GfA 2015, München
An Infrastructure for Digital Standardisation in Physical Anthropology
Podium presentation on 18 September 2015 at the 11th Meeting of the Society of Anthropology (Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, GfA).
Abstract
Standardisation and digital processing of osteological data is a growing concern in physical anthropology. Coding standards (e. g. Buikstra & Ubelaker 1994, GHHP Code Book 2006, Harbeck 2014) are being developed and implemented in software applications (e. g. OsteoWare, AnthroBook). These infrastructures progressively allow for large-scale analyses (e. g. Global History of Health Project). Obstacles in this development are limited extensibility of existing standards and incompatibilities between them.
We are developing a framework for modelling data from research on skeletal collections that can be used to map different data standards onto each other, to extend them and to build new ones. It will help researchers to pool data for large-scale projects. Skeletal collections and research institutions will be able to define their own lab protocols for in-house purposes as well as for external collaborations. Scholars will be able to use the framework for adding data derived from new methods.
Our approach is based on the Resource Description Framework (RDF). It has a modular structure, with a core ontology providing stability and compatibility, while research protocol extensions allow for flexible development and adoption of new methods. Implemented in a semantic web application, our framework acts as a data model, to the effect that changes to it will be reflected in the user interface. This way, researchers will be able to configure the software to create their own working environments.
The project is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) through a scheme promoting development of digital standards for scientific collections.
Additional Information
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Data last updated | 25 September 2015 |
| Metadata last updated | 25 September 2015 |
| Created | 25 September 2015 |
| Format | |
| License | Other (Not Open) |
| Datastore active | False |
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| Package id | 9c055139-c290-40b4-a9a7-3a5e382acdf0 |
| Position | 1 |
| State | active |
| Url type | upload |