Jabes 2011 - Conférence inaugurale "Linked Open Data : opportunités et défis", Makx Dekkers, consultant indépendant en gestion d'information et projets internationaux, dans le cadre des Journées Abes 2011

1. Linked (Open) Data
Opportunities and challenges
Makx Dekkers
mail@makxdekkers.com

2. Outline
• Basic notions
• Recent developments
• Comparing objectives
• Opportunities and risks
• Conclusions
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3. BASIC NOTIONS
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4. The idea and its history
• 1989: Tim Berners-Lee already talked about
linking documents and data together
(http://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html)
• 2001: Tim Berners-Lee and Ora Lassila
introduced the “Semantic Web”
(http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-semantic-web)
• 2006: Tim Berners-Lee presented the initial
design issues (rules) for Linked Data
(http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html)
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5. W3C Semantic Web initiative
• Objective
– to create a universal medium for the exchange of
data […] to smoothly interconnect personal
information management, enterprise application
integration, and the global sharing of commercial,
scientific and cultural data
• Main results
– Resource Description Framework (RDF), RDFa
(RDF-in-HTML), SPARQL Query Language
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6. Core Linked Data Specifications
• Transport
– HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol
• Identification
– URI Uniform Resource Identifier
• Description and linking
– RDF Resource Description Framework
• Search and access
– SPARQL Query Language for RDF
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7. The four rules of Linked Data
• TBL’s recommendations:
1. Use URIs as names for things
2. Use HTTP URIs so that people can look up those
names
3. When someone looks up a URI, provide useful
information, using the standards (RDF*, SPARQL)
4. Include links to other URIs so that they can
discover more things
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8. The basic model of RDF
• Resource Description Framework “triple”:
– Subject: the “thing” (resource) described
– Predicate: the characteristic of the resource
– Object: the value of the characteristic
Subject Object
Predicate
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9. Complex structures in RDF
This
presentation
Makx
Dekkers Barcelona
Journées ABES
ABES
Montpellier
17-18 May 2011
presenter
partOf organizer location
hometown
date
location
© 2011 Makx Dekkers Journeés ABES 2011 9

10. Linked (Open / Enterprise) Data
• Commonalities
– Using Semantic Web technologies (RDF)
– Linking information resources, people, places
• Differences
– Open Data with open licenses; Enterprise Data
mostly for closed, controlled environments
– Open Data links to other Open Data, available for
external use; Enterprise Data may link to external
data but not openly available for external use
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11. Linked Data -- Open Data
• Linked Data: focus on technology
– Semantic Web: Resource Description Framework,
and other Web standards
– Final solutions still under development
• Open Data: focus on strategy
– Based on notion that sharing is important and
benefits all
– Technology is secondary
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12. The five-star system
Source: http://inkdroid.org/journal/2010/06/04/the-5-stars-of-open-linked-data/
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13. The LOD diagram: 2007
Linking Open Data cloud diagram, by Richard Cyganiak and Anja Jentzsch. http://lod-cloud.net/
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25 datasets

14. The LOD diagram: 2008
Linking Open Data cloud diagram, by Richard Cyganiak and Anja Jentzsch. http://lod-cloud.net/
© 2011 Makx Dekkers Journeés ABES 2011 14
45 datasets

15. The LOD diagram: 2009
Linking Open Data cloud diagram, by Richard Cyganiak and Anja Jentzsch. http://lod-cloud.net/
© 2011 Makx Dekkers Journeés ABES 2011 15
95 datasets

16. The LOD diagram: 2010
Linking Open Data cloud diagram, by Richard Cyganiak and Anja Jentzsch. http://lod-cloud.net/
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203 datasets

17. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
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18. W3C communities
• LinkingOpenData SWEO Community Project
– Goal: to extend the Web with a data commons by
publishing various open data sets as RDF on the
Web and by setting RDF links between data items
from different data sources
(http://www.w3.org/wiki/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData)
• Library Linked Data Incubator Group
– to help increase global interoperability of library
data on the Web (http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/lld/)
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19. More W3C communities
• Government Linking Data Working Group
– to provide standards and other information which
help governments around the world publish their
data as effective and usable linked data
(http://www.w3.org/2011/gld/charter)
• Semantic Web Health Care and Life Sciences
(HCLS) Interest Group
– to develop, advocate for, and support the use of
Semantic Web technologies for health care and
life science (e.g. biology, medicine)
(http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/hcls/)
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20. Open Knowledge Foundation, okfn.org
• not-for-profit organization promoting open
knowledge: any kind of data and content that
can be freely used, reused, and redistributed
• Working and Interest Groups, e.g.
– Open Data in Science, Open Government Data,
Open Bibliographic Data, Cultural Heritage etc.
• CKAN.net: registry of open datasets and other
“knowledge resources”
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21. Linked Data initiatives
Predicate vocabularies (descriptors)
Research Description and Access (RDA) http://metadataregistry.org/rdabrowse.htm
The Bibliographic Ontology (BIBO) http://bibliontology.com/
Dublin Core http://dublincore.org/
Object vocabularies (values)
Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) http://viaf.org/
Library of Congress authorities http://id.loc.gov/authorities/
AgroVOC (agricultural terminology) e.g. http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_550
DBPedia (based on Wikipedia) e.g. http://dbpedia.org/page/Montpellier
Bibliographic data
LIBRIS Sweden e.g. http://libris.kb.se/library/S
British Library http://www.bl.uk/bibliographic/datasamples.html
CrossRef (DOI metadata) http://www.crossref.org/CrossTech/linked_data/
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22. More Linked Data initiatives
Broadcasting, publishing
BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/linked_data/
New York Times http://data.nytimes.com/
Governments (small sample)
USA http://data.gov/
France http://opendata.paris.fr/
Finland http://data.suomi.fi/
UK http://data.gov.uk/
Spain (Cataluña) http://dadesobertes.gencat.cat/
Norway http://data.norge.no
Netherlands http://www.overheid.nl/opendata
Australia http://data.gov.au/
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23. COMPARING OBJECTIVES
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24. Strategic aspects Linked Data
• Achieving global interoperability with minimal
coordination
• Aggregating human knowledge
• Supporting democracy, transparency and
accountability
• Enhancing and enriching information
• Enabling user-driven and user-generated
applications
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25. Strategic aspects libraries
• Organizing information for use by specific
users for specific goals
• Ensuring and maintaining quality
• Sustaining services economically
• Preserving information for the long term
• Providing trusted services
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26. Functional aspects Linked Data
• Searching distributed collections
• “Following your nose” – navigating links
between pieces of content
• Distributing responsibility for making
statements about things
• Leaving to the user whom and what to trust
• Leaving development of products and services
to an open market (apps)
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27. Functional aspects libraries
• Describing information by professionals
• Bringing together and managing aggregations
of information
• Selecting relevant information
• Mixing analogue and digital resources
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28. Technical aspects Linked Data
• Publishing and using machine-readable
statements (“data that speak for themselves”)
• Focusing on Semantic Web technology
• Enabling inferences across large distributed
data sets
• (Still to be done) Solving issues around
harvesting, caching and real-time updating
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29. Technical aspects libraries
• Using proven technology to provide high-
quality services
• Managing production systems and services
• Guaranteeing performance, uptime,
consistency across data
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30. Agility versus sustainability
• In the Linked Data space:
– Things move fast
– Trial-and-error
– Lots of development by volunteers (hackers)
• In the library domain:
– Operational systems need to evolve
– Need to handle legacy data
– Development by professionals in managed
projects
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31. Data versus services
• In the Linked Data space:
– Focus on availability of “raw data”
– Quality is secondary
– Data and technology should lead to useful results
• In the library domain:
– Focus on services
– Quality is essential
– Data and technology in support of the service
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32. Economic aspects
• In the Linked Data space:
– “Information wants to be free” – a human right?
– Short-term thinking: today is hot, yesterday is not
– Focus on applications to create value out of data
• In the library domain:
– Long-term view: sustainability is crucial
– Public money to provide community services
– Expected to do more with less money
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33. OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS
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34. Strong points Linked Data
• Attempt to create a common technical
platform for machine-readable data
• Lots of enthusiasm in publishing open data
• Promise of global interoperability
• Mix of researchers, user communities,
hackers, professional data providers
• High visibility on political level
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35. Risks Linked Data
• Driven by technology, not by requirements
• Technology may not (yet) be stable – RDF 2.0?
• Operational issues far from solved (reliability,
performance, quality, security, trust)
• Hope for general agreement across domains
may not be realistic
• Promise may turn into disappointment
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36. Strong points libraries
• Long time operational experience in managing
information
• Professional intermediaries between users
and information needs
• Sustainable business models (albeit with
eternally shrinking budgets)
• Long-term perspective: the past (legacy data)
as well as the future (preservation)
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37. Risks libraries
• Technologies change rapidly
• New skills difficult to spread through the
organization
• Some people see libraries as a thing of the
past (“the book museum”)
• Underestimation of information handling skills
• Information overload, human intervention
does not scale, need for better tools
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38. Meeting both worlds
• An example: Europeana.eu
– Started out with domain perspectives (libraries,
archives, museums, audiovisual archives)
– “Traditional” approach (metadata mappings)
works but insufficient
– Using Linked Data approach preserves domain
specifics but allows for generalization to support
common services
– Cross-domain (but co-ordinated) interoperability
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39. Europeana Data Model
Classes Properties
Simple example
Complex
example
Source at:
http://version1.europeana.eu/web/europeana-project/technicaldocuments/
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40. CONCLUSION
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41. Libraries and Linked Data
• Using Linked Data technology as the next step
in connecting services
• Offering information management skills to the
technology domain
• Creating a quality hub in the Linked Data
space
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42. Best of both worlds
• Libraries providing stability and sustainability
to Linked Data spaces
• Library professionals helping to manage the
distributed collections
• Libraries delivering high-quality linked data to
the Web
• Technologists to provide the next generation
of systems and tools
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43. Linked (Open) Data:
opportunity for libraries!
Thank you!
Makx Dekkers
mail@makxdekkers.com