Favouring the alliance be-tween Information science and computer science: an investigation in the field of ethnomusicology

Abstract

This research is conducted on the scope of Digital Humanities, and it aims to reinforce the alliance between the areas of information science and computer science, applying it into an ethnomusicological context. Ethnomusicological researchers work on many types of audio-visual data, such as photos, videos, music, and sound recordings. The needs involved in the use and dissemination of such kind of data can be problematic, given their diverse formats, sources, and the increasing quantity of data and technologies involved in their production and study. So, in this environment, new exchange of experiences has taken place between computer science and information science researchers for the development of a knowledge framework able to deal with such amount of available audio-visual data. However, despite the recent advances, the ethnomusicologic field is still missing uniform metadata, ontologies, and taxonomies, complicating data interoperability and reusability. This article discusses the initial results obtained within the scope of the INET-md – the Institute of Ethnomusicology – Centre for Studies in Music and Dance, in Portugal, and presents the remaining challenges. Semantic is undoubtedly the “answer” to face many of these obstacles.