Four major releases or re-releases based on Numishare/Nomisma/Linked Data in Numismatics are due out in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!
Friday, June 21, 2013
Monday, April 8, 2013
Discussing Digital Numismatics for DayofDH
Today, I've joined the Day of Digital Humanities movement (#dayofdh). I'll mainly be writing about updates to a prototype version of Nomisma we'd like to roll out in the coming months--one that has more APIs based on the Fuseki SPARQL interface detailed in a previous post.
You can follow the action at http://dayofdh2013.matrix.msu.edu/ethangruber/
You can follow the action at http://dayofdh2013.matrix.msu.edu/ethangruber/
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
How to Participate in OCRE
I have recently been working on implementing a new approach to associating physical coins identified by RIC coin types defined in OCRE. The new system uses a Fuseki RDF triplestore and SPARQL endpoint. Fuseki accepts RDF expressing web pages which define physical coins, but it also accepts RDF which describes coin hoards. While the public version of OCRE (as of the date of this blog post) does not interact with this new SPARQL endpoint, we plan to release a new version of OCRE in the next one to two months, probably either just before or just after the next round of Nomisma.org/European Coin Find Network meetings in Carnuntum around April 20.
The more LOD-cognizant OCRE will incorporate coins not only from the American Numismatic Society, but also coins in the University of Virginia Art Museum, and perhaps even a small selection of Augustan coins from the Berlin Münzkabinett. Furthermore, hoards which contain Augustan types in Coin Hoards of the Roman Republican (a joint project between UCL researcher Kris Lockyear and the ANS) will populate OCRE maps for selected coin types. OCRE will make use of mathematical functions inherent to SPARQL to deliver more sophisticated analyses based on weights, diameters, and die axes.
The triplestore-based method for linking OCRE types to coins and hoards make it much easier to maintain the project in the long term, from a developer's standpoint. Moreover, it will be easier for potential partners to contribute their data to OCRE. After the RDF passes consistency checks, new coins and hoards will become available in OCRE immediately upon ingestion into Fuseki.
I have created documentation on the ANS wiki detailing the RDF structure necessary for contributing to OCRE at http://wiki.numismatics.org/ocre:ocre_-_participation.
Finally, the new version of OCRE will make better use of Nomisma's multi-lingual skos:prefLabels for numismatic concepts. As a result, OCRE will be available in French, German, and Romanian in addition to English. The interface will become available in other languages as translations of NUDS fields and Nomisma IDs are presented to us.
The more LOD-cognizant OCRE will incorporate coins not only from the American Numismatic Society, but also coins in the University of Virginia Art Museum, and perhaps even a small selection of Augustan coins from the Berlin Münzkabinett. Furthermore, hoards which contain Augustan types in Coin Hoards of the Roman Republican (a joint project between UCL researcher Kris Lockyear and the ANS) will populate OCRE maps for selected coin types. OCRE will make use of mathematical functions inherent to SPARQL to deliver more sophisticated analyses based on weights, diameters, and die axes.
The triplestore-based method for linking OCRE types to coins and hoards make it much easier to maintain the project in the long term, from a developer's standpoint. Moreover, it will be easier for potential partners to contribute their data to OCRE. After the RDF passes consistency checks, new coins and hoards will become available in OCRE immediately upon ingestion into Fuseki.
I have created documentation on the ANS wiki detailing the RDF structure necessary for contributing to OCRE at http://wiki.numismatics.org/ocre:ocre_-_participation.
Finally, the new version of OCRE will make better use of Nomisma's multi-lingual skos:prefLabels for numismatic concepts. As a result, OCRE will be available in French, German, and Romanian in addition to English. The interface will become available in other languages as translations of NUDS fields and Nomisma IDs are presented to us.
Some preview screenshots:
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Coin Hoard Analysis
It has been nearly a year since any update whatsoever on the development of Numishare to disseminate and visualize information about coin hoards. In May 2012, just before the Nomisma.org/European Coin Find Network meeting in Frankfurt, I briefly discussed the new XML schema I had been developing.
That post described our use of the highcharts javascript library to render typological information in the form of graphs. That blog post contained an image of a column chart with the total occurrences of coins per issuer in a single hoard. This basic functionality has been expanded in several ways:
These features are now available in the trunk of the GitHub repository, and will be available to use when Kris Lockyear's Coin Hoards of the Roman Republic Numishare-based project is launched within the next few weeks. This launch will take place before Kris and I head off to Perth for CAA 2013, where we will be presenting on the project: its evolution from dBASE III to XML/linked open data utilizing concepts defined by nomisma.org.
These analyses have enormous potential, and we are still at the tip of the iceberg for what is possible to do with these data. In the very least, these features enable scholars to conduct the quantitative analyses they have been accustomed to do for decades, only they may be executed in seconds instead of hours or days.
The thought processes that have gone into developing the XML schema and the development of Numishare to handle hoard data will be detailed in my MA thesis, which I plan to release openly and freely when I graduate in May.
