement of the interaction, searching, and learning mechanisms, we propose a generic architecture, called CaVa, to create virtual Learning Spaces building up on cultural institution documents. More precisely, our proposal is to automatically create ontology-based virtual learning environments.Thus, to impart relevant learning materials to the virtual LS, we propose the use of ontologies to represent the key concepts and semantic relations in an user- and machine-understandable format. These concepts together with the data (extracted from the real documents) stored in a digital storage format (XML datasets, relational databases, etc.) are displayed in an ontology-based learning space that enables the visitors to use the available features and tools to learn about a specific domain.According to the approach here discussed, each desired virtual LS must be specified rigorously through a domain specific language (DSL) that was designed and implemented.To validate the proposed architecture, three case studies will be used as instances of CaVa architecture

A reduced CRM-compatible form ontology for the virtual emigration museum

In this paper we discuss the construction of a Reduced CRMcompatible form ontology for the virtual Emigration Museum based in the international standard for museum ontologies, CIDOC-CRM. To extract knowledge from the information of the virtual Emigration Museum when navigating through it, abstract data models should be used to conceptualize, the emigration documents stored in a relational database. In that way, resorting to an ontology (as abstract layer), the information contained in those documents can be accessed by the end-users (the museum visitors) to learn about the emigration phenomena. We also describe how we instantiate the ontology through a parser that automatically translates a plain text description of emigration data into RDF. Finally, we also discuss the choice of a triple storage system to save the RDF triples in order to enable the use of SPARQL to query the RDF data.This work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013. The work of Ricardo G. Martini is supported by CNPq, grant 201772/2014-0

Migration of young Croatian scientists

The migration from Croatia during transitions period assumed a form of drain rather than circulation of labor. The exact scale of brain drain remains unknown because the topic of external migration of scientists had been neglected for years and is still insufficiently investigated. Scientists who migrate have high educational qualifications as well as specific motives (self–development and educational reasons for leaving). The multiple regression analysis (N=536) and predictors achieved show that potential migrants are mostly young scientists that are satisfied with their positioning within the current system of opportunities but not satisfied with their perspectives in Croatia. E-researches and the new kinds of collaboration help the transformation of brain drain process into brain circulation. The EU has been developing positive immigration policies, especially favorable to highly qualified immigrants from the field of natural sciences and computer technology. It could be expected that Croatia will experience in the next few years both circulation of labor and outgoing/ingoing brain drain; the latter from surrounding Balkan countries. The problem is still persisting inadequate social valorization of science subsystem in Croatia

From Darkness to Light: Bringing Collections Out of Storage at the History Center in Tompkins County

One of the museum\u27s important missions is collecting objects and artifacts to store, preserve, and display. Today, however, museums only have a small portion of their objects out on display. Large institutions have the funds to buy and create new spaces to display more of their collections. With small budgets and small spaces, however, smaller institutions do not have this luxury. I wish to find different ways to bring out collections from storage into the public eye to better serve the community. I apply my investigation to a case study of the History Center in Tompkins County, a local history center in Ithaca, NY. The case study is informed by my internship experience there over the past summer and work that will continue throughout the rest of this year. I will be furthering my thoughts by analyzing a digital exhibition about quilting. In addition to incorporating my first-hand experience with the History Center, this thesis will provide recommendations for bringing collections out from storage. These will include online exhibits, social media usage, marketing, and deaccessioning/loans between institutions. The overall goal of this research is an outline of action for how the History Center can bring artifacts out of storage or make them accessible to their audience. This plan can also serve as an outline to other small institutions

Dis-locations and Broken Narratives: articulating liminal and interstitial experiences through a series of moving image and mixed media installations

