The Serbia-forum Cultural Heritage Digitization Project with Emphasis on Semantic Indexing

Abstract

Within this paper a new electronic encyclopedic (e-encyclopedia) web application named Serbia-Forum is introduced. Serbia-Forum is compared with existing e-encyclopedias such as Wikipedia, Europeana and Austria-Forum. The limitations of the mentioned e-encyclopedias are addressed and the goals of Serbia-Forum established. Serbia-Forum is governed by two sets of guidelines referred to as “axioms”. It distinguishes itself from existing electronic encyclopedias in that it focuses on the collection and digitization of national cultural heritage element and concepts of Serbia. An insight is given into how some of the axioms of Serbia-Forum can be implemented by other (encyclopedic) applications. Introduction to upcoming research in novel semantic indexing schemes which will be implemented by Serbia-Forum is provided.