Semanttisen webin ontologisen tekstiilikäsitteistön kehittäminen ja liittäminen museoiden luettelointitietoihin

DEVELOPING A TEXTILE ONTOLOGY FOR THE SEMANTIC WEB AND CONNECTING IT TO MUSEUM CATALOGING DATA The goal of the Semantic Web is to share concept-based information in a versatile way on the Internet. This is achievable using formal data structures called ontologies. The goal of this re-search is to increase the usability of museum cataloging data in information retrieval. The work is interdisciplinary, involving craft science, terminology science, computer science, and museology. In the first part of the dissertation an ontology of concepts of textiles, garments, and accessories is developed for museum cataloging work. The ontology work was done with the help of thesauri, vocabularies, research reports, and standards. The basis of the ontology development was the Museoalan asiasanasto MASA, a thesaurus for museum cataloging work which has been enriched by other vocabularies. Concepts and terms concerning the research object, as well as the material names of textiles, costumes, and accessories, were focused on. The research method was terminological concept analysis complemented by an ontological view of the Semantic Web. The concept structure was based on the hierarchical generic relation. Attention was also paid to other relations between terms and concepts, and between concepts themselves. Altogether 977 concept classes were created. Issues including how to choose and name concepts for the ontology hierarchy and how deep and broad the hierarchy could be are discussed from the viewpoint of the ontology developer and museum cataloger. The second part of the dissertation analyzes why some of the cataloged terms did not match with the developed textile ontology. This problem is significant because it prevents automatic ontological content integration of the cataloged data on the Semantic Web. The research datasets, i.e. the cataloged museum data on textile collections, came from three museums: Espoo City Museum, Lahti City Museum and The National Museum of Finland. The data included 1803 textile, costume, and accessory objects. Unmatched object and textile material names were analyzed. In the case of the object names six categories (475 cases), and of the material names eight categories (423 cases), were found where automatic annotation was not possible. The most common explanation was that the cataloged field was filled with a long sentence comprised of many terms. Sometimes in the compound term, the object name and material, or the name and the way of usage, were combined. As well, numeric values in the material name cataloging field prevented annotation and so did the absence of a corresponding concept in the ontology. Ready-made drop-down lists of materials used in one cataloging system facilitated the annotation. In the case of naming objects and materials, one should use terms in basic form without attributes. The developed textile ontology has been applied in two cultural portals, MuseumFinland and Culturesampo, where one can search for and browse information based on cataloged data using integrated ontologies in an interoperable way. The textile ontology is also part of the national FinnONTO ontology infrastructure. Keywords: annotation, concept, concept analysis, cataloging, museum collection, ontology, Semantic Web, textile collection, textile material

Publishing in the Networked World: Transforming the Nature of Communication, 14th International Conference on Electronic Publishing 16-18 June 2010, Helsinki, Finland

The title of the 14th International Conference on Electronic Publishing (ELPUB), “Publishing in the networked world: Transforming the nature of communication”, is a timely one. Scholarly communication and scientific publishing has recently been undergoing subtle changes. Published papers are no longer fixed physical objects, as they once were. The “convergence” of information, communication, publishing and web technologies along with the emergence of Web 2.0 and social networks has completely transformed scholarly communication and scientific papers turned to living and changing entities in the online world. The themes (electronic publishing and social networks; scholarly publishing models; and technological convergence) selected for the conference are meant to address the issues involved in this transformation process. We are pleased to present the proceedings book with more than 30 papers and short communications addressing these issues. What you hold in your hands is a by-product and the culmination of almost a Year long work of many people including conference organizers, authors, reviewers, editors and print and online publishers. The ELPUB 2010 conference was organized and hosted by the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland. Professors Turid Hedlund of Hanken School of Economics and Yaşar Tonta of Hacettepe University Department of Information Management (Ankara, Turkey) served as General Chair and Program Chair, respectively. We received more than 50 submissions from several countries. All submissions were peer-reviewed by members of an international Program Committee whose contributions proved most valuable and appreciated. The 14th ELPUB conference carries on the tradition of previous conferences held in the United Kingdom (1997 and 2001), Hungary (1998), Sweden (1999), Russia (2000), the Czech Republic (2002), Portugal (2003), Brazil (2004), Belgium (2005), Bulgaria (2006), Austria (2007), Canada (2008) and Italy (2009). The ELPUB Digital Library, http://elpub.scix.net serves as archive for the papers presented at the ELPUB conferences through the years. The 15th ELPUB conference will be organized by the Department of Information Management of Hacettepe University and will take place in Ankara, Turkey, from 14-16 June 2011. (Details can be found at the ELPUB web site as the conference date nears by.) We thank Marcus Sandberg and Hannu Sääskilahti for copyediting, Library Director Tua Hindersson – Söderholm for accepting to publish the online as well as the print version of the proceedings. Thanks also to Patrik Welling for maintaining the conference web site and Tanja Dahlgren for administrative support. We warmly acknowledge the support in organizing the conference to colleagues at Hanken School of Economics and our sponsors.

The Organisation of Policy Meets the Commercialisation of Sex - Global Linkages, Policies, Technologies

During recent years the commercialisation of sex has increased and intensified both locally and globally. This thesis explores the commercialisation of bodies, sex and sexualities, particularly the sex trade, and the impact of rapidly evolving information and communication technologies on this globalising trade. The main focus of this work is on the policies, discourses and policy developments in the area especially in the Finnish context. The study is based on multidisciplinary theoretical sources through which the framework of multiple linkages relevant to the commercialisation of sex is conceptualised. The sex trade functions through a web of intersecting linkages of a substantive, economic, organisational, temporal, spatial, cultural, technological, as well as of legislative and policy nature. This framework of linkages forms the basis for the analysis of the main empirical data, namely qualitative interviews with thirty key managers and professionals, who are responsible for the preparation and implementation of policies on commercial sex. In addition, the thesis addresses the policies and policy practices on the sex trade through the analysis of national and international policy instruments. In addition to analysing the processes of the commercialisation of sex and its effects, the study also discusses their further implications for organisational policy-making, research, and society more generally. The thesis thus seeks to contribute to practice, research and theory on gender, management and organisations.

Teachers' attitudes to and beliefs about web-based Collaborative Learning Environments in the context of an international implementation

"Fifty-six teachers, from four European countries, were interviewed to ascertain their attitudes to and beliefs about the Collaborative Learning Environments (CLEs) which were designed under the Innovative Technologies for Collaborative Learning Project. Their responses were analysed using categories based on a model from cultural-historical activity theory [Engestrom, Y. (1987). Learning by expanding.- An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. Helsinki: Orienta-Konsultit; Engestrom, Y., Engestrom, R., & Suntio, A. (2002). Can a school community learn to master its own future? An activity-theoretical study of expansive learning among middle school teachers. In G. Wells & G. Claxton (Eds.), Learning for life in the 21st century. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers]. The teachers were positive about CLEs and their possible role in initiating pedagogical innovation and enhancing personal professional development. This positive perception held across cultures and national boundaries. Teachers were aware of the fact that demanding planning was needed for successful implementations of CLEs. However, the specific strategies through which the teachers can guide students' inquiries in CLEs and the assessment of new competencies that may characterize student performance in the CLEs were poorly represented in the teachers' reflections on CLEs. The attitudes and beliefs of the teachers from separate countries had many similarities, but there were also some clear differences, which are discussed in the article. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved."