Representation and manipulation of conceptual, temporal and geographical knowledge in a museum hypermedia system

This paper discusses a semantic database approach to museum hypermedia systems based upon binary relations, with a restricted set of abstraction relationships. We describe examples of schema, queries and naviagaion aids for a prototype system designed as a social history museum exhibit, with around one hundred historical photographs. Media items are classified according to conceptual, temporal and geographical schema which attempt to model the changing nature of geography over time. The application yields a sparse information space with densely populated clusters. Implementations of notions of semantic closeness, term generalisation, best fit solutions, media density and media similarity show potential to assist the exploration of such information spaces.