Sampo Model, Data Services, and Series of Semantic Portals

This page presents the ”Sampo” model, series of Linked Open Data services, and semantic portals (Hyvönen, 2022), based on six principles:

1. Support collaborative data creation and publishing.
2. Use a shared open ontology infrastructure.
3. Support data analysis and knowledge discovery in addition to data exploration.
4. Provide multiple perspectives to the same data.
5. Standardize portal usage by a simple filter-analyze two-step cycle.
6. Make clear distinction between the Linked Open Data service and the user interface (UI).

Sampo portal data services are provided by the Linked Data Finland platform. For the user interfaces, the Sampo-UI framework has been used since 2019.

The Sampo portals listed below in the table have had millions of end users on the Web in total, suggesting feasibility and sustainability of the approach that has evolved gradually since 2002. The first video on the left, produced by the Research Council of Finland (Suomen Akatemia), introduces our work on Sampo portals. The second video in the middle (in English) presents the vision and results of our research group in Semantic Web and Digital Humanities research from 2001 to 2026. The third video on the right (in Finnish with English slides) is the emeritus lecture of Prof. Eero Hyvönen. It presents our way towards a Web of Wisdom starting from the history of AI, Semantic Web, and SeCo research in Finland, beginning from organizing the First Finnish AI Symposium in 1984 to the Semantic Web Kick-of in Finland seminar in 2001, and to publication of the system "SampoSampo - Connecting Everything to Everything Else" in 2026.

The Sampo model with the underlying Linked Open Data infrastructure in Finland (Hyvönen, 2022) are explained in the keynote presentation at the DCMI 2021 conference below:

Paradigm Shift in Publishing Cultural Heritage Contents

The Sampo model, data services, and portals aim at making a paradigm change in publishing and using Cultural Heritage content on the Web (Hyvönen, 2020). The contents are not only published as Linked Data but also integrated seamlessly with intelligent tools for data analysis. In our vision, AI should not only help the user in solving research problems, but also in finding new ones using Creative AI methods. We also focus on white box Explainable AI, which is important in humanities research. In Douglas Adam’s novel “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, the computer was asked “What is the meaning of life”. The answer “42” may be right, but a researcher in humanities would also like to know “why”.

Sampo Series

The Sampo series of data services and semantic portals is listed below.

Table: Published and forth-coming semantic portals that have been implemented using the Sampo model adn Sampo-UI or its predecessors. The list includes applications created by the SeCo group and external groups in other universities and organizations. (updated 2026-06-12)

Related videos

LetterSampo - Republic of Letters 1500-1800 on the Semantic Web

AcademySampo - Finnish Academic People 1640-1899

BiographySampo - Artificial Intelligence Reading Biographies for the Semantic Web

WarSampo - World War II on the Semantic Web

ParliamentSampo - Parliament of Finland on the Semantic Web

LawSampo - Finnish Legislation and Case Law on the Semantic Web

WarMemoirSampo - Video Interviews of veterans of the Second World War in Finland

Building a National Level Linked Open Data Infrastructure for Digital Humanities in Finland

The keynote presentation video of the DCMI 2021 confence below gives an overview of our work on developing a national Semantic Web infrastructure in Finland and its applications.

Contact

Professor Eero Hyvönen
Aalto University and University of Helsinki (HELDIG)
first.last [ at ] aalto.fi

Publications about the Sampo Model and Sampo Series as a Whole

Publications of each particular Sampo portal are available on their respective homepages listed in the above table.