The AlpineBits® DestinationData Ontology¶
The AlpineBits® Ontology formalizes the worldview shared by AlpineBits members over concepts of the tourism domain. It supports semantic interoperability between members through a technology-agnostic conceptual model.
The ontology documents the members' agreement at the conceptual level and drives the development of the AlpineBits®, while the API specification documents their agreement at the technological level is defined in the subsequent chapters.
A user of the AlpineBits® may use this ontology as a reference to interpret the real-world semantics of the data the user will consume from a SERVER, thus avoiding interoperability issues.
Modeling Language: OntoUML¶
The AlpineBits® Ontology is designed using the OntoUML, an ontologically well-founded extension of the UML Class Diagram that can be used to represent a domain of interest from a computationally independent perspective.
OntoUML consists of a set of stereotypes applicable to classes, associations, and attributes, with precisely defined formal semantics derived from the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO), an axiomatic formal theory based on theories from analytic metaphysics, philosophical logic, cognitive psychology, and linguistics.
An important meta-property of an OntoUML class stereotype is dubbed rigidity.
-
A rigid class statically classifies its instances, i.e., an instance of a rigid class must instantiate it throughout its whole existence. Examples include
Person
,Animal
,Organization
,Contract
, andMarriage
. -
An anti-rigid class dynamically classifies its instances, i.e., an instance of an anti-rigid class at a given point in time may cease to be so later on. Examples include
Teenager
,Adult
,Student
, andSpouse
.
Another fundamental meta-property for classes is sortality.
-
a sortal class is one whose instances share a common identity principle, where the sortal class must either provide this principle or inherit it from a superclass. Examples of classes that provide identity principles include
Person
,House
, andCar
, and those that inherit such principles includeStudent
,Man
,Adult
,Town House
, andSports Car
. -
a non-sortal class is one whose set of instances includes entities complying with different identity principles. Examples include
Agent
, which classifies instances of sortal classesPerson
andOrganization
, andPhysical Object
, which classifies instances of sortal classesCar
andHouse
(among others).
The OntoUML class stereotypes used in the AlpineBits® Ontology are:
-
«kind»
: a rigid sortal (identity provider) class that classifies object-like entities. Examples of typical kinds includePerson
,Organization
,Car
, andHouse
. -
«relator»
: a rigid sortal (identity provider) class that classifies relational entities, also known as relationships. Examples includeMarriage
, which relates two instances ofSpouse
;Contract
, which relates instances ofParty
in the context of formal agreements; andEnrollment
, which relates an instance ofStudent
to an instance ofEducational Institution
. -
«quality»
: a rigid sortal (identity provider) class that classifies entities that represent aspects of other entities and are measurable in some value space (i.e., conceptual space). A quality may be used to compare individuals, on the basis of the value it takes in a certain quality space (for example, a mass in the kilogram scale, or a position within the RGB spectrum). Examples includeWeight
(as in the weight of a person),Name
(as in the name of an organization),Color
(as in the color of a car), andDuration
(as in the duration of a concert). -
«subkind»
: a rigid sortal class that inherits its identity from another sortal. Examples of subkinds includeFor-Profit Organization
,Fiat 500
, andCivil Marriage
. -
«role»
: an anti-rigid sortal class whose instantiation depends on a relational condition. Examples includeStudent
,Artist
, andLegally Recognized Marriage
. -
«phase»
: an anti-rigid sortal class whose instantiation depends on a change in an intrinsic property. For example,Child
may be a subclass ofPerson
whose instances are people up to 12 years old. -
«category»
: a rigid non-sortal class that classifies entities of different sorts. Examples includeAgent
, which classifies instances of bothPerson
andOrganization
; andAnimal
, which classifies instances of different species of animals, includingFelis Catus
(domestic cat),Canis Lupus Familiaris
(dog), andPanthera Leo
(lion). -
«roleMixin»
: an anti-rigid non-sortal class that classifies roles playable by individuals of different sorts. Examples includeOrganizer
, as the agent that organizes some event, andAuthor
, as the agent that holds the right to some intellectual property. -
«type»
: a rigid class that classifies entities that have instances themselves (i.e., other classes). Examples includeCar Model
, whose instances may includeFiat 500
andTesla Model S
; andEvent Type
, whose instances may includeMusical Event
andSports Event
. -
«datatype»
: a class that classifies values contained in a well-defined conceptual space, e.g., integer and real numbers (in their respective sets),Mass in Kilograms
, andRGB Color
. -
«enumeration»
: a class that classifies values within a discrete finite conceptual space. Examples includeDay of Week
, whose possible instances are the 7 days of the week; andDriver License Category
, whose possible instances areA
,B
,C
,D
, andE
.