This practice led research explores three video and mixed media artworks created and exhibited between 2006-17. Mariners and Migrants: in Search of Home, (2006) WAVE/ING, (2011/12) and Dear Child, (2016/7) are part of a substantive body of artwork which has been produced since the late discovery of my adoption in 1991. This event and its effect changed both the content and shape of my work reflecting my personal response to the experience of otherness and dis-location identified as, “The feeling of being between places and people, the sense of transience, the experience of seeing the world and one’s place in it from different perspectives.” 1 This led to the creation of multi-layered artworks inspired by narratives of migration and exile and the the development of various imagistic and material strategies which reflect liminality. These include acausal2, non-linear editing and asynchronous multi channel projections and layers of glass and silk within expanded installations. The three main sections of this commentary relate to different elements of the research journey. They cover responses to historic events and narratives, the distinctive use of original archives, the function of physical journeys in the development and making of artworks and the use of interpretive dance to create an embodied response to loss. I would argue that my situated and exploratory practice, applied throughout the development and production process was effective in transforming the effects of dissociation and dissonance3 into innovative imagistic outcomes. This is situated in relation to other artists working with trauma and memory and to key ideas around post adoptive psychology with reference to other feminist theorists. This body of work represents an effective and fluid response to the dis-locations of late discovery which is not principally therapeutic or sociological in intent

Mediterranean migrations : a museological perspective

Museums had earlier presented historical narratives about migrations and migrant communities in the Mediterranean region portraying and presenting them as deemed fit to the colonial and nationstate agenda. This article presents different museological approaches which aim to include communities like migrant communities, not normally included in the museum. Examples of fourteen museums on Mediterranean countries presenting migrations and migrant communities tend to make choices of inclusion or exclusion of migrations, both within their territory and from or within other regions, such as the Mediterranean. Mediterranean migrations gain importance and focus depending on the objectives of the museum and the message it wishes to convey to the public. Two Mediterranean grassroots museums focus particularly on Mediterranean migrations and migrants, even if migrants are transitory. The discussion revolves around the museums’ intentions and activities to raise awareness and empathy among visitors and the public. The article concludes that as educators and activists, museums have the potential to change the present and future of migrations, particularly within the Mediterranean region. Their collective practices inside and outside the museum can inform the public, raise awareness, promote understanding and empathy, enhance opportunities for dialogue and inclusion, help improve well-being, and exert pressure on those in power positions to change the status quo.peer-reviewe

“Oluşumlar, dönüşümler, bozunumlar” Moskova nonkoformist sanatçıları ve işleri peşinde komün oda ve mimarisinin izini sürmek 1975-1991

This thesis traces the evolution of communal room from a collective to private space through practices of an underground art circle that emerged during the second half of the 1970s in Soviet Moscow, namely Soviet Nonconformist artists. The Soviet project of the communal apartment was a revolutionary experiment of collective living. Initiated with the ideal of designing "socialism in one building," it turned into an institution of social control, the base for establishing status-quo and a micro-cosmos where Soviet communal bodies were shaped between the 1920s and late 1950s. Following the transformation of communal apartments into private rooms during Khrushchev's Thaw in the late 1950s, these new private rooms were transformed into zones of freedom by newly flourishing underground culture in major cities of the Soviet Union. Starting from the 1960s, especially Moscow and Leningrad, witnessed private rooms to be appropriated as spaces for the underground activities of various intellectual fields. This thesis aims to decode the dynamics, aesthetics, and architecture of post-thaw Soviet communal rooms in between privacy-collectivity, and officiality-unofficiality by tracing "Moscow Nonconformists" through three generations that were formed, reformed, and deformed between the years 1975-1991. In two parallel analysis, on networks and artworks of Nonconformist artists, it is aimed to trace the architectural history of the communal room both in Moscow and through artists exhibitions in the West as the context, the muse and the object of their artistic genre, while documenting the room's intertwined journey with artists' biographies and networks.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences. Architecture

On reflexive and participatory approaches in digital preservation today (Interview with Samantha Lutz)

Digitisation brings new demands and new challenges to the realm of cultural heritage, particularly around voice and preservation. Natalie Harrower is Director of the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI), a national digital repository for archiving, preserving and providing access to Ireland’s cultural heritage, humanities and social sciences data. In the interview, Natalie Harrower examines current developments in digital preservation from a practical perspective, offering concrete examples that range from technical and legal challenges and participatory memory practices to future challenges of digital preservation such as creative practices of reuses, economies of sharing cultural heritage and preservation of digitally-born materials. Against this backdrop, she addresses ethical issues and the question of cultural sustainability, spanning the poles of remembering and forgetting and diverging preservation strategies in today’s digital universe.