Semantic Computing Research Group SeCo

13/06/2026

How to use a cloud of Cultural Heritage knowledge graphs in Digital Humanities research: SampoSampo - Connecting Everything to Everything Else

Invited Talk about research in Aalto and HELDIG at “DCMI 2026: Meaning-Driven AI: Using Metadata to Align Systems with Human Values” Conference, Aug 3-7, Seoul, South Korea

https://www.dublincore.org/conferences/2026/

Linked Open Data (LOD) can be published on the Semantic Web as semantic mark-up embedded in HTML documents or as Knowledge Graphs (KG) in SPARQL endpoints, on top of which applications are developed. KGs typically share the same entities, such as persons, organizations, and places, which means that the data in different KGs about the entities can complement (enrich) or contradict each other, if only we knew what entities are the same in different KGs. For this purpose, entity alignment systems are needed. Examples of such systems include, e.g., the Virtual Authority File VIAF.org of national libraries around the world, the international Linked Open Data Cloud, Linked Open Vocabularies (LOV), and Europeana. This talk presents a new data alignment service and semantic portal "SampoSampo - Connecting Everything to Everything Else" implemented on top of a cloud of 26 related Cultural Heritage (CH) KGs and systems in different CH domains, including biographies, genealogy, fiction literature, historical letters, art, military history, parliamentary discussions, and historical opera performances. The novelty of SampoSampo is to show in practise how a data alignment system can be used for five practical use-cases in Digital Humanities research (DH): 1) Using a LOD alignment service to enrich data in other Cultural Heritage LOD services and applications. 2) Providing global search, browsing, and data-analytic tools over a cloud of KGs. 3) Searching and checking data quality issues based on a cloud of KGs. 4) AI-based knowledge discovery in a LOD cloud based on relational search and Large Language Models. 5) Enhancing data literacy by data-analyses over a KG cloud. SampoSampo was published openly on the Semantic Web in January 2026.

Eero Hyvönen
Aalto University and University of Helsinki, Finland; Geneva Graduate Institute, Switzerland

Eero Hyvönen (https://seco.cs.aalto.fi/u/eahyvone/) is professor (emer.) of computer science at the Aalto University and director of Helsinki Centre for Digital Humanities (HELDIG) (emer.) at the University of Helsinki. His research has focused since 2001 on developing the national semantic web infrastructure in Finland and its applications for Digital Humanities research.

More info about SampoSampo.fi:

https://seco.cs.aalto.fi/projects/ss/

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) has said: "Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else". This wisdom is very true regarding Cultural Heritage (CH) data due to its rich linkedness, and regarding Linked Open Data (LOD), where enriching data by linking is the great underlying pr...

28/05/2026

[In English below]
The League of Nations (1920-1946) and the United Nations (1946-) on the Semantic Web

Kansainliitto (1920-1946) ja YK (1946-) semanttisessa webissä:
Sampo-infrastruktuurin uusi kansainvälinen sovellus julkaistu

Poliittisen päätöksenteon avoimuus ja läpinäkyvyys on demokratian ja oikeusvaltioperiaatteiden keskeinen edellytys. Kansallisella tasolla tätä voidaan edistää julkaisemalla parlamenttien puhe- ja päätösaineistoja datana modernien FAIR-periaatteiden mukaisesti ja helppokäyttöisinä verkkopalveluina, kansainvälisellä tasolla vastaavasti YK:n kaltaisten kansainvälisten multilateraalisten järjestöjen kokousaineistojen avulla.