The OntoUML association stereotypes used in the AlpineBits® Ontology are:
-
«mediation»
: an existential dependence relation that connects relators to the entities they bind. For example, instances of the relatorMarriage
mediate instances of the classSpouse
; instances of the relatorContract
mediate instances of the classContract Party
. -
«characterization»
: an existential dependence relation that connects an aspect (e.g., a quality) to the entity it characterizes. For example, instances of the classColor
characterize instances of the classPhysical Object
. -
«material»
: a relation that connects entities based on something dependent on these entities. For example, instances of the association "married with" connect instances of the classSpouse
that have a marriage relationship dependent on them. -
«componentOf»
: a part-whole relation that connects objects with their functional components. Examples include the composition relation between an instance ofCar
and the instance ofEngine
installed in it; the relation between an instance ofHuman Body
and an instance ofHeart
. -
«historicalDependence»
a relation that binds entities because of an event that happened in the past. For example, an instance ofPlace
may be related through a historical dependence to an instance ofImage Object
that is a representation of that place at a point in time. -
«instantiation»
: a relation between two classes representing that instances of one may be classified by instances of the other. For example, the relation betweenCar
andCar Model
, which represents that every car is an instance of a car model.
Ontology Description¶
The figure below depicts the taxonomy of named entity defined by the AlpineBits® Ontology designed to represent the individuals and types present in the ontology’s domain:
All classes of entities characterized by description information in the AlpineBits® Ontology specialize Named Entity
. Named Entity
has the following properties: abstract
, a short description of the individual; description
, a description of the individual more thorough than an abstract; name
, the name of the individual; short name
, the short version of the name of the individual (e.g., an abbreviation); url
, a link that leads to additional information regarding the individual.
The additional classes of individuals and types in the figure above are described in the following sections.
Categories and Features¶
A Category
is a type that classifies entities in the tourism domain. Examples of categories include "music event", which classifies the South Tyrol Jazz Festival 2018, and "public space", which classifies the Piazza Walther Von der Vogelweide.
A Category
may classify one or more Named Entities
of different types. For instance, "music event" classifies only instances of event plans, while "public space" classifies instances of venue and trail.
A Feature
is an attraction or anything that can be present in a Named Entity
in the tourism domain. Examples of features include, "auditorium" as in venues that present some available auditorium, "food and drinks" as in events that present food selling stations, or "parking space" for places that present a dedicated parking area.
A Snowpark Feature
is a snowpark-specific feature. Examples of snowpark features include "rail" and "ramp", these present in snowparks that enable the practice of special maneuvers in winter sports.
Categories and features can be organized into hierarchies where being an instance of a child category implies being an instance of the parent category and presenting a child feature implies presenting a parent feature. For example, an instance of the event plan category "conference" is also an instance of its parent category "business event". Moreover, a venue that presents the feature "olympic size swimming pool" also presents the its parent feature "swimming pool".
Agent¶
An individual who bears mental attitudes and is capable of performing actions and perceiving events.
An Agent
is either a Person
, such as Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Lionel Messi, and Serena Williams, or an Organization
, such as Apple, Facebook, the AlpineBits Alliance, and the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano.
An Agent
can play several roles within the touristic domain, namely the Organizer
, Sponsor
, Publisher
, or Contributor
of an event, the License Holder
or the Author
of a media object, and the Area Owner
of a mountain area.
A fragment of the ontology depicting Agent
and its properties is presented below:
In addition to the attributes inherited from Named Entity
, Agents
have a property named contact points
, which identifies a list of Contact Points
one can use to get in touch with an Agent
.
A Contact Point
informs how to contact an Agent
, namely its email
address, telephone
number, and physical address
, but also when to do it by means of the available hours
property.
Contact Point
information is relevant for tourists who want to contact the owner of a mountain area to know about its slopes conditions, or for customers who want to contact an event’s organizer about ticket prices.
Media Object¶
An object that materializes creative works into a digital format to enable processing and sharing.
Three disjoint types of Media Objects
are identified in the ontology, namely Audio Object
, e.g. an audio file containing a recording of a song, Image Object
, e.g. an image file depicting a lift, and Video Object
, e.g. a video file containing a recording of a musical performance.
