Design and use of the Simple Event Model (SEM)

Abstract

Events have become central elements in the representation of data from domains such as
history, cultural heritage, multimedia and
geography. The Simple Event Model (SEM) is created to model events in these various domains,
without making assumptions
about the domain-specific vocabularies used. SEM is designed with a minimum of semantic
commitment to guarantee maximal
interoperability. In this paper, we discuss the general requirements of an event model for web data and
give examples from
two use cases: historic events and events in the maritime safety and security domain. The advantages
and disadvantages of
several existing event models are discussed in the context of the historic example. We discuss the
design decisions underlying
SEM. SEM is coupled with a Prolog API that enables users to create instances of events without going
into the details of the
implementation of the model. By a tight coupling to existing Prolog packages, the API facilitates easy
integration of event
instances to Linked Open Data. We illustrate use of the API with examples from the maritime domain.