Tässä tarvittavaa teknologiaa ja sovelluksia on kehitetty Suomessa osana Suomen Akatemian ja EU:n rahoittamaa kansallista FIN-CLARIAH/DARIAH-FI tutkimusinfrastruktuuriohjelmaa ja verkkopalvelua ”Parlamenttisampo – eduskunta semanttisessa webissä” [1]. Suomalaista Sampo-infrastruktuuria on nyt onnistuneesti sovellettu YK:n edeltäjän Kansainliiton (1921-1946) kokousaineistojen julkaisemiseen vastaavalla tavalla kansainvälisessä yhteistyöhankkeessa sveitsiläisen Geneva Graduate Instituten johdolla, YK:n kirjaston ja arkiston aineistoihin perustuen [2]. Kokousaineistot, yhteensä yli 14 000 sivua ja tiedot yli 3000 kansainvälisestä diplomaatista, on nyt saatavilla tutkimus- ja sovelluskäyttöön FAIR-datana ja uutena Sampo-malliin perustuvana verkkopalveluna ”League of Nations – Minutes of Multilateralism on the on the Semantic Web” [3]. Järjestelmä esiteltiin kansainvälisesti toukokuussa sekä semanttisen webin että digitaalisten ihmistieteiden tutkijoille (ESWC 2026 ja DARIAH 2026 -konferenssit [4]). Ks. demovideo YouTubessa [5].

Työ jatkuu seuraavaksi YK:n ja IPU:n kokousaineistojen parissa.

[1] Eero Hyvönen: Parlamenttisampo avaa eduskunnan miljoona puhetta ja kansanedustajien verkostot kaikkien tutkittaviksi. Tieteessä tapahtuu, 1/2023. https://www.tieteessatapahtuu.fi/numerot/1-2023/parlamenttisampo-avaa-eduskunnan-miljoona-puhetta-ja-kansanedustajien-verkostot

[2] Minutes of Multilateralism projekti ja julkaisuja: https://seco.cs.aalto.fi/projects/minutes/

[3] Leagua of Nations Sampo -portaali verkossa: https://minutes.ldf.fi/en/

[4] Petri Leskinen, Eero Hyvönen, Alexandre Lionnet, Blandine Blukacz-Louisfert, Pierre-Etienne Bourneuf, Davide Rodogno, Grégoire Mallard, and Florian Cafiero: A Linked Open Data Service and Semantic Portal to Study the Assembly Minutes and Prosopography of the League of Nations (1920–1946). The Semantic Web: ESWC 2026, Dubrovnik, Croatia, May 10 - 14, 2026, Proceedings, Springer-Verlag, 2026. Preprint:https://seco.cs.aalto.fi/publications/2026/leskinen-et-al-lon-2026.pdf

[5] Demovideo YouTubessa: https://youtu.be/vpmj-lXkFMs

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[in English]

The League of Nations (1920-1946) and the UN (1946-) on the Semantic Web:
A new international application of the Sampo infrastructure online

Openness and transparency of political decision-making is a key prerequisite for democracy and the rule of law. At the national level, this can be promoted by publishing parliamentary speech and decision materials as data in accordance with modern FAIR principles and as easy-to-use online services, and at the international level, by using meeting materials from international multilateral organizations such as the UN.

The technology and applications required for this have been developed in Finland as part of the national FIN-CLARIAH/DARIAH-FI research infrastructure program and the online service “Parliamentary Sampo – Parliament in the Semantic Web” funded by the Research Council of Finland and the EU [1]. The Finnish Sampo infrastructure has now been successfully applied to the publication of the meeting materials of the League of Nations (1921-1946), the predecessor of the UN, in an international cooperation project led by the Swiss Geneva Graduate Institute, based on materials from the UN Library and Archives [2]. The meeting materials, totaling over 14,000 pages and information on over 3,000 international diplomats, are now available for research and application use as FAIR data and as a new web service based on the Sampo model, “League of Nations – Minutes of Multilateralism on the Semantic Web” [3]. See YouTube for a demo video [5].

The system was presented internationally in May to researchers in both the semantic web and digital humanities (ESWC 2026 and DARIAH 2026 conferences [4]). Work will now continue on the minutes materials from the UN and IPU.

