Open source is now a term that is increasingly understood, or at least talked about. One of the next battles in keeping the web open is keeping data open - from the content we "generate" for many social sites to the closed silos of government and businesses. Just like open source, open data is a mix of technology, licensing, and attitude. Here in Vancouver, we've started experimenting with what I like to call a Semantic Web Community "Barn Raising" effort. Lots of people are interested in open data and related technology that supports it, like the semantic web, RDF, etc. But it's very hard to just have nice thought experiments about all this, we learn best by doing. Recently, I gave a talk at DrupalCon Washington DC talking about the semantic web. I said that RDFa is "food for robots", so what better data to experiment with than something related to food? The project we're tackling is to collectively source restaurant information. The information will be stored in part on Freebase, as well as various front end mashups, iPhone apps, and other tools. Eventually, we hope to create an economic incentive so that some restaurants and/or restaurant directory websites will expose their data semantically. The talk will be a mix of community, policy, hand waving, and technology, as well as an open call to help with this project in your own city. You'll leave with some food for thought on how open data and the semantic web are evolving, and what you can do with it today.

1. Open Data and Semantic Web
Community Barn Raising
Boris Mann • http://bmannconsulting.com • @bmann
Presented at Open Web Vancouver 2009

2. Boris Mann

3. Boris Mann
• Long time non-coding
contributor to
open source projects

4. Boris Mann
• Long time non-coding
contributor to
open source projects

5. Boris Mann
• Long time non-coding
contributor to
open source projects
• Current day job: Bootup Labs

6. Boris Mann
• Long time non-coding
contributor to
open source projects
• Current day job: Bootup Labs

7. Boris Mann
• Long time non-coding
contributor to
open source projects
• Current day job: Bootup Labs
• Community “stuff” in Vancouver
and around the world since 2004

8. Boris Mann
• Long time non-coding
contributor to
open source projects
• Current day job: Bootup Labs
• Community “stuff” in Vancouver
and around the world since 2004

9. Outline
• Hand Waving
• (Policy)
• Technology
• Community

10. Not So
Fast!

11. Not So
Fast!
Who are you?

12. Not So
Fast!
Who are you?
W! e
NE tiv
rac
Inte ssion
se at!!
form

13. Not So
Fast!
Who are you?
W! e
NE tiv
rac What do you want to get
Inte ssion
se at!! out of this?
form

14. Not So
Fast!
Who are you?
W! e
NE tiv
rac What do you want to get
Inte ssion
se at!! out of this?
form
What do you know
already?

15. Hand Waving

16. (Policy)

17. (Policy)
• Washington DC,Vancouver

18. (Policy)
• Washington DC,Vancouver
• recovery.gov, data.gov

19. (Policy)
• Washington DC,Vancouver
• recovery.gov, data.gov
• …your business / community / village /
city / country?

20. “Just” Open
• Have to
download / import
data
• Pure robot food -
still needs
programmers to
make it play nice
with humans
Washington DC

21. Open Data

22. Open Data
• Much higher understanding
of open source

23. Open Data
That’s software I
can use for free,
right?
• Much higher understanding
of open source

24. Open Data
That’s software I
can use for free,
right?
• Much higher understanding
of open source

25. Open Data
That’s software I
can use for free,
right?
• Much higher understanding
of open source
• Next: keep data open

26. Open Data
That’s software I
can use for free,
right?
• Much higher understanding
of open source
• Next: keep data open
• Closed silos in social networks, businesses,
government

27. Open Data
That’s software I
can use for free,
right?
• Much higher understanding
of open source
• Next: keep data open
• Closed silos in social networks, businesses,
government

28. Technology, Licensing,
and Attitude

29. Technology, Licensing,
and Attitude
• Technology: use standard formats, APIs

30. Technology, Licensing,
and Attitude
• Technology: use standard formats, APIs
• Licensing: need flexible licensing - wrong
license can taint data and make it hard to
re-use

31. Technology, Licensing,
and Attitude
• Technology: use standard formats, APIs
• Licensing: need flexible licensing - wrong
license can taint data and make it hard to
re-use
• Attitude: our data is not our business
model

32. Public Data Sets
“
You've read, or can imagine, the impact that the first
Public Libraries had on human culture. Now imagine
the opening up of not just this, but other libraries of data, so
huge that economies of scale blast the project off beyond any
analogy that could be drawn with our everyday experience or
historical memories. It won't just be Amazon that offers up this
kind of data - it will be relatively commonplace soon, we
imagine.
It will be like a network of libraries - for robots. Robots
that go to the library frequently, read very fast and make
”
serious use of what they've learned.
– Read Write Web, Feb 2009

