Model-oriented information organization: Part 1, the entity-event fabric

Abstract

With rapidly growing interconnected collections of cultural materials, we need new approaches to information organization. We propose that schematic models which describe the content of documents rather than descriptions about the documents are the key for this new generation of descriptive systems. We explore process-oriented models implemented with linguistic frames as an approach to organizing a collection of rich content such as descriptions of history. We show how linguistic frames can implement the state-change model and how those frames might be applied to the organization of content such as history texts and complex materials such as historical newspapers. We focus on verb frames because we base our approach on state changes in entities which are described with verbs. We propose that systems of information organization for rich content such as historical texts be based on a "fabric" of entities and events. For instance, we describe incorporating into the fabric complex entities such as those with multiple parts. We also describe disaggregating complex events with sequences of related events which we call flows, as well as propose a flexible approach to grouping events and a schematic description of people including their mental states. Our approach is a companion to the original content and explicitly allows for versioning, metadata, and hierarchies of entity classes, as well as partonomies, functionality and instances. While our focus here is on history, the structures we define should be able to be applied across a variety of fields and they should be useful as targets for text mining. In a subsequent paper, we extend the fabric to use discourse elements to describe the relationships among events. © 2013 Robert B. Allen.