[1] Eero Hyvönen, Laura Sinikallio, Petri Leskinen, Senka Drobac, Rafael Leal, Matti La Mela, Jouni Tuominen, Henna Poikkimäki and Heikki Rantala: Publishing and Using Parliamentary Linked Data on the Semantic Web: ParliamentSampo System for Parliament of Finland. Semantic Web, vol. 16, no. 1, 2025. DOI: 10.3233/SW-243683.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3233/SW-243683

[2] Minutes of Multilateralism project and publications: https://seco.cs.aalto.fi/projects/minutes/

[3] Leagua of Nations Sampo portal online: https://minutes.ldf.fi/en/

[4] Petri Leskinen, Eero Hyvönen, Alexandre Lionnet, Blandine Blukacz-Louisfert, Pierre-Etienne Bourneuf, Davide Rodogno, Grégoire Mallard, and Florian Cafiero: A Linked Open Data Service and Semantic Portal to Study the Assembly Minutes and Prosopography of the League of Nations (1920–1946). The Semantic Web: ESWC 2026, Dubrovnik, Croatia, May 10 - 14, 2026, Proceedings, Springer-Verlag, 2026. Preprint:https://seco.cs.aalto.fi/publications/2026/leskinen-et-al-lon-2026.pdf

[5] Demo video in YouTube: https://youtu.be/vpmj-lXkFMs

Demontration video of using the League of Nations (1920-1946) Sampo portal presented at the ESWC 2026 conference, pertaining to this paper:Petri Leskinen, Ee...

23/05/2026

[In English below]

Sotasampo 2.0 -hanke käynnistyi: Suomi itsenäinen 110 vuotta

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegelin (1770-1831) mukaan ”historia opettaa meille, että emme opi historiasta mitään”. Ukrainan sota tuntuisi jälleen kerran todistavan väitteen oikeaksi. Itsenäisyytemme 100-vuotisjuhliin 2017 valmistunut Sotasampo-datapalvelu ja -portaali ”Sotasampo - talvi- ja jatkosota semanttisessa webissä” [1] (https://sotasampo.fi) pyrkii kuitenkin osoittamaan, että Hegel olisi väärässä: järjestelmän tavoitteena on lisätä ymmärrystämme viime sotiemme inhimillisestä hinnasta ja uhreista sekä edistää näin rauhaa. Verkkopalvelun sivuilla on ollut yli 1,3 miljoonaa kävijää ja se ollut toiseksi suosituin ”Sampo-järjestelmä” [2].

Itsenäisyytemme 110-vuotisjuhlien 2027 lähestyessä Sotasammosta luodaan uusi versio 2.0. Kehitystyön kohteena ovat erityisesti Kansallisarkiston Menehtyneet-tietokanta, siihen liittyvät päivitykset ja kansalaisten lähettämät tiedot sekä sankarihautausmaat-näkymä, jota päivitetään tiedoilla luovutetusta Karjalasta. Sotasampo 2.0 [3] toteutetaan uudella Sampo-UI-työkalulla ja arkkitehtuurilla, mikä mahdollistaa haun ja selailun ohella aineistojen data-analyysit ja visualisoinnit digitaalisissa ihmistieteissä. Järjestelmä on osa kansallisen tutkimustietoinfrastruktuuriohjelman DARIAH-FI (https://dariah.fi) linkityn avoimen datan osuutta [4].

Hanke toteutetaan Semanttisen laskennan tutkimusryhmässä (SeCo) Aalto-yliopistossa ja Helsingin yliopistossa. Hankkeen ohjausryhmään kuuluu Tammenlehvän Perinneliiton johdolla laaja joukko organisaatioita, kuten Kansallisarkisto, Kaatuneiden Muistosäätiö, Sotavainajien muiston vaalimisyhdistys, Sotamuseo sekä Sodan ja rauhan keskus Muisti. Hanketta rahoittaa Kaatuneiden Muistosäätiö.

