Digital Knowledge Store
The Digital Knowledge Store -> http://wissensspeicher.bbaw.de/ is a research data infrastructure funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and developed by the TELOTA working group of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of sciences and Humanities (BBAW). It aims not only to collect all digital resources of the BBAW, but also to connect them semantically and to provide centralized access to this digital knowledge.
The Knowledge Browser – a dialog based retrieval interface – offers a user-friendly way to query and to interact with the Knowledge Store. This interaction is a step-by-step process in which the Knowledge Store extends the search result by offering semantic recommendations, instead of reducing it by fi ltering. In every step the query results are displayed together with context-related terms. By choosing one of these terms, semantically extended results are then provided through the Knowledge Browser. Search results are displayed as a list, or can be visualized as maps, networks or charts. This semantically associative knowledge browsing enables new perspectives on the connections between the diverse research projects.
The core of the Knowledge Store consists of several modules which implement text mining, linguistic analysis, automated translation, and Semantic Web technologies. These modules process the information extracted from the digital resources of the BBAW, which are of a very heterogeneous nature in regard to their content and language as well as to their data formats. A metadata scheme based on current best practices allows for consistency and interoperability, while taking into account the special requirements of extracting semantic information. By providing web services and interfaces, the Knowledge Store is able to exchange research data with external project partners.
Background
Advances in information technology have led to new research opportunities in all disciplines. As the largest non-university research institution in the Berlin-Brandenburg region, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW) aims to explore and exploit these opportunities to the full. The initiative The Electronic Life Of The Academy (TELOTA) began 2001.
The German Research Foundation (DFG) has granted a research contract of the Telota proposal on the development of the digital Knowledge Store.
Resources
