histHub Ontology models people and places for the histHub standard database with associated concepts such as names, locations, occupations, etc. In further development steps, additional organizations and concepts will be integrated. The ontology is expressed by a master YAML file (histhub_ontology.yml), which can be automatically converted to an OWL file (histhub_ontology.owl).
Hierarchy of Ontology
The following figure shows a bird’s-eye view of the histHub ontology classes with their hierarchical relationships. The chain of discriminants, such as attributes of a class that distinguishes it from its superclass, are highlighted in yellow. histHub Object identifies the top level of the class hierarchy and provides each histHub instance with an unique ID and a provider relation. The provider relation stores the information about the origin of all collected information of an instance. All information is divided into data and metadata. histHub data are divided into elements (entities, events, and states) and individual values. Each element, whether unit, event or permanent state, can be documented with one or more references and provided with a language-dependent label. The entity class (entity) includes the entities that are of interest to histHub (people, places, later also organizations, concepts). Entities can also be documented with external identifiers.
Temporal dimension
histHub Ontology is able to capture entities in different ways in a time dimension. The existence of the entity is represented either as a state or as an event. In both cases, we model a period with a start and end date. By adding a type, it is also possible to distinguish between real and fictitious entities.
Learn more about ontologies and data models: Report.