The document discusses the Open University's use of linked open data and their data.open.ac.uk platform. It provides an overview of linked data principles and the data.open.ac.uk platform. Key services of the Open University rely on data.open.ac.uk to support users in various ways such as the student help center and OpenLearn platform. While linked data is useful for centralized data publishing, it does not replace traditional data management and requires developers to integrate it with existing workflows.

1. Linked Data at the OU: the Story so far
1
Enrico Daga
Knowledge
Media
Ins0tute,
The
Open
University
(UK)
‘Making
Data
Work
for
You'
-­‐
5th
October
The
Open
University
Feedback
welcome:
@enridaga
#kmiou

2. Outline
• Linked Data in a nutshell
• Linked Data at the OU: data.open.ac.uk
• data.open.ac.uk developer toolkit
• Three typical use cases
• Issues and perspectives
2

3. Linked Data in a nutshell
Linked Open Data is a way of publishing structured data
that allows metadata to be connected and enriched, so
that links can be made between related resources.
• LD uses the World Wide Web as publishing platform
• Based on W3C standards - open to everyone
• Enables your data to refer to other data
• … and other data to refer to yours!
3
hPps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linked_data

4. Linked Data Technology Stack
• Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs)
– To identify things
• HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
– To access data about them
• Resource Description Framework (RDF)
– a meta-model for data representation.
– it does not specify a particular schema
– offers a structure for representing it
• SPARQL Protocol and Query Language (SPARQL)
– To query LD databases directly on the Web
4

5. RDF Triple
5

6. RDF Data
6
Feedback
welcome:
@enridaga
#kmiou

7. RDF Data
• Its both human readable and machine readable.
• You can represent any type of data structure in RDF!
– trees, sequences, sets, tables, graphs, …
• Vocabularies specify schema terms:
– FOAF, BIBO, DCAT, OWL, SKOS, QB, …
– Explore them: http://lov.okfn.org/
• Especially, you can refer to data outside your dataset
7

8. Linked Data Applications
• Open Data
• Cultural Heritage
• Digital Libraries
• Scholar Publishing
• Enterprise/Corporate, as part of data warehouse
8

9. Linked Open Data Cloud (2007)
9
hPp://lod-­‐cloud.net/

10. Linked Open Data Cloud (2008)
10
hPp://lod-­‐cloud.net/

11. Linked Data: The story so far (2009)
11

12. Linked Open Data Cloud (2010)
12
hPp://lod-­‐cloud.net/

13. data.open.ac.uk
• data.open.ac.uk is the home of OU linked open data.
• From 2010, OU first university in the UK to publish linked
open data.
• We collect, interlink and expose data from institutional
repositories of the University, and we make it available as
Linked Data in one single database.
13
Feedback
welcome:
@enridaga
#kmiou

14. http://data.open.ac.uk
14
Mathieu
d’Aquin
(formerly
KMi)
Stuart
Brown
(formerly
COMMS)

15. Datasets
Open Educational Resources
• Metadata about educational resources produced or co-produced by The Open
University
• OU/BBC Coproductions | OU podcasts | OpenLearn | Videofinder
Scientific Production
• Metadata about scientific production of The Open University
• Open Research Online
Social Media
• Content hosted by social media web sites. Metadata are extracted from public
APIs and aggregated into RDF.
• Audioboo | YouTube
15

16. Datasets
Organisational
• Data collected form internal repositories and first made public as linked
data.
• The OU's Key Information Set from Unistats | OU People Profiles | KMi
People Profiles | Open University data XCRI-CAP 1.2 | Qualifications |
Courses | OU Planet Stories
Data from Research Projects
• Linked Data from research projects.
• Arts and Humanities Research Council project metadata | The
Listening Experience Database | The UK Reading Experience
Database | The Reading Experience Database: DBpedia alignments
16

17. In numbers
2017
• ~7M triples
• 37 graphs
• ~1M entities
• 173 entity types
• >1K predicates
• >1M links
17
Feedback
welcome:
@enridaga
#kmiou
2014
• ~4M triples
• 30 graphs
• ~700k entities
• 125 entity types
• ~700 predicates
• ~600k links
Daga,
E.,
d’Aquin,
M.,
Adamou,
A.,
&
Brown,
S.
(2016).
The
Open
University
Linked
Data–data.
open.
ac.
uk.
Seman0c
Web,
7(2),
183-­‐191.

18. data.open.ac.uk for developers
Toolkit:
• Entity Lookup
• Data browser
• SPARQL Endpoint
• Web APIs
18
Feedback
welcome:
@enridaga
#kmiou

19. Entity Lookup
19
http://data.open.ac.uk

20. Data Browser
20

21. SPARQL Endpoint
21
Results as CSV, JSON, XML, …

22. SPARQL example: courses and podcasts
22
SELECT DISTINCT ?topic
from <http://data.open.ac.uk/context/podcast>
where {
?podcast <http://data.open.ac.uk/podcast/ontology/relatesToCourse>
<http://data.open.ac.uk/course/ms221> .
?podcast
<http://purl.org/dc/terms/isPartOf>/<http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject>
?topic
}
List of topics of podcasts related to course MS221

