Representing evidence about interpersonal relationships of public people in the Semantic Web

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe an attempt to provide a model for the description of the major aspects of historical interpersonal relationships between celebrities, with a focus on modelling different kinds of evidence about them, from documented and contrasted data to mere rumours. Design/methodology/approach – The approach takes the form of analysis of cases and ontology engineering. A formal schema is provided for the model. The way information can be organized according to this is illustrated with examples about life facts and rumours regarding a popular Hollywood actress. Findings – Some web systems that exploit the representation of personal relationships for purposes such as finding jobs or business opportunities have gained popularity recently. These systems enable users to take advantage of their personal information when combined with information provided by others who are willing to attain similar objectives. However, the importance of that kind of social information can also be applied to other fields in which the information is not directly provided by users, but comes from historical evidence or indirect sources. This is especially relevant to creating knowledge representations that attempt to reconstruct the social networks of celebrities or historical characters. Originality/value – The model described in this paper can be used to gain insight regarding the historical course of their lives, and of their work relationships, as affected by personal ties. Further, the model could also be used to understand other culture‐bound issues or phenomena in the social sphere.