/saso

A simple ontology for describing the structure of software-based artwork systems

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Software-based Artwork Structure Ontology (SASO)

The Software-based Artwork Structure Ontology is a simple ontology for describing the structure of software-based artwork systems. The ontology was created in the Protégé 5.2 authoring tool and is shared here as an RDF/XML format OWL 2 ontology.

The ontology is intended to provide a model for the structured representation of software-based artwork systems (i.e. the constellation of hardware and software components of which they consist) through time, as both a form of architectural overview and a preservation information resource. Although designed in the context of describing software-based artworks, the ontology could describe other structures where a long-term and performance-based view on software is relevant.

Further information, including mappings to PREMIS 3.0 semantic units, can be found in the associated PhD thesis, 'Technical Narratives: Analysis, Description and Representation in the Conservation of Software-based Art', available to download from the King's College London research outputs system.

The version of the ontology published here is likely to remain static for the foreeable future, as my focus shifted to related research on concrete models for documentation and collection metadata in development at Tate. Developed as part of the ongoing Software-based Art Preservation research project within Tate's Time-based Media Conservation team, outcomes of this research are shared on the project web page.