[1] Hankkeen kotisivut; https://seco.cs.aalto.fi/projects/sotasampo/

[2] Sampo-järjestelmien pilvi verkossa: https://seco.cs.aalto.fi/applications/sampo/

[3] Sotasampo 2.0 hankkeen kotisivu: https://seco.cs.aalto.fi/projects/sotasampo/citizens/

[4] FIN-CLARIAH/DARIAH-FI, linkitetty avoin data: https://seco.cs.aalto.fi/projects/fin-clariah/

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[In English]
War Sampo 2.0 project launched: 110 years of independence of Finland

According to Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831), “history teaches us that we learn nothing from history”. The war in Ukraine seems to prove this claim once again. However, the WarSampo data service and portal “War Sampo – Finnish World War 2 on the Semantic Web”, completed in 2017 for the 100th anniversary of our independence [1] (https://sotasampo.fi), tries to prove that Hegel was wrong: WarSampo aims to increase our understanding of the human cost and victims of our recent wars and, and thus promote peace. The online service has had over 1.3 million visitors and has been the second most popular “Sampo system” [2] in use in Finland.

As the 110th anniversary of our independence in 2027 approaches, a new version 2.0 of WarSampo will be created. The development work focuses in particular on the National Archives' war victims database, related updates and information submitted by citizens, as well as war cemeteries data, which is updated with information from the Karelia area that was annexed to the Soviet Union. WarSampo 2.0 [3] is implemented with the new Sampo UI tool and architecture, which enables not only intelligent search and browsing but also data analyses and visualizations for Digital Humanities research. The system is part of the Linked Open Data work of the national research information infrastructure program DARIAH-FI (https://dariah.fi) [4].

The project is implemented by the Semantic Computing Research Group (SeCo) at the Aalto University and the University of Helsinki. The project's steering group, led by the war heritage association Tammenlehvän Perinneliitto, includes a wide range of organizations, such as the National Archives, the Foundation for the Memory of the Fallen, the Association for the Preservation of the Memory of the War Victims, the War Museum, and the Muisti Center for War and Peace. The project is funded by the Foundation for the Memory of the Fallen.

[1] Project homepage; https://seco.cs.aalto.fi/projects/sotasampo/

[2] Sampo systems cloud online: https://seco.cs.aalto.fi/applications/sampo/

[3] WarSampo 2.0 project homepage: https://seco.cs.aalto.fi/projects/sotasampo/citizens/

[4] FIN-CLARIAH/DARIAH-FI, linked open data: https://seco.cs.aalto.fi/projects/fin-clariah/

05/05/2026

[In English below]
Tietämysverkot 2026 – Semanttinen syysseminaari Helsingissä 27.8.2026

Kansalliskirjastolla järjestetään torstaina 27.8. 12.00–17.00 Tietämysverkot 2026 – Semanttinen syysseminaari, matalan kynnyksen tietämysverkostoitumistapahtuma.

Aihealueita joita käsittelemme ovat mm. tietämysverkot (knowledge graph), linkitetty data, kontrolloidut sanastot, ontologiat, tiedon yhteentoimivuus, isojen sisältökokoelmien metatiedot ja semanttinen web. Tilaisuudessa kuullaan esityksiä käyttötapauksista, alan tutkimuksesta, julkishallinnon ja yritysten sovelluskohteista, alan standardeista ja palveluista sekä muista ajankohtaisista teemaan liittyvistä näkökulmista.

Tapahtuma on suunnattu tietämysverkkojen kehittäjille ja käyttäjille julkisella sektorilla, korkeakouluissa ja yrityksissä sekä muille asiasta kiinnostuneille. Tilaisuus on keskusteleva ja uusia ideoita sekä kohtaamisia mahdollistava verkostoitumistapahtuma. Seminaari järjestetään Kansalliskirjaston auditoriossa, jonka jälkeen halukkaat jatkavat vapaamuotoista verkostoitumista ravintolaolosuhteissa. Semanttiseen syysseminaariin on myös etäosallistumismahdollisuus.

Tarkempi ohjelma julkaistaan toukokuussa tapahtumasivulla, jossa voit myös ilmoittautua tilaisuuteen:
https://www.kansalliskirjasto.fi/fi/tapahtumat/tietamysverkot-2026-semanttinen-syysseminaari
(Paikkojen määrä auditoriossa on rajoitettu.)

[In English]
Knowledge Graphs 2026 – Semantic Autumn Seminar in Helsinki 27.8.2026

Knowledge Graphs 2026 – Semantic Autumn Seminar is organized at the National Library of Finland on Thursday 27 August 12:00-17:00.