33. Technology

34. Technology

35. Technology
• Semantic Web

36. Technology
• Semantic Web
• Linked Data

37. Technology
• Semantic Web
• Linked Data

38. Technology
• Semantic Web
• Linked Data
• RDFa, Microformats, etc.

39. Technology
• Semantic Web
• Linked Data
• RDFa, Microformats, etc.

42. “
…just what RDFa is supposed to be:
human readable data, formatting data and
machine readable data all in the same
document, all inline, all describing the
same thing.
” - Ben Lavender / Stéphane Corlosquet
http://tr.im/RDFaDrupalYouTube
http://tr.im/RDFaInDrupal

43. Robot Food
• Humans create the
content
• Tools make it more
easily digestable by
marking it up auto-
magically
• Enables re-use

44. Creative Commons
has a flavor
• http://wiki.creativecommons.org/RDFa

45. Freebase
• Structured data - started with Wikipedia
• Browse / search / filter - then create/edit
(addictive!)
• Data modeling
• Build apps

46. Freebase

47. Community
• Let’s learn
together
• We learn better by
doing
• Real projects!

48. Community
• Let’s learn
together
• We learn better by
doing to
n
bar
• Real projects! d a se…
Fin rai

49. Broken or New?

50. Broken or New?

51. Broken or New?

52. The Problem
• Many restaurant directory/review/info/etc.
• Incomplete data
• Nothing linked

53. The Solution

54. The Solution
BACON!

55. BaconPatioBeer

56. BaconPatioBeer
• Where are great places for
breakfast / brunch in town?

57. BaconPatioBeer
• Where are great places for
breakfast / brunch in town?

58. BaconPatioBeer
• Where are great places for
breakfast / brunch in town?
• Which restaurant has a patio
that we can enjoy the sunshine
on?

59. BaconPatioBeer
• Where are great places for
breakfast / brunch in town?
• Which restaurant has a patio
that we can enjoy the sunshine
on?

60. BaconPatioBeer
• Where are great places for
breakfast / brunch in town?
• Which restaurant has a patio
that we can enjoy the sunshine
on?
• What restaurants are pouring
great beer around town?

61. BaconPatioBeer
• Where are great places for
breakfast / brunch in town?
• Which restaurant has a patio
that we can enjoy the sunshine
on?
• What restaurants are pouring
great beer around town?

63. • Simple concept

64. • Simple concept
• Build out restaurant
data using Freebase
as central data
store

65. • Simple concept
• Build out restaurant
data using Freebase
as central data
store
• Make a front end
website

66. • Simple concept
• Build out restaurant
data using Freebase
as central data
store
• Make a front end
website

67. • Simple concept
• Build out restaurant
data using Freebase
as central data
store
• Make a front end
website

68. • Simple concept
• Build out restaurant
data using Freebase
as central data
store
• Make a front end
website
• Document the data
formats, APIs, and
applications

69. Economic Incentive

70. Economic Incentive
• BLOG

71. Economic Incentive
• BLOG
• = Better Listings On
Google

72. Economic Incentive
• BLOG
• = Better Listings On
Google
• Semantic just
beginning to influence
search - Google,
Yahoo Search Monkey

73. Economic Incentive
• BLOG
• = Better Listings On
Google
• Semantic just
beginning to influence
search - Google,
Yahoo Search Monkey
• Add more data, it gets
shown on the map

74. Economic Incentive
• BLOG Lindemans
Pecheresse on
• = Better Listings On sale
Google
• Semantic just
beginning to influence
search - Google,
Yahoo Search Monkey
• Add more data, it gets
shown on the map

75. • Make a blog post
and announce a
meetup
• Gather some
tech, policy, hand
waving
• (try to) build
community

76. • Different
ingredients
needed
• Communities
and projects
are made out Turns out this is barn raising, too
of PEOPLE - barn raising quilts

77. • Different
ingredients
needed
• Communities
and projects
are made out Turns out this is barn raising, too
of PEOPLE - barn raising quilts
…we got busy

78. Open Restaurants
• http://openrestaurants.org
• Still experimenting with Freebase schemas
• Maybe we can kill some Flash based
restaurant sites?
• Stay tuned…

79. Open Restaurants
• http://openrestaurants.org
• Still experimenting with Freebase schemas
• Maybe we can kill some Flash based
restaurant sites?
• Stay tuned…
Personal goal: lunch specials in an N block radius

80. Have I Convinced you?

81. Have I Convinced you?
• Policy: Think about your attitude and
licensing around data

82. Have I Convinced you?
• Policy: Think about your attitude and
licensing around data
• Technology: Check out semantic web

83. Have I Convinced you?
• Policy: Think about your attitude and
licensing around data
• Technology: Check out semantic web
• Community: Build one, or build with
one

84. Have I Convinced you?
• Policy: Think about your attitude and
licensing around data
• Technology: Check out semantic web
• Community: Build one, or build with
one
Hand waving is fun!

85. END

87. Linked Data - Datasets

88. END

89. Blah blah blah