Interoperate with whom? formality, archaeology and the semantic web

Interoperability is often cited as a desirable end-goal for information systems, but the highly abstract nature of this apparent benet sits uneasily with the task-oriented realities of data-management. The approach most frequently advocated is to increase the formality of the system, which facilitates system-integration yet also raises additional barriers to entry that reduce the potential pool of systems to interoperate with. The Semantic Web initiative in particular has faced accusations that diculties associated with its adoption can outweigh the perceived benets of data-sharing [9]. This issue will be discussed in reference to current doctoral research being undertaken in Humanities data integration. It will argue that technologies that either heavily front-load or defer dealing with semantic complexity are unlikely to be viable across the producer spectrum. Recourse to altruistic arguments suggests a tacit acceptance that application of such technologies may not be in the immediate interest of the curator. An approach which oers multiple pay-o points is inherently more attractive to potential adopters. In particular, we focus on means by which data-driven microproviders - owners of the small but important datasets that tend to form the long tail of academic data in the Humanities - can participate in semantics-driven datasharing. We propose that (at least) ve escalating levels of semantic formalization can be identied, each with diering requirements and benets for the implementer: i. Literal Standardization, ii. Instance URI generation, iii. Canonical URI mapping, iv. RDF generation, and v. Databaseschema-to-Ontology mapping. We note that Linked Data - hitherto seen as the simplest semantic approach - is relatively advanced in this scheme (level iv). We argue that data providers should be encouraged to migrate towards full semantic formalization only as their requirements dictate, rather than all at once. Such an approach acts as both a short and long-term investment in semantic approaches, which in turn encourages increased community engagement. We also propose that for such processes to be accessible