Developing Application Profiles for Enhancing Data and Workflows in Cultural Heritage Digitisation Processes

As a result of the proliferation of 3D digitisation in the context of cultural heritage projects, digital assets and digitisation processes – being considered as proper research objects – must prioritise adherence to FAIR principles. Existing standards and ontologies, such as CIDOC-CRM, play a crucial role in this regard, but they are often over-engineered for the need of a particular application context, thus making their understanding and adoption difficult. Application profiles of a given standard – defined as sets of ontological entities drawn from one or more semantic artefacts for a particular context or application – are usually proposed as tools for promoting interoperability and reuse while being tied entirely to the particular application context they refer to. In this paper, we present an adaptation and application of an ontology development methodology, i.e. SAMOD, to guide the creation of robust, semantically sound application profiles of large standard models. Using an existing pilot study we have developed in a project dedicated to leveraging virtual technologies to preserve and valorise cultural heritage, we introduce an application profile named CHAD-AP, that we have developed following our customised version of SAMOD. We reflect on the use of SAMOD and similar ontology development methodologies for this purpose, highlighting its strengths and current limitations, future developments, and possible adoption in other similar projects.