FactGrid-Workshop: Ontology pluralism in graph databases

On 16 June 2025, 2 pm to 3:30 pm, online

On 16 June 2025, 2 pm to 3:30 pm, a joint cluster meeting of the CC Authority Files and Community-driven Vocabularies with NFDI4Memory will take place.

The event will be held via Zoom:

https://dainst-org.zoom.us/j/99974415036?pwd=UVc3SmJ4Y01HaXdEc3Y3M2lzOFpMUT09

Meeting ID: 999 7441 5036, Passcode: 353053

Olaf Simons (NFDI4Memory) will present the mapping of different ontological approaches in the graph database FactGrid and thus show how different vocabularies and ontologies can be used in an integrated way and how norm data can be structured.

Where data is inserted into databases, it is assumed that it must be grouped without contradiction and nested consistently and logically in an ontology - if this is not done, the result is messy queries that mix things that belong separately.

The controversies that are ignited by the contradiction-free order of things go back deep into the history of Aristotelianism, the encyclopaedias of the Middle Ages and the Ramism of the early modern period. Somehow, order always fails, even if it only fails because others want to organise things in a completely different way.

With modern graph databases, the question arises as to if we are as free with them as we are in reality: we can organise any number of things in different ways, and that is fruitful. When it comes to the intelligent handling of data, the more important question could be how cleanly we actually know how we have just organised things - so that we can then handle any number of orders side by side. This should be particularly interesting when dealing with historical objects of knowledge.

We look forward to the exchange! Registration is not required.

Further information on the CC Authority Files and Community-driven Vocabularies can be found in the portal on our website.