Track 13. Uncertainty in Digital Humanities Authors: Patricia Martin-Rodilla and Cesar Gonzalez-Perez

1. Representing Imprecise and Uncertain
Knowledge in Digital Humanities
A Theoretical Framework and ConML Implementation with a Real Case Study
Dr. Patricia Martín-Rodilla. CiTIUS USC. patricia.martin.rodilla@usc.es
Dr. César González-Pérez Incipit CSIC. cesar.gonzalez-perez@incipit.csic.es
Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Source: https://www.lionsroar.com/boston-impermanence-fog/ Photo by Meslissa Ostrow©.
Source2: http://www.dataciencia.com

2. Index
Martin-Rodilla, P.; Gonzalez-Perez, C. TEEM 2018 2
Conceptual Models in Humanities
Uncertainty, vagueness, etc. in conceptual modelling… ¿What are we talking about?
Uncertain Information in & outside Humanities
ConML solution
Null and unknown semantics
Certainty qualifiers
Abstract enumerated items
Arbitrary time resolution
DICTOMAGRED Case Study: Expressing uncertain information in North Africa Arabic toponyms research
Conclusions and Future Steps

3. Conceptual Models
• Representationof reality: for human-human or machine-human communication
• Used as reference in humanities projects such as Europeana, DARIAH, ARIADNE
• Technology-independent, avoiding “implementation noise”
• Lack of mechanisms for expressing humanities intrinsic characteristics: subjectivity,
uncertainty…*
3Martin-Rodilla, P.; Gonzalez-Perez, C. TEEM 2018

4. Some definitions…
Martin-Rodilla, P.; Gonzalez-Perez, C. TEEM 2018 4
Vagueness
Ontological vagueness (not clear-cut in the real world) -> imprecision
Expression Degrees: Precision
Epistemic vagueness (refers to our knowledge about it) ->uncertainty
Expression Degrees: Accuracy

5. Martin-Rodilla, P.; Gonzalez-Perez, C. TEEM 2018 5
Uncertain Information In Humanities
Archives & Curation Modelling Approaches OO & Humanities Tech Modelling Approaches
Linked Open Data metamodels (in RDF, XML)
Text Encoding Initiative (TEI)
CIDOC-CRM and similar developments
Thesaurus, ad hoc creation of ontologies & folksonomies
Only “custom” software searching and indexing systems will be able to deal with vagueness.
NOT explicit vagueness support
(ontological//epistemic).
CIDOC Extensionfor uncertainty
(subjectivity i.e. some epistemic scenarios)
NOT explicit vagueness support
(ontological//epistemic).
Instance-level solutions, not at metamodel level
Some ad hoc re-adapt solutions: TEI Note tag, XML tags
for vagueness probabilistic information

6. Martin-Rodilla, P.; Gonzalez-Perez, C. TEEM 2018 6
Uncertain Information Outside Humanities
Statistical approaches: Vagueness as a margin of error function to mitigate
- Probability functions as indicators of the precision (using in inferential statistics)
- Certain degree of attributes’ values (i.e. error measurements for a given value).
Strongly mathematically approaches:
- Similar margin-error approaches as Interval Predictor Models
- Fuzzy logic approaches (e.g. fuzzy sets, rule bases, linguistic fuzzy description of variables or fuzzy quantifiers)
Software Engineering approaches
- Ontological vagueness: probability and possibility of existence of entities in the information models.
- Epistemic vagueness: modellable characteristics (set membership, interval membership, incompleteness).
- Works still in progress (2016 OMG group for UML vagueness, some UML solutions based on stereotypes).

7. Martin-Rodilla, P.; Gonzalez-Perez, C. TEEM 2018 7
Solution
Conceptual modelling for the rest of us
Conceptual
modelling
language from
scratch
OO oriented:
classes,
attributes,
associations
Ease of use for
non-experts in
information
technologies
Expressiveness
in complex
domains, such
as those in the
humanities
Support for
subjectivity,
temporality,
vagueness
http://www.conml.org

8. Often used in combination for ontological &/or epistemic vagueness cases.
Martin-Rodilla, P.; Gonzalez-Perez, C. TEEM 2018 8
ConML Vagueness Mechanisms
1. Null and unknown semantics
2. Certainty qualifiers
3. Abstract enumerated items
4. Arbitrary time resolution