That post described our use of the highcharts javascript library to render typological information in the form of graphs. That blog post contained an image of a column chart with the total occurrences of coins per issuer in a single hoard. This basic functionality has been expanded in several ways:
- You can now compare up to six hoards at once with the chart visualization
- You can download data as a CSV, with no limit to the number of hoards one can select for this comparison
- Percentage of total has been added as a numeric response type (as a default) in addition to raw numeric count per typological attribute. This is a more accurate gauge of a hoard's contents, that is to say, 10 out of 10 coins (100%) being aurei is more telling than say, 12 coins in a hoard of 12,000.
- Visualization based on date has been introduced, with an option to view as a cumulative percentage.
- Charts can be printed and exported as JPG, PNG, PDF, and SVG files.
These features are now available in the trunk of the GitHub repository, and will be available to use when Kris Lockyear's Coin Hoards of the Roman Republic Numishare-based project is launched within the next few weeks. This launch will take place before Kris and I head off to Perth for CAA 2013, where we will be presenting on the project: its evolution from dBASE III to XML/linked open data utilizing concepts defined by nomisma.org.
These analyses have enormous potential, and we are still at the tip of the iceberg for what is possible to do with these data. In the very least, these features enable scholars to conduct the quantitative analyses they have been accustomed to do for decades, only they may be executed in seconds instead of hours or days.
The thought processes that have gone into developing the XML schema and the development of Numishare to handle hoard data will be detailed in my MA thesis, which I plan to release openly and freely when I graduate in May.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
OCRE en français
This week I have dedicated time to making Numishare more flexible with respect to switching interface languages. Numishare has been able to use a "lang" URL parameter in record pages to display labels for Nomisma-defined numismatic concepts in alternative languages for quite some time (by matching the lang param with the xml:lang in the skos:prefLabel in Nomisma's RDF). However, most labels in the HTML interface were hard-coded into the XSLT. Labels are now resolved through an XSL function which replies with the correct textual strong based on the field name and "lang" parameter. While the Solr facets are still in English, the application is well on its way toward greater fluidity in transition between languages. The next version of OCRE, a branch in the new Numishare GitHub repository, will support French, and possibly Arabic, thanks to the work being done by the ANS's collaboration with the Egyptian National Library to deliver its collection of Islamic coinage.
This work would not be possible if not for Nomisma. When Nomisma supports an increased array of labels in alternative languages, it will be possible to provide Numishare public interfaces to a wider international audience.
The next version of OCRE will be available this spring, and will likely feature more physical specimens and findspots.
edit: By the way, the test version of OCRE pulls data about physical coins and hoards from a Fuseki SPARQL endpoint, an advancement that deserves its own dedicated post soon. The above screenshots show a widget in action that reads SPARQL query results and renders them in OCRE record pages and search results.
This work would not be possible if not for Nomisma. When Nomisma supports an increased array of labels in alternative languages, it will be possible to provide Numishare public interfaces to a wider international audience.
The next version of OCRE will be available this spring, and will likely feature more physical specimens and findspots.
edit: By the way, the test version of OCRE pulls data about physical coins and hoards from a Fuseki SPARQL endpoint, an advancement that deserves its own dedicated post soon. The above screenshots show a widget in action that reads SPARQL query results and renders them in OCRE record pages and search results.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Numishare has moved to GitHub
After nearly four years of development and 400 subversion commits on Google Code, Numishare has moved its code base to GitHub. The migration has been a long time coming, as nearly every other ANS project (except EADitor, which, like Numishare, also began during my work at the Scholars' Lab of the University of Virginia Library). The move to GitHub will allow Numishare to be maintained more effectively in the long run, as its branching and merging mechanisms are much easier. At the time of these blog post, there are 7 or 8 Numishare projects: some already reflected with branches within the main Numishare trunk, some with their own repositories. Moreover, Numishare has a much more effective ticketing system, making it easier for me to address bugs and feature requests.
The URL for the repository is https://github.com/ewg118/numishare.
The URL for the repository is https://github.com/ewg118/numishare.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Improved Visualization: Comparing Queries
Recently, I began working on improved analytical mechanisms for coin hoards in Numishare. These have not yet been completed (and so I will post about them later), but I put hoard work on hold for a few days to implement improved analyses for coin and coin type collections. The updates can be seen in the Visualize page in OCRE.
The new features allow for selection of different graph types, numeric results in percentage of total or total count, custom queries (in addition to facets), and comparisons with other queries.
These visualization parameters are stored in URL parameters RESTfully, so it is possible to bookmark and share the charts that you generate with others.
Documentation: http://wiki.numismatics.org/numishare:visualize
Comparison of Augustan coins which reference the Parthian settlement with Augustan references to Actium (http://bit.ly/TLJPRh):
The new features allow for selection of different graph types, numeric results in percentage of total or total count, custom queries (in addition to facets), and comparisons with other queries.
These visualization parameters are stored in URL parameters RESTfully, so it is possible to bookmark and share the charts that you generate with others.
Documentation: http://wiki.numismatics.org/numishare:visualize
Examples
Percentage of a selection of denominations issued by the emperors ranging from Augustus to Antoninus Pius in OCRE. Hadrian issued nearly 60% of all cistophori; Claudius issued about 40% of all didrachms and Nero issued nearly half (http://bit.ly/11xQMvH:
Comparison of Augustan coins which reference the Parthian settlement with Augustan references to Actium (http://bit.ly/TLJPRh):
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