23. SPARQL example: courses and podcasts
23
Videos from the Open University on YouTube.
YouTube videos are linked to courses and qualifications, which in
turn are linked to other entities (OpenLearn units, Podcasts,
Audios, and other Courses or Qualifications)
Find OU content related to a YouTube video from the YouTube
video id (eg: SYry6PYsL8o)
prefix rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>
prefix podcast: <http://data.open.ac.uk/podcast/ontology/>
prefix yt: <http://data.open.ac.uk/youtube/ontology/>
prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>
prefix rkb: <http://courseware.rkbexplorer.com/ontologies/courseware#>
prefix saou: <http://data.open.ac.uk/saou/ontology#>
prefix dbp: <http://dbpedia.org/property/>
prefix media: <http://purl.org/media#>
prefix olearn: <http://data.open.ac.uk/openlearn/ontology/>
prefix mlo: <http://purl.org/net/mlo/>
prefix bazaar: <http://digitalbazaar.com/media/>
prefix schema: <http://schema.org/>
SELECT
distinct
(?related as ?identifier)
?type
?label
(str(?location) as ?link)
FROM <http://data.open.ac.uk/context/youtube>
FROM <http://data.open.ac.uk/context/podcast>
FROM <http://data.open.ac.uk/context/openlearn>
FROM <http://data.open.ac.uk/context/course>
FROM <http://data.open.ac.uk/context/qualification>
WHERE
{
?x schema:productID "SYry6PYsL8o" . # change the youtube id to any OU youtube video
?x yt:relatesToCourse ?course .
{
# related video podcasts
?related podcast:relatesToCourse ?course .
?related a podcast:VideoPodcast .
?related rdfs:label ?label .
optional { ?related bazaar:download ?location }
BIND( "VideoPodcast" as ?type ) .
} union {
# related audio podcasts
?related podcast:relatesToCourse ?course .
?related a podcast:AudioPodcast .
?related rdfs:label ?label .
optional { ?related bazaar:download ?location }
BIND( "AudioPodcast" as ?type ) .
} union {
# related openlearn units
?related a olearn:OpenLearnUnit .
?related olearn:relatesToCourse ?course .
BIND( "OpenLearnUnit" as ?type ) .
?related <http://dbpedia.org/property/url> ?location .
?related rdfs:label ?label .
} union {
# related qualifications (compulsory course)
?related a mlo:qualification .
?related saou:hasPathway/saou:hasStage/saou:includesCompulsoryCourse ?course .
BIND( "Qualification" as ?type ) .
?related rdfs:label ?label .
?related mlo:url ?location
}
} limit 200

24. BASIL - Sharing and Reusing SPARQL Queries
as Web APIs
24
BASIL API
consumes
data or views
Web
API
Web developers
REST
tailors WEB API
(SPARQL query)
Web
API
defines view
(template)
Web
API
Web
API
Web
API
clones WEB API
Linked Data Cloud
SPARQL
http://basil.kmi.open.ac.uk/

25. Listening Experience Database
An open and freely
searchable database that
brings together a mass of
data about people’s
experiences of listening to
music of all kinds, in any
historical period and any
culture.
Uses data.open.ac.uk as
publishing platform.
25
hPp://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/
Feedback
welcome:
@enridaga
#kmiou
Typical use case #1

26. Online Student Help Centre
Uses data.open.ac.uk to get the
list of courses, modules, and
qualifications.
Gets key data facts for student
self-service (reduction of
avoidable contact).
Enables students to find the right
dept/person to contact in the OU.
26
hPps://help.open.ac.uk
Feedback
welcome:
@enridaga
#kmiou
Thanks:
Guy
Carberry
(Academic
Services),
Sam
Leicester
(developer)
Typical use case #2

27. OpenLearn
Uses data.open.ac.uk to get
content recommendations (eg:
courses).
data.open.ac.uk drives the click
through which turns OpenLearn
visitors into OU students!
Publish once, display everywhere
(from YouTube, Audioboo, iTunesU,
Podcast)
27
hPp://www.open.edu/openlearn/
Thanks:
Simon
Budgen
(OMIL),
Michael
Brodbin
(Psychle)
Typical use case #3

28. Issues
• Data not (always) complete - sometimes with good reason
(private data), sometimes not (organisational).
• Understand data supply: knowing who knows what in the OU
is not easy.
• Express data demand: how to ask for data?
• Operationalise data integration requires (good and
committed) developers.
• Expertise: developing the needed skills might be easier than
expected. KMi can help on that.
• Building the tools is neither half the job: maintenance and
curation is crucial.
28

29. Summary
• data.open.ac.uk started as a research prototype in
2010, today is the hub of OU Linked Data.
• Key services of the OU rely on data.open.ac.uk to
support various types of users.
• LD is great for centralised data publishing.
• Does not substitute data management platforms, but
integrates with existing workflows.
29

30. Take-away messages
• A large organisation such the OU cannot afford to rely on
separated, autistic systems.
• We need systems that TALK to each other.
• LD helps to look at the data life-cycle as a supply-chain,
to focus on supply and demand.
• We need a registry: who knows / needs what.
• We don’t need shiny user interfaces (we do, but …)
• Developers first-class citizens: enable them first.
30
Feedback
welcome:
@enridaga
#kmiou

31. 31
"Linking
Open
Data
cloud
diagram
2017,
by
Andrejs
Abele,
John
P.
McCrae,
Paul
Buitelaar,
Anja
Jentzsch
and
Richard
Cyganiak.
hPp://lod-­‐cloud.net/"
Thank you
Twitter: @enridaga
enrico.daga@open.ac.uk