Wow. That's pretty spiff! I'd love to see your Roman Empire SNAC, can you
send me the info?
Michele
-Original Message-
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Ethan
Gruber
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2012 11:04 AM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: [CODE4LIB] Using dbpedia to generate EAC-CPF collections
Hi all,
In the last few weeks, I have undertaken a project of EAC-CPF stubs using
dbpedia and VIAF data for the Roman emperors and their relations. There's a
lot of great information available through dbpedia, and since it's available in
RDF, I put together a PHP script that can start at one point in dbpedia (e.g.,
http://dbpedia.org/resource/Augustus) and traverse through its relations to
create a network of stubs using links to parents, children, spouses,
influences, successors, and predecessors provided in the RDF. Left unchecked,
the script would crawl forward through the Byzantine period to spread laterally
(chronologically speaking) to generate a network of the ruling hierarchy of the
West up to the modern period. It also goes backwards to the successors of
Alexander the Great. For all I know, it goes back through all of the Egyptian
dynasties to Narmer ca. 3000 BC, but I haven't let the script go that far.
The script is fairly generalizable, and can begin at any dbpedia resource.
It's available at
https://github.com/ewg118/xEAC/blob/master/misc/dbpedia-to-eac.php
I should also note that this is a work in progress. To execute the script,
you'll need to place a temp folder in the same place you download/execute it
(for writing EAC records).
At a glance, here's what it does:
-Creates nameEntries for all of the names available in various languages in
dbpedia -If a VIAF ID is available in the RDF, the script will pull some
alternate record IDs from VIAF, as well as birth and death dates -Can pull in
subjects, occupations, and related resources on the web -Generate
corporate/personal/family relations given the
parents/children/spouses/influences/successors/predecessors/dynasties
linked in dbpedia. These relations are added into an array which continually
processes until presumably it reaches the end of time.
-You can specify an end record to attempt to break this chain, but I cannot
guarantee that it'll work. Anastasius (emperor of Rome ca. 500 AD) does
actually successfully terminate the Augustus chain.
-Import birth and death places (and associated birth and death dates, if
available)
I think that these stubs are a good starting point for handing off the
management of EAC content to subject specialists who can add chronological and
geographical context. I wrote a bit more about this script and the process
applied to xEAC, an XForms-based engine for creating, editing, managing, and
publishing EAC-CPF collections at
http://eaditor.blogspot.com/2012/10/using-dbpedia-to-jumpstart-eac-cpf.html
There's a prototype collection of the Roman Empire; if anyone is interested in
taking a look at it, drop me a line off the list.
Ethan
