Time modelling in digital humanities. Challenges posed by the development of a database of medieval charters
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Guy De Tré
Guy De Tré received a M.Sc. in Computer Science and a Ph.D. in Applied Sciences from Ghent University in Belgium. He is currently associate professor and head of the Database, Document, and Content Management (DDCM) research group of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture of Ghent University. His research activities are focused on soft computing in information management systems, including fundamental research on temporal modelling, bipolarity handling, uncertainty handling and multi-valued logics and applied research on, among others, fuzzy querying, decision support, data quality, and unstructured data.
Ghent University, Dept. of Telecommunications and Information Processing, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
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Jeroen Deploige
Jeroen Deploige studied history at the Universities of Ghent and Poitiers (Ph.D. Ghent 2002) and is currently full professor of medieval history at Ghent University. His research is focused on the cultural and social history of the High Middle Ages. He is member of the Belgian Royal Historical Commission and director of the project “Sources from the Medieval Low Countries” (Hercules Foundation, 2011–2015), which facilitated at the development of the database Diplomata Belgica, an online inventory with full text-editions and photographs of all the pre-1250 medieval charters from the southern Low Countries.
Ghent University, Dept. of History, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 35, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
Abstract
Information management systems aimed at fully exploiting imperfect temporal data require advanced data modelling and data querying facilities. In this paper, we study how novel computational intelligence techniques can help to develop such facilities. More specifically, we describe how possibility theory can be used to model and handle the uncertainty that is inherent to vague, linguistic time specifications in a mathematically sound way. These mathematical time representations can then be stored in a database and advanced query evaluation techniques, for adequately coping with the represented uncertainty, can be used. Medieval charters are a typical example of documents on which related temporal information is often imperfect. To show the applicability of our technology, we illustrate how the development of the Diplomata Belgica database, a database describing medieval charters, can benefit from this novel technology. The added-value of the technology for future research in the humanities, in our case medieval history, is demonstrated by means of several illustrative query examples.
About the authors
Guy De Tré received a M.Sc. in Computer Science and a Ph.D. in Applied Sciences from Ghent University in Belgium. He is currently associate professor and head of the Database, Document, and Content Management (DDCM) research group of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture of Ghent University. His research activities are focused on soft computing in information management systems, including fundamental research on temporal modelling, bipolarity handling, uncertainty handling and multi-valued logics and applied research on, among others, fuzzy querying, decision support, data quality, and unstructured data.
Ghent University, Dept. of Telecommunications and Information Processing, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
Jeroen Deploige studied history at the Universities of Ghent and Poitiers (Ph.D. Ghent 2002) and is currently full professor of medieval history at Ghent University. His research is focused on the cultural and social history of the High Middle Ages. He is member of the Belgian Royal Historical Commission and director of the project “Sources from the Medieval Low Countries” (Hercules Foundation, 2011–2015), which facilitated at the development of the database Diplomata Belgica, an online inventory with full text-editions and photographs of all the pre-1250 medieval charters from the southern Low Countries.
Ghent University, Dept. of History, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 35, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
©2016 Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
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- Thematic Issue: Computer Science in Humanities
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- Design considerations for a large-scale image-based text search engine in historical manuscript collections
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- Time modelling in digital humanities. Challenges posed by the development of a database of medieval charters
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Computer science in humanities
- Thematic Issue: Computer Science in Humanities
- Using standoff properties for marking-up historical documents in the humanities
- Wikidition: Automatic lexiconization and linkification of text corpora
- Design considerations for a large-scale image-based text search engine in historical manuscript collections
- Made in the humanities: Dual integral invariants for efficient edge detection
- Time modelling in digital humanities. Challenges posed by the development of a database of medieval charters
- The role of computers to understand the past. The case of archaeological research
- Self-Portrayals of GI Junior Fellows
- Decentralized communication against surveillance and privacy violation
