Collective Reasoning over Shared Concepts for the Linguistic Atlas of Sicily

Abstract

In this work, collective intelligence principles are applied in the context of the Linguistic Atlas of Sicily, an interdisciplinary research focusing on the study of the Italian language as it is spoken in Sicily, and its correlation with the Sicilian dialect and other regional varieties spoken in Sicily. The project has been developed over the past two decades and includes a complex information system supporting linguistic research; recently it has grown to allow research scientists to cooperate in an inte-grated environment to produce significant scientific advances in the field of ethnologic and sociolinguistic research. An interoperable infrastruc-ture was implemented and organized to allow exchange of information and knowledge between researchers providing tools and methodologies to allow collective reasoning over shared concepts. The project uses dif-ferent types of data (structured, unstructured, multimedia) that require tight data integration and interoperability. Additionally, the framework allows for data aggregation into shared concepts that can be exchanged between researchers and constitute a common knowledge base for the entire research community of the ALS.