The KNOT Pilot

Year 1 (2023)

The first year was focused on data, with the following goals:

• Collection, classification, and categorization of heterogeneous and representative data for inclusion and use in the pilot.
• Elaboration of a conceptual and data model to describe the selected data and reflect the central argument of the project. This model is to be informed by relevant existing approaches and project requirements and should enable a network of semantic links, including through reconciliation with authority records and controlled vocabularies.
• Definition of competency questions against which the conceptual model can be tested to ensure its ability to facilitate the discovery of latent knowledge.
• Creation of a knowledge graph, available via a SPARQL endpoint, representing digital scholarly objects as examples of the DCH of Italian universities alongside a workflow for the collection, normalization, cleaning, and transformation of data into RDF.

Additionally the first year also included the following work which continued and fed into subsequent phases:

• Collaboration with the DISI department as part of a working group with CINECA to explore potentials for integration of the pilot data into I.PaC and collaboration with the DBC department to explore issues around the classification of DCH faced by Italian universities.
• Interviews with Italian academics to explore the challenges they face in the creation and management of scholarly digital objects born of Humanities research.

The outputs for the first year included:

• A small census of scholarly digital objects and their related projects, used to develop the data model and knowledge graph.
• A data model to describe scholarly digital objects as DCH, including an ontology and controlled vocabularies published in RDF.
• Development of a small-scale catalogue application that uses the data model to describe the results of the census and generate a usable knowledge graph of scholarly digital objects and activity.

Year 2 (2024)

The second year was focused on the catalogue, with the following goals:

• Evaluation of potential services to extract new knowledge from the data as well as reconcile information with existing institutional repositories.
• Deployment and further development of the KNOT Catalogue.
• Development of a repository to host and distribute the KNOT Controlled Vocabularies and ensure their FAIR-ness.
• Development of a working document for guidelines expected at the end of the project, drawing from insights acquired during the first year around issues of visibility, categorization, and classification of scholarly digital objects.

The outputs for the second year included:

• Deployment of the KNOT Catalogue, using the CLEF cataloguing application and featuring a knowledge graph of scholarly digital objects and activity from the Italian humanities that includes records for 100 research projects, 35 digital objects, and 96 web services.
• Publication of visualizations of the KNOT Catalogue knowledge graph, showcasing some of the more interesting aspects of the dataset.
• Extensions to the functionality of CLEF, such as the ability to generate pages for entities used for authority control and reconciliation.
• Further development of both the KNOT Data Model and Controlled Vocabularies, including a simplified version of the data model tailored to the limitations of the CLEF functionalities.
• Development of an application, based on Skosmos, to publish the KNOT Controlled Vocabularies and for potential expanded use as a repository for all semantic artefacts produced by /DH.ARC.

Year 3 (2025)

The third year is focused on integration with I.PaC and the production of guidelines, with the following goals:

• Integration of the project's data and metadata into the I.PaC platform through continued collaboration with the DISI and CINECA Working Group.
• Publication of the guidelines for the description and valorization of scholarly digital objects as cultural heritage.
• Deployment of the /DH.ARC Vocabularies repository and publication of internal guidelines for its continued usage.