The programme will be announced later in May on the event page where you can also register for the event:
https://www.kansalliskirjasto.fi/fi/tapahtumat/tietamysverkot-2026-semanttinen-syysseminaari

Tietämysverkot 2026 - Semanttinen syysseminaari To 27.8.2026 12.00 - 17.00 Lisää kalenteriin Matalan kynnyksen tietämysverkostoitumistapahtumassa käsiteltäviä aihealueita ovat  mm. tietämysverkot (knowledge graph), linkitetty data, kontrolloidut sanastot, ontologiat, tiedon yhteentoimivuus,...

23/04/2026

LEAGUE OF NATIONS (1920-1946) ON THE SEMANTIC WEB:
A NEW INTERNATIONAL KNOWLEDGE GRAPH AND SAMPO PORTAL ONLINE

A major result of the Swiss “Minutes of Multilateralism” (MoM) initiative, the Linked Open Data service and semantic Sampo portal “League of Nations – Minutes of Multilateralism on the Semantic Web” (LoN Sampo), is now up and running as an open demonstrator on the Finnish DARIAH-FI (https://dariah.fi) research infrastructure:

https://minutes.ldf.fi

This milestone is reported and documented by four new research papers in three forth-coming leading international conferences: the 23rd European Semantic Web Conference ESWC 2026 in Dubrovnik, Croatia [1,2], Digital Humanities DH 2026 conference [3] in Daejeon, South-Korea, and DARIAH Annual Meeting 2026 in Rome, Italy [4].

LoN Sampo is based on the Sampo Model [5] and the in-use system “ParliamentSampo – Parliament of Finland on the Semantic Web” [6] that were adapted for the new primary data from the United Nations Library & Archives enriched by several related data sources: 27,000 pages of LoN minutes documents and biographical data about the 3,000 international LoN representatives (1920-1946). The plan is to extend LoN Sampo infrastructure next to cover the General Assembly Minutes on the United Nations (1946-) and Interparliamentary Unit (IPU) for cross-institutional studies of multilateralism.

The MoM initiative [7] is lead and funded by the Graduate Institute of Geneva, Centre for Digital Humanities and Multilateralism (CDHM), in collaboration with the United Nations Library & Archives and other Swiss data providers, the École des Chartes (Université PSL), Paris, France, and the Semantic Computing Research Group (SeCo) at the Aalto University and University of Helsinki (HELDIG), Finland.

Paper [1] in the main track of ESWC 2026 describes LoN Sampo in detail especially from a technical and research resource points of view, and paper [2] in the ESWC 2026 Demos and Posters track demonstrates how the LoN Sampo is used. Paper [3] in DH 2026 presents LoN Sampo from a Digital Humanities research point of view and paper [4] at the DARIAH Annual Meeting from a research infrastructure perspective.

REFERENCES

[1] Petri Leskinen, Eero Hyvönen, Alexandre Lionnet, Blandine Blukacz-Louisfert, Pierre-Etienne Bourneuf, Davide Rodogno, Grégoire Mallard, and Florian Cafiero: A Linked Open Data Service and Semantic Portal to Study the Assembly Minutes and Prosopography of the League of Nations (1920–1946). Proceedings of ESWC 2026, Dubrovnik, Croatia, Springer-Verlag, May 10-14, 2026. Pre-print:
https://seco.cs.aalto.fi/publications/2026/leskinen-et-al-lon-2026.pdf

[2} Eero Hyvönen, Petri Leskinen, Grégoire Mallard, Pierre-Etienne Bourneuf, Alexandre Lionnet, Blandine Blukacz-Louisfert, Davide Rodogno, and Florian Cafiero: Minutes of Multilateralism on the Semantic Web – League of Nations Sampo (1920–1946) Portal for Digital Humanities Research. The Semantic Web: ESWC 2026 Satellite Events, Dubrovnik, Croatia, May 10 - 14, 2026, Proceedings, Springer-Verlag, 2026. Accepted. Pre-print:
https://seco.cs.aalto.fi/publications/2026/hyvonen-et-al-lon-demo-2026.pdf

