After the success of the 2021 international workshop1, SWODCH is back in 2022 with its 2nd edition, this year co-located with the 26th European Conference on Advances in Databases and Information Systems (ADBIS 2022, https://adbis2022.polito.it/). The 2022 edition aims at consolidating the coexistence of the two souls, which SWODCH historically originates from: the one focused on the foundational research behind the creation of conceptual models, ontologies and, more in general, the knowledge modelling practices adopted in the Digital Humanities, and the other, closer to the development and deployment of Semantic Web technologies and applications for that field. SWODCH promotes the parallel and interacting growth of these two souls, since each of them is seen as a source of inspiration for the other, an opportunity to define innovative solutions and pose new challenging research questions.
The foundational purpose of SWODCH is to gather original research work about both application and foundational issues emerging from the design of conceptual models, ontologies, and Semantic Web technologies for the Digital Humanities, here understood according to its broader definition including Cultural Heritage, digital History, Archaeology and related fields. In fact, a plethora of heterogeneous and multi-format data sources currently available in the Digital Humanities domain asks for dedicated methodologies and formal tools to semantically annotate, integrate, and reason on domain knowledge and data. Studies about the philosophical and social analysis of DH data and their resulting formal knowledge representation models are also fundamental if one wants to computationally deal in an efficient way with the historical and social dimensions of DH knowledge and data. The application-oriented focus of SWODCH, on the other hand, aims at bringing together stakeholders from various scientific fields, Computer Scientists, Data Scientists and Digital Humanists, involved in the development or deployment of Semantic Web solutions. Despite the fact that considerable efforts have been spent in the last ten years to improve the availability and interoperability of data and knowledge in the DH field and that significant results have been produced, we still experience a digital ecosystem in which formal Knowledge Representation and Semantic Web standards can play an important role in improving and harmonising the way DH data and resources can be exposed, linked and cross-searched. It is also for this reason that, more than 20 years after the beginning of this century, SWODCH fully embodies the values behind the FAIR principles, and asks for contributions which respect and adhere to them.
According to the tradition of SWODCH, the 2022 edition of the workshop will provide a scientific forum where scholars and stakeholders have the opportunity to exchange ideas, experiences, and analyses, while presenting achievements and outcomes of relevant projects, and discussing the challenges they had to face.