TCDL 2009 keynote: Better living through linking

Better Living through Linking Daniel Chudnov - 2009-05-27 - dchud at umich edu Texas Conference on Digital Libraries 2009

MY OPINIONS DO NOT REFLECT THOSE OF: MY EMPLOYER THE US GOV’T PRES. BARACK OBAMA THE DETROIT RED WINGS

• doing “web” better • linking data • steps you can take today

1. doing “web” better

we’ve been building a web for a long time

Photo cc-sa by osunick on ﬂickr, http://tinyurl.com/oy8qw942

which brings us to about, say, 1996.

xml 1997

db-backed sites 1998

xml-backed sites 1999

blog tools 2001

better search 2002

rss openurl oai-pmh srw/u opensearch microformats

redesign redesign redesign redesign redesign redesign

scripts includes templates frameworks cms seo

User. Generated. Content. OMG ROFLMAO LOLZ

how we use the web evolves

how we build the web evolves

it’s not done yet, but

we are still building a web

here’s what’s next

2. linking data

links matter

just ask Google

but we knew that

for example

which, basically, was this

the web is made of links

but wait there’s more

which, basically, was this

but nobody knows that

...unless they know to look...

...which is the problem.

more to the point

Google won’t ﬁnd this.

http://authorities.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi? AuthRecID=2852966&v1=1&HC=3&SEQ=2009052703254 5&PID=XGImKyGgg1Cofw8uO3IFxAvS

what’s wrong with this picture?

system info http://authorities.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi? AuthRecID=2852966&v1=1&HC=3&SEQ=2009052703254 5&PID=XGImKyGgg1Cofw8uO3IFxAvS unknowable session info info

unbookmarkable

screenscraping required

unscriptable

item record authority record

not linked

a holdings record doesn’t help Google

but wait, there’s more

not connected

not ﬁndable

not relevant

despite our efforts

the expense of digitizing

care and feeding of cranky coders

the overhead of authority control

we count on Google to guess at relevance

inside our systems we tweak and improve

across our systems we can only hope

time to do better

enter Linked Data

“Linked Data” is data in the web

“Linked Data” is a movement

“Linked Data” is dogma

“Linked Data” is worth a close look

so what is it?

a way to link better

a way to make concepts explicit

a way to connect our stuff

a way to connect these together item record authority record

draw our stuff deeper into the web

not just ﬁles to download but part of the web

use URIs as names for things use HTTP URIs provide useful information include links to other URIs http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html

break down concepts make them “pages”

the new the old

bad URL screenscraping required few links out no links in the old

the new good URL alternate formats some links out more links in

LCCN Permalink alternate formats more links out clean URI http://lccn.loc.gov/84759993

discoverable, parseable alternate formats

apply these rules everywhere

rel=alternate resource URI rel=contents (already has) resource URI resource URI resource URI rel=alternate

arrows become cross-references

it becomes crawl-able mine-able

integrated access through smart crawl / index

precision improves with rich metadata explicitly linked

recall improves with explicit links through authority recs

bring precision / recall of clunky OPACs to open web

this is doing web stuff better

just by doing HTML / HTTP

doesn’t ﬁt the web, it is the web

many examples already

LIBRIS id.loc.gov chronicling america

if i squint just right...

the “LOD cloud” a “ready reference” collection

make this useful turn this into linked data

seems obvious, right?

3. steps you can take today

how to link your data

(or, About All That Other Stuff You Have)

ﬁrst: clean, cool URIs for data concepts

instead of this: /search?subject=Strayhorn,+Billy

do this: /subject/lccn/n81072976

easy to implement today

easy to redirect tomorrow

next: offer data views

use <a rel=___ href=___> <link rel=___>

offer up MARC, or JSON, or RDF, or ...

next: relate your data to established authorities

your search results backed by shared authority records

put it all together

visit /subject/lccn/n81072976 • get your content results • get alternate data views (concept record) • get links to other useful data • get links to authorized form

all that’s easy

i promise

the next part’s hard

how to make it last

if your site breaks when links break cache and link yourself

instead of just this

do this UChicago same as cache

just like we do in ILS/OPACs

but, yknow, the web way

so if a remote link breaks your local links still work

also, proxy concepts

your /subject/lccn/n81072976 == my /subject/lccn/n81072976

but in your app

make every cache its own linked data source

instead of just this UChicago same as cache

enable this UChicago same as cache same as same as same as same as

if one goes down the others live on

if others live on it’s all still linked

if it’s all still linked we can keep adding

linked data that lasts

i think

summary • making the web better • follow Linked Data practices • easy changes to make now

summary • get more value from our data • get more users to our data • make relevance explicit

thanks! dchud at umich edu onebiglibrary.net twitter.com/dchud

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TCDL 2009 keynote: Better living through linking

by Dan Chudnov

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