A fragment of the ontology depicting Media Object
, its properties, and subtypes is shown below:
In addition to the attributes inherited from Named Entity
, Media Object
is characterized by content type
, which refers to the Media Types (formerly known as MIME Types) defined by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).
A Media Object
, or more precisely, the creative work embedded in it, can have its rights owned by an agent, termed the License Holder
. Apart from the license holder, a creative work can also have an Author
who may not hold the licensing right over its creation. Additionally, it may be available for reuse by others according to a License Type
, such as the Creative Commons 1.0 Universal.
A Media Object
often depicts a Named Entity
, such as events, event venues, lifts, ski slopes, and snowparks. This depiction is captured in the ontology by means of the historical dependence between Named Entity
and Media Object
.
Place¶
An individual that has a fixed physical location and can be localized within a Global Positioning System (GPS) (adapted from Schema.org). Examples of places include a town square, a stadium, a ski slope, a gas station, and a park.
A Place
may go through two phases: In Operation
and Permanently Closed
. The first classifies places that are functioning, regardless if they are currently open or not. The second classifies those that have terminated its operations.
Place
specializes Named Entity
and thus, inherits all of its attributes.
Place
is additionally characterized by the attributes address
, how to arrive
, and openingHours
: address
represents the physical address of a place; how to arrive
is a textual description on how to arrive at a place; and opening hours
identifies when a place is (or should be) open.
A Place
may be physically connected to other places and give access to them. For instance, the Falzeben Gondola at Merano 2000 gives access to the Falzeben I and Wallpach slopes. In the ontology, this relation is captured by the connections
self-type association defined for Place
.
Notice, however, that the connection
relation is non-symmetric in cases where two places are only connected in one direction. For example, A Lift
may give access to a Snowpark
, but the Snowpark
(due to the descent, for instance) may not give access back to the Lift
.
A fragment of the ontology centered around the Place
concept, its properties, and subtypes is shown below:
The GPS information that can be associated to a Place
is represented by means of the Geometry
quality, which is sub-classified into the following subtypes according to its geometrical shape: Point
, Multi Point
, Line String
, Multi Line String
, Polygon
, and Multi Polygon
. Instances of Geometry
must instantiate exactly one of the aforementioned subtypes.
The coordinates
attribute in the Geometry
class is the list of points that compose the geometry.
Event, Event Series and Venue¶
An Event Plan
is a plan established by one or more Organizers
aiming some Target Audience
(adapted from the Core Public Event Vocabulary). Event Plans
are planned to be held at some particular date and time.
Examples include the Südtirol Jazz Festival 2018, the South Tyrol Free Software Conference organized in 2019, the Bolzano Christmas Market of 2019, and a Serie A match between Juventus and Napoli.
In addition to the attributes inherited from Named Entity
, an Event Plan
has the attributes start date
, end date
, in-person capacity
, online capacity
, participation url
, registration url
, and recorded
: a start date
which describes when the event is planned to start; an end date
which describes when the event is planned to end; in-person capacity
which describes the event’s capacity for in-person attendance; online capacity
which describes the event’s capacity for virtual attendance; participation url
which is the URL for virtual attendance in the event; registration url
which is the URL for registration to the event; and recorded
which describes whether the event is planned to be recorded.
Event Plans
can be In-Person
, Virtual
, or Hybrid
, depending on whether they participants are planed to join the event in-person, virtually, or by either of these options.
In-Person Events
and Hybrid Events
happen at one or more places, which are dubbed its Venues
. For instance, the venue of Bolzano Christmas Market in 2019 was Piazza Walther.
Virtual Events
and Hybrid Events
are supported by one or more Streaming Platforms
. For instance, the South Tyrol Free Software Conference organized in 2021 was streamed to Element and YouTube.
An Event Plan
may involve several Agents
, i.e. persons or organizations, in different ways. An Organizer
plans the event and is legally responsible for it; the Publisher
provides data about it; a Sponsor
supports its organization, usually by making financial contributions; and a Contributor
actively participates in the event, such as a presenter, a singer or an expositor.
Events
may be composed of smaller events. For instance, the Südtirol Jazz Festival 2019 was composed of over 30 individual concerts. This type of event is classified as a Composite Event
in the ontology, while those without sub-events are deemed Simple Events
.
An Event Plan
is in one of two phases, namely Published
and Cancelled
. The former refers to those whose plans are or were valid, while the latter refers to those that have been canceled.
Many Event Plan Categories
can classify Event Plans
that share common characteristics they identify, such as "music event" or "sports event".