9. • Null indicates ontological absence:
b.ProtectionLevel = null means that no protection level has been
established for b.
• Unknown indicates epistemic absence:
b.ProtectionLevel = unknown means that a protection level has been
established for b, but we don’t know what it is.
Martin-Rodilla, P.; Gonzalez-Perez, C. TEEM 2018 9
1. Null and unknown semantics

10. Martin-Rodilla, P.; Gonzalez-Perez, C. TEEM 2018 10
2. Certainty qualifiers
• Labels that may be attached to instances of classes or features to
express how certain a statement is.
Certain: * sign.
Probable: + sign.
Possible: ~ sign.
Improbable: - sign.
Impossible: ! sign.
Example:
b.Height = 34 (*)
b.ArtStyle = late Gothic (~)

11. • Use the abstraction level variation of enumerated items to model represent
different degrees of vagueness, both ontological and epistemic:
Example:
(ontological)
g.PlaceOfOccurrence = Europe
Martin-Rodilla, P.; Gonzalez-Perez, C. TEEM 2018 11
3. Abstract enumerated items
(epistemic)
g.PlaceOfOccurrence = Europe
g.PlaceOfOccurrence = Germany
g.PlaceOfOccurrence = Cologne

12. • Time data type corresponds to expressions of points along the arrow of time.
• Time points do not necessarily follow a format pattern (e.g. day, month, year),
can be as “thick” or “thin” as needed.
Example:
p.DateOfBirth = 1936
p.DateOfBirth = 8 June 1996 20:45
p.DateOfBirth = late 20th century
Martin-Rodilla, P.; Gonzalez-Perez, C. TEEM 2018 12
4. Arbitrary time resolution

13. Martin-Rodilla, P.; Gonzalez-Perez, C. TEEM 2018 13
Case Study: DICTOMAGRED Project
Analyses heterogeneoushistorical sources with geographical references describing routes through different
areas in the Maghreb.
Main Goal: to provide a software tool for humanities specialists to retrieve information about the location of toponyms
in North Africa as they appear in historical sources of medieval and modern times.
Some vagueness needs:
• specification of the degree of certainty of sources in relation to place names
• description of population estimates of the different geographical areas
• indication of whether these places are now inhabited or not
IEMYR Instituto de Estudios Medievales y Renacentistas y de Humanidades Digitales IEMYRhd 2018 http://iemyr.usal.es/
Dictomagred DICTOMAGRED: Diccionario de Toponimia Magrebí.2018 https://dictomagred.usal.es/
Rodríguez, M. A. M. El Magreb desde Oriente: un acercamiento al Libro de los países de Ahmad al-Yaqubi. Universidad de Sevilla, 2017.

14. Martin-Rodilla, P.; Gonzalez-Perez, C. TEEM 2018 14
DICTOMAGRED ConML Class Diagram
Toponym
Name: 1 Text
UsedIn: 1 Time
CurrentName: 0..* Text
HistoricalSource
IdentificationNumber: 1 Number
GeographicArea
XCoord: 1 Number
YCoord: 1 Number
Region: 1..* enum Regions
TextualHistoricalSource
Title: 1 Text
PublicationDate: 1 Time
Author:1 Text
OralHistoricalSource
Informer: 0..1 Text
Duration: 1 Time
IsInterview: 1 Boolean
Source Type
1..*
0..*
RefersTo
0..*
0..*
RefersTo
ToponymDistance
CalculatedIn: 1 Text
OriginalReference: 1 Text
ReliabilityLevel: 1 enum ReliabilityLevel
KmDistance: 1 Number
1
IsDestinyTo
0..*
IsOriginFrom
0..*
0..*
Regions
Magreb
Tunisia
Morocco
Algeria
Egypt
Upper Egypt
Lower Egypt
NearEast
Fertile Crescent
ReliabilityLevel
Very High
High
Medium
Low
Very Low