[3] Eero Hyvönen, Petri Leskinen, Alexandre Lionnet, Blandine Blukacz-Louisfert, Pierre-Etienne Bourneuf, Davide Rodogno, Grégoire Mallard, and Florian Cafiero: Linked Open Data Approach to Study the Assembly Minutes of International Organizations and Their Underlying Prosopography in the Real World Context. Proceedings, Digital Humanities 2026, Daejeon, South Korea, July 27-31, 2026. Pre-print:
https://seco.cs.aalto.fi/publications/2026/hyvonen-et-al-lon-lod-2026.pdf

[4] Eero Hyvönen, Petri Leskinen, Alexandre Lionnet, Blandine Blukacz-Louisfert, Pierre-Etienne Bourneuf, Davide Rodogno, Grégoire Mallard, and Florian Cafiero: A Linked Open Data Infrastructure for Studying Historical Activities of International Organizations: First Results on the League of Nations (1920-1946) (abstract). Proceedings of DARIAH Annual Meeting, May 26-29, 2026. Pre-print:
https://seco.cs.aalto.fi/publications/2026/hyvonen-et-al-lon-infra-2026.pdf

[5] Sampo Model and Series of Systems: https://seco.cs.aalto.fi/applications/sampo/

[6] ParliamentSampo homepage: https://seco.cs.aalto.fi/projects/semparl/

[7] Minutes of Multilateralism project: https://seco.cs.aalto.fi/projects/minutes/

31/03/2026

Large National "Establishing the Digital History” Initiative in Japan 2025-2029

A historically large new Japanese national initiative “Establishing the Digital History” in Digital Humanities hold its second international conference in Tokyo. Lead by the National Institutes for the Humanities and National Museum of Japanese History, and Professor Makoto Goto, the project funds the work of 30-40 researchers and developers in different Japanese universities and memory organizations. An AI-generated summary of the project can be found below, while English home pages of the project are still under development.

I had the honour to present as the keynote of the conference related work in Finland: a summary of lessons learned in 2002-2026 at the Semantic Computing Research Group (SeCo) of the Aalto University and University of Helsinki (HELDIG):

Digital Humanities on the Semantic Web:
from Infrastructure to Practical Applications, Data Analysis, AI-based Knowledge Discovery, and a Web of Wisdom

The talk is available as a video in YouTube

https://youtu.be/LNGsTwxpyU0?si=sHqpvwL9CdlWTWCg

and as PDF slides with links and full-text presenter notes:

https://seco.cs.aalto.fi/u/eahyvone/presentations/2026/2026-03-28-tokyo/hyvonen-keynote-tokyo-2026-03-28-final.pdf

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Summary of "Establishing the Digital History” generated by AI

"Establishing the Digital History" is a Japanese research project (2025–2029) funded as a Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas (A) and led by Principal Investigator Masashi Goto at the National Museum of Japanese History. The initiative focuses on applying advanced information technologies to historical research to redefine historical scholarship for the digital age.
Core Objectives and Scope
• Methodological Innovation: The project aims to develop new digital methods for analyzing historical data, moving beyond digitization toward constructing new forms of knowledge.
• Collaborative History: It envisions a shift toward historical research that is co-created with broader communities and diverse stakeholders.
• Regional Heritage Preservation: A key focus is the sustaining and communicating of local and regional heritage through technology.
• Interdisciplinary Approaches: It bridges traditional historiography with data engineering, Linked Open Data (LOD), and artificial intelligence (AI).
Context and Activities
• The project, often discussed in forums regarding humanities data infrastructure (such as a symposium in Tokyo on March 28, 2026), looks to integrate semantic technologies in historical study.
• It operates within the context of wider international developments in Digital Humanities (DH) and collaborates with leaders in Semantic Web research.
The project represents a shift towards a more inclusive, accessible, and technologically integrated understanding of history, aimed at strengthening the interaction between academic research and community heritage.