Using digital humanity approaches to visualize and evaluate the cultural heritage ontology

Abstract

Purpose This study applies digital humanity tools (Gephi and Protégé) for establishing and visualizing ontologies in the cultural heritage domain. According to that, this study aims to develop a novel evaluation approach using five ontology indicators (data overview, visual presentation, highlight links, scalability and querying) to evaluate the knowledge structure presentation of cultural heritage ontology. Design/methodology/approach The researchers collected and organized 824 pieces of government’s open data (GOD), converted GOD into the resource description framework format, applied Protégé and Gephi to establish and visualize cultural heritage ontology. After ontology is built, this study recruited 60 ontology participants (30 from information and communications technology background; 30 from cultural heritage background) to operate this ontology and gather their different perspectives of visual ontology. Findings Based on the ontology participant’s feedback, this study discovered that Gephi is more supporting than Protégé when visualizing ontology. Especially in data overview, visual presentation and highlight links dimensions, which is supported visualization and demonstrated ontology class hierarchy and property relation, facilitated the wider application of ontology. Originality/value This study offers two contributions. First, the researchers analyzed data on East Asian architecture with novel digital humanities tools to visualize ontology for cultural heritage. Second, the study collected participant’s feedback regarding the visualized ontology to enhance its design, which can serve as a reference for future ontological development.