15. Martin-Rodilla, P.; Gonzalez-Perez, C. TEEM 2018 15
DICTOMAGRED
Object Diagram
Toponym
Name: 1 Text
UsedIn: 1 Time
CurrentName: 0..* Text
HistoricalSource
IdentificationNumber: 1 Number
GeographicArea
XCoord: 1 Number
YCoord: 1 Number
Region: 1..* enum Regions
TextualHistoricalSource
Title: 1 Text
PublicationDate: 1 Time
Author:1 Text
OralHistoricalSource
Informer: 0..1 Text
Duration: 1 Time
IsInterview: 1 Boolean
Source Type
1..*0..*
RefersTo
0..*
0..*
RefersTo
ths1: TextualHistoricalSource
IdentificationNumber= 0000943
Title="Muʿŷam al-buldān"
PublicationDate= 1977
Author= "Yāqūt, Šihāb al-dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh"
top1: Toponym
Name=”Tubna”
UsedIn=Pre-Islamic Age (*)
CurrentName= null
top2: Toponym
Name= "Biskra"
UsedIn=3000 BC (+)
CurrentName= "Biskra"
ToponymDistance
CalculatedIn: 1 Text
OriginalReference: 1 Text
ReliabilityLevel: 1 enum ReliabilityLevel
KmDistance: 1 Number
topDis: ToponymDistance
CalculatedIn="1 Camel journey"
OriginalReference="Yāqūt"
ReliabilityLevel=Low
KmDistance=unknown
ga1: GeographicArea
Xcoord= 35.384470 (~)
Ycoord= 5.357035 (~)
Region= Maghreb
ga2: GeographicArea
XCoord= 34.838945 (*)
Ycoord=5.749731 (*)
Region= Algeria
ths2: TextualHistoricalSource
IdentificationNumber= 0000987
Title="Kitāb al-masālik"
PublicationDate= 1992
Author= "al-Bakrī, Abū ʿUbayd ʿAbd Allāh"
1
RefersTo
IsDestinyTo
RefersTo
0..*
IsOriginFrom
IsOriginFrom
IsDestinyTo
0..*
0..*
RefersTo
RefersTo

16. Martin-Rodilla, P.; Gonzalez-Perez, C. TEEM 2018 16
DICTOMAGRED Vagueness Support
top1 & top2 objects
Time arbitrary resolution: when each toponym was initially used.
Certainty qualifiers: how certain we are about toponym use dating.
CurrentName for Tubna is null, as no place name exists today.
ga1 & ga2 objects
Certainty qualifiers for XCoord & YCoord: location Biskra certainty/Tubna doubts.
topDis object
ReliabilityLevel enumerated type (“1 camel journey” distances).
unknown is used as a value for KmDistance (we cannot specify a distance in Km.).
hs1 & ths2 objects
Time arbitrary resolution: publications’ dates.

17. Martin-Rodilla, P.; Gonzalez-Perez, C. TEEM 2018 17
Implementation Issues & Guidelines
Zero or “magic” values vs. null and unknown use (e.g. Swift programming language capabilities)
Certainty qualifiers & Abstract enumerated items need to be mapped to quantitative values:
rule-based logic? Fuzzy implementations?
Arbitrary time resolution: a ConML class library has been developed which allows for time representation,
including simple and incomplete dates (and times), years, decades and centuries.

18. Martin-Rodilla, P.; Gonzalez-Perez, C. TEEM 2018 18
Conclusions & Future Steps
Vagueness is a valuableintrinsic characteristic in humanities.
We presented here a theoretical framework and specific modelling mechanisms in ConML for the
expression of ontological and epistemic vagueness in Digital Humanities.
DICTOMAGRED project illustrates how ConML mechanisms allow humanities researchers to express imprecision and
uncertainty in their own models.
More work is needed…
…e.g. the evaluation of new implementation techniques based of fuzzy logic and other
quantitative methods, so that computation may take place on the vagueness expressed by
models.

19. Dr. Patricia Martín-Rodilla. CiTIUS USC. patricia.martin.rodilla@usc.es
Dr. César González-Pérez Incipit CSIC. cesar.gonzalez-perez@incipit.csic.es
Thank you for your attention
Source: https://www.lionsroar.com/boston-impermanence-fog/ Photo by Meslissa Ostrow©.
Source2: http://www.dataciencia.com
Representing Imprecise and Uncertain
Knowledge in Digital Humanities
A Theoretical Framework and ConML Implementation with a Real Case Study