Modeling in the Digital Humanities: conceptual data models and knowledge organization in the cultural heritage domain

This paper explores the role of model and modelling in the field of Digital Humanities, paying special attention to the cultural heritage domain. In detail, the approach here described adopts a bi-dimensional vision: considering the model as both a process of abstraction, an interpretation from a certain point of view, and a formal language to implement this abstraction in order to create something processable by a machine. The role of conceptual models – to be converted into ontologies – as a semantic deepening of controlled vocabularies, is the translation of this vision. Ontologies are the models used in domain communities in order to share classes and predicates for conceptual interoperability. Thinking of data models as a knowledge organization system is the core of this reflection on Digital Humanities domain.