Bridging the Gap between bdME and OntoME

Abstract

The Semantic Web aims at building a Web where data is enriched with meaningful annotations. In other words, data is semantically organized in such a way that both human and machine can understand and query it, aiming at the creation of dynamic Web pages. Ontologies, as a keystone of the Semantic Web, have gained an ample acceptance as an information model, which can be used for several purposes, such as information retrieval in the Web. However, data is normally stored in databases, which present various problems in the Semantic Web context, because data is not semantically annotated. Aiming at retrieving rich results in the sense of meaning, several ways of relating databases with ontologies have emerged. This paper presents a mapping – with the aid of a framework called Ontop – as a solution for the communication problem between the relational database of the Emigration Museum of Fafe (EMF) and the ontology of the Emigration Museum (OntoME), which describes the Cultural Heritage domain. This mapping will be used to realize the CaVa architecture, aiming at the creation of dynamic Web pages as virtual Learning Spaces. Real examples of the mapping process are presented.