The Winner Takes it All? -APIs and Linked Data Battle It Out

The Winner Takes It All? APIs and Linked Data Adrian Stevenson Jane StevensonMimas, The University of Manchester

ww1.discovery.ac.uk

WW1 Discovery Project• Exemplar illustrating principles of the JISC Discovery initiative• Discovery about advocating ‘open’ and ‘aggregating’• Make digital content more discoverable by people and machines• Building WW1 aggregation API www.discovery.ac.uk and discovery layer

WW1 Discovery: How?• Aggregate data from existing APIs – IWM and NMM• Help others with example APIs – BL, MCR Archives, Welsh Voices, LSE• Formats: SOLR, RSS, OpenSearch, OAI- PMH, CSV

Prototype WW1 API #sxsw #lodlam

WW1 Discovery Layer: Info

WW1 Discovery Layer: Geo-data

Some Challenges• Difficulties merging data – varied content• Lack of content – images – geo-data• Content licenses not open• Lack of APIs

Linking Lives• Linking Lives is a JISC-funded project to create an end-user interface based on Linked Data• A biographical interface, providing information about individuals that is taken from a variety of sources• It enables us to place archival descriptions within a much broader context

http://archiveshub.ac.uk/data/gb227msda865.w4

http://data.archiveshub.ac.uk/

Type: geo:SpatialThingWithin: http://www.uk-postcodes.com/postcode/SE146NWandhttp://data.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/id/postcodeunit/SE146NW

Event: Birth of Skinner, Beverley, 1938-1999, artist andDeath of Skinner, Beverley, 1938-1999, artist

Martha Beatrice Webb Image WorksLife dates: 1858-1943Epithet: social reformer and Our Partnershiphistorian My ApprenticeshipFamily name: Webb The case for the factory acts Beatrice Webb’s diaries; edited by Margaret Cole The DiaryPlace of birth: Gloucester,EnglandPlace of death: Liphook, KnowsHampshire, England Biographical Notes from: Beatrice Webb letters Beatrice Webb (1858 - 1943). Fabian Socialist, social reformer, writer, historian, diarist. Wife, collaborator and assistant of Sidney Webb, later Lord Passfield. Together they contributed to the radical ideology first of the Liberal Party and later of the Labour Party. http://dbpedia.org/page/George_Bernard_Shaw from: Beatrice Webb, A summer holiday in Scotland, 1884. Beatrice Webb (1858-1943), nee Potter, social reformer and diarist. Married to Sidney Webb, pioneers of social science. She was involved in many spheres of political and social activity including the Labour Party, Fabianism, social observation, investigations into poverty, development of socialism, the foundation of the National Health Service and post war welfare state, the London School of http://dbpedia.org/page/Sidney_Webb,_1st_Bar on_Passfield

Matching Subjects

Grace Ford, 1896-1941 ‘same as’ Grace Ford?http://archiveshub.ac.uk/data/gb738ms58 http://viaf.org/viaf/44311096/

Hub data inconsistencies• Winston Leonard Churchill• Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill• Churchill, Sir, Winston Leonard Spencer, 1874- 1965, knight, prime minister and historian• Churchill, Winston Leonard, 1874-1965, prime minister• Churchill, Sir Winston, 1874-1965, knight, statesman and historian

We can start to say things that go beyond what is known within ourown space…and if we use the same URIs we can link data sourcesmuch more easily http://data.archiveshub.ac.uk/id/person/nra/webb marthabeatrice1858-1943socialreformer <is the same as> http://viaf.org/viaf/86607236/ <is the same as> http://bnb.data.bl.uk/doc/person/WebbBeatrice1858- 1943

Vocabularies

Conclusions• APIs offer useful tools & lightweight approach• WW1: creating APIs for institutions• Locah: Linked Data for over 200 institutions• Linked Data makes use of the Web architecture• Uses HTTP URIs to represent resources• Navigate through things via URIs – Web of Data• Can make APIs more ‘Webby’

Conclusions• Linked Data opens data up to wide variety of uses• Can de-reference classes and properties• Need to think more about the end user• Need more tools• Need to collaborate

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/aep

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/1680-1689

Maybe not so much…. http://www.funnyjunksite.com/pictures/funnypics/sport/sports/funny_s ports_picture_99.jpg

as…. http://thedailycatblog.com/?attachment_id=273

http://ww1.discovery.ac.uk	145
http://www.librariansquared.com	63
http://translate.googleusercontent.com	2

The Winner Takes it All? -APIs and Linked Data Battle It Out

by Adrian Stevenson on Oct 05, 2012

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