Where the streets have known names

Almeida, P.D. and Rocha, J.G. and Ballatore, Andrea and Zipf, A. (2016) Where the streets have known names. In: Gervasi, O. and Murgante, B. and Misra, S. and Rocha, A.M.A.C. and Torre, C.M. and Taniar, D. and Apduhan, B.O. and Stankova, E. and Wang, S. (eds.) Computational Science and Its Applications -- ICCSA 2016. New York, U.S.: Springer, pp. 1-12. ISBN 9783319420882.

Abstract

Street names provide important insights into the local culture, history, and politics of places. Linked open data provide a wealth of knowledge that can be associated with street names, enabling novel ways to explore cultural geographies. This paper presents a three-fold contribution. We present (1) a technique to establish a correspondence between street names and the entities that they refer to. The method is based on Wikidata, a knowledge base derived from Wikipedia. The accuracy of this mapping is evaluated on a sample of streets in Rome. As this approach reaches limited coverage, we propose to tap local knowledge with (2) a simple web platform. Users can select the best correspondence from the calculated ones or add another entity not discovered by the automated process. As a result, we design (3) an enriched OpenStreetMap web map where each street name can be explored in terms of the properties of its associated entity. Through several filters, this tool is a first step towards the interactive exploration of toponymy, showing how open data can reveal facets of the cultural texture that pervades places.

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