Building a Semantic Web of Comics: Publishing Linked Data in HTML/RDFa Using a Comic Book Ontology and Metadata Application Profiles A thesis submitted to the College of Communication and Information of Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Library and Information Science and Master of Science dual degree program by Sean Petiya December, 2014 Thesis written by Sean Petiya B.F.A., Youngstown State University, 2008 M.L.I.S., Kent State University, 2014 M.S., Kent State University, 2014 Approved by ________________________________________ Marcia Lei Zeng, Advisor ________________________________________ Jeffrey W. Fruit, Director, School of Library and Information Science ________________________________________ AnnMarie LeBlanc, Dean, College of Communication and Information Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................................... III LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. X LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................. XIII LIST OF ACRONYMS ....................................................................................................... XIV LIST OF NAMESPACES ..................................................................................................... XV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ XVI CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................1 1.1 Background .........................................................................................................................2 1.1.1 History, Collections, and Archives ..................................................................................2 1.1.2 Visual Form and Format .................................................................................................5 1.2.3 Hobbyists and Researchers .............................................................................................7 1.2 Problem Statement ..............................................................................................................9 1.3 Objectives .......................................................................................................................... 13 II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND RELATED PROJECTS .......................................... 15 2.1 Modeling Comic Book Data .............................................................................................. 15 2.1.1 Advanced Comic Book Format (ACBF) ....................................................................... 16 2.1.2 Comic Metadata Format (CoMet) ................................................................................. 16 2.1.3 ComicsML ................................................................................................................... 17 2.1.4 Comic Book Markup Language (CBML) ...................................................................... 17 2.1.5 Summary of Existing Schemas and Data Models .......................................................... 18 2.2 Semantic Web and Linked Data ....................................................................................... 19 iii 2.2.1 Semantic Web Framework ............................................................................................ 20 2.2.2 Publishing Linked Data ................................................................................................ 21 2.2.3 Markup Languages, Models, and Syntaxes ................................................................... 23 2.2.3.1 Extensible Markup Language (XML) ..................................................................... 23 2.2.3.2 Resource Description Framework (RDF) ............................................................... 24 2.2.3.3 Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) ................................................................... 26 2.2.3.4 Microdata .............................................................................................................. 27 2.2.3.5 Resource Description Framework in Attributes (RDFa) ......................................... 28 2.2.3 Metadata Vocabularies ................................................................................................. 30 2.2.3.1 Ontologies ............................................................................................................. 31 2.2.3.2 Resource Description Framework Schema (RDFS) ................................................ 31 2.2.3.3 Web Ontology Language (OWL) ........................................................................... 32 2.2.4 Usability of Metadata Vocabularies .............................................................................. 33 2.3 Comic Books and Linked Data ......................................................................................... 34 2.3.1 Manga Metadata Framework ........................................................................................ 36 2.3.2 Schema.org and Other Projects ..................................................................................... 37 III. METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................... 38 3.1 Overview ............................................................................................................................ 38 3.2 Research Design ................................................................................................................ 39 3.2.1 Information and Reference Resources for Ontology Development ................................ 41 3.2.2 Gaining Practical Indexing Experience ......................................................................... 44 3.2.3 Acquisition of Example Materials ................................................................................. 46 3.2.3.1 Example A: X-Men Days of Future Past (Story) .................................................... 47 iv 3.2.3.2 Example B: Spider-Man (Copy) ............................................................................. 48 3.2.3.3 Example C: Nick Fury (Artwork) ........................................................................... 48 3.2.3.4 Other Examples ..................................................................................................... 49 3.2.4 Pilot Study .................................................................................................................... 50 3.2.4.1 Designing a Domain Model ................................................................................... 50 3.2.4.2 Developing an XML Schema ................................................................................. 52 3.2.4.3 Developing an OWL Ontology .............................................................................. 55 3.2.4.4 Metadata Crosswalk to Other Schemas .................................................................. 58 3.2.5 Data Conversion Workflow .......................................................................................... 61 3.2.5.1 Developing an XSLT Stylesheet ............................................................................ 62 3.2.5.2 Conversion of Data from XML to RDF .................................................................. 63 3.2.5.3 Data Conversion Utility ......................................................................................... 66 3.3 Building a Semantic Web Application .............................................................................. 67 3.4 Data Collection .................................................................................................................. 68 3.4.1 Identification of Agents ................................................................................................ 68 3.4.2 Review of Existing Systems ......................................................................................... 70 3.4.3 Content Analysis .......................................................................................................... 72 3.5 Data Summary and Analysis ............................................................................................. 75 3.5.1 Ontology Alignment ..................................................................................................... 77 3.5.2 User Persona Documents .............................................................................................. 78 IV. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND RESULTS ...................................................................... 81 4.1 The Comic Book Ontology (CBO) .................................................................................... 81 4.1.1 CBO Properties............................................................................................................. 82 v 4.1.2 CBO Classes................................................................................................................. 86 4.1.2.1 Agent Model .......................................................................................................... 86 4.1.2.2 Work Model .......................................................................................................... 87 4.1.2.3 Universe Model ....................................................................................................