Each Event Plan
may instantiate a special type of Event Plan Category
called Event Series
. An Event Series
is a kind of "template" for recurrent Event Plans
that are referred to as its editions
. Examples include the Olympics, which is organized every 4 years, and the Bolzano Christmas Market, which is organized every year, and the Food Truck Weekend, which is organized sporadically in Trento.
It is not possible for an Event Plan
and one of its parts to be editions
of the same Event Series
. However, an Event Plan
and its parts may be editions
of distinct Event Series
. For example, the "South Tyrol Jazz Festival 2021" may be an edition
of the "South Tyrol Jazz Festival" series, while the presentation of "András Dés Rangers on 04/07/2021", its sub-event
, may be an edition
of the "András Dés Rangers European Tour 2021".
The frequency in which an Event Series
is organized is captured in the ontology by the homonymous attribute.
A fragment of the ontology focused on the concepts of Event Plan
, Event Series
, and Venue
is shown below:
Mountain Areas¶
A Mountain Area
is a geographical region in which alpine sports and activities can be performed, such as skiing, snowboarding, climbing, and hiking.
Examples include Dolomiti Superski, located in South Tyrol, Italy, Zermatt Matterhorn, located in Switzerland, and St. Anton Arlberg, located in Austria.
An excerpt of the ontology regarding Mountain Area
and its properties is shown below:
As a particular type of Place
, Mountain Area
inherits all of its attributes and relations, which includes address
and GPS-related properties.
Instances of Mountain Area
are alpine regions that contain other places of interest, among which instances of Lift
and Trail
are commonly found.
Mountain Areas
may contain other mountain areas. This is the case of Dolomiti Superski and Ortler Skiarena, which contain several smaller areas in South Tyrol. In such cases, the broader area contains, by transitivity, every Lift
and Trail
within its contained areas.
Note, the composition of mountain areas is:
-
irreflexive: an area cannot contain itself;
-
transitive: if area X contains area Y and area Y contains area Z, then X contains area Z;
-
antisymmetric: if area X contains area Y, area Y cannot contain area X.
A Mountain Area
is usually owned by an organization. For instance, the Merano 2000 area is owned by the Merano 2000 Funivie Spa organization.
Trails and Lifts¶
A Trail
is a physical path where sporting activities can be performed. Trails are classified according to the sporting activities offered, such as hiking trails, ski trails, and biking trails, which support hiking, skiing, and biking respectively. This version of the standard distinguishes between two types of trails, namely Ski Slope
(aka ski trail) and Snowpark
.
Trails are rated according to how challenging it is to practice a sport on them. This characteristic is captured by means of a general Difficulty
level, which can be projected in different scales. For instance, a Ski Slope’s `Difficulty
can be valued according to the European or American Systems, as in the Falzeben I slope of the Merano 2000 area is rated blue (or easy) in the european system.
A Ski Slope
is a Trail
, usually on a hill, where people can ski and snowboard.
A Snowpark
is a Trail
specially designed to allow skiers and snowboarders to perform freestyle tricks by providing them with special features, such as jumps and rails.
A Lift
is a machine designed to transport people uphill, often being used to transport skiers in mountain areas. Lifts
may be of several types, such as chairlifts, gondolas, and cableways.
A fragment of the ontology that formalizes Trail
, Ski Slope
, Snowpark
, and Lift
is presented below:
Snow Measurement¶
A relevant piece of information for alpine tourists during the winter season is the snow condition of mountain areas and ski slopes. This is captured in the ontology by means of the Snow Measurement
concept, a relator that describes the result of a measuring activity performed by an Agent
, at a particular Place
, in a given point in time (date
).
An excerpt of the ontology describing Snow Measurement
is shown below:
Note that Snow Measurement
specializes Geospatial Feature
. This means that its instances may be localized using GPS Geometries
of any shape.
A Snow Measurement
identifies the following descriptive properties:
-
base snow
: the height of snow in the vicinities of the measurement location -
base snow range
: the variation of thebase snow
measurement in the vicinities of the measurement location -
groomed
: indicates whether or not the snow has been groomed in the vicinities of the measurement location -
primary surface
: the main type of snow found in the vicinities of the measurement location -
secondary surface
: the secondary type of snow found in the vicinities of the measurement location -
snow making
: indicates whether or not the snow in the vicinities of the measurement location has been artificially produced -
snow over night
: the height of snow accumulated in the previous night in the vicinities of the measurement location -
storm total
: the height of snow accumulated from the last snowstorm in the vicinities of the measurement location