Kingsley Idehen's Blog Data Space

Situation Analysis:

Dr. Dre is one of the artists in the Linked Data Space we host for the BBC. He is also referenced in music oriented data spaces such as DBpedia, MusicBrainz and Last.FM (to name a few).

Challenge:

How do I obtain a holistic view of the entity "Dr. Dre" across the BBC, MusicBrainz, and Last.FM data spaces? We know the BBC published Linked Data, but what about Last.FM and MusicBrainz? Both of these data spaces only expose XML or JSON data via REST APIs?

Solution:

Steps:

1. Go to Last.FM and search using pattern: Dr. Dre (you will end up with this URL: http://www.last.fm/music/Dr.+Dre)
2. Go to the Virtuoso powered BBC Linked Data Space home page and enter: http://bbc.openlinksw.com/about/html/http://www.last.fm/music/Dr.+Dre
3. Go to the BBC Linked Data Space home page and type full text pattern (using default tab): Dr. Dre, then view Dr. Dre's metadata via the Statistics Link.

What Happened?

The following took place:

1. Virtuoso Sponger sent an HTTP GET to Last.FM
2. Distilled the "Artist" entity "Dr. Dre" from the page, and made a Linked Data graph
3. Inverse Functional Property and sameAs reasoning handled the Meshup (augmented graph from a conjunctive query processing pipeline)
4. Links for "Dr. Dre" across BBC (sameAs), Last.FM (seeAlso), via DBpedia URI.

The new enhanced URI for Dr. Dre now provides a rich holistic view of the aforementioned "Artist" entity. This URI is usable anywhere on the Web for Linked Data Conduction :-)

Related (as in NearBy)

• Augmenting Last.fm Data with BBC data on the Talis Platform

While exploring the Subject Headings Linked Data Space (LCSH) recently unveiled by the Library of Congress, I noticed that the URI for the subject heading: World Wide Web, exposes an "owl:sameAs" link to resource URI: "info:lc/authorities/sh95000541" -- in fact, a URI.URN that isn't HTTP protocol scheme based.

The observations above triggered a discussion thread on Twitter that involved: @edsu, @iand, and moi. Naturally, it morphed into a live demonstration of: human vs machine, interpretation of claims expressed in the RDF graph.

What makes this whole thing interesting?

It showcases (in Man vs Machine style) the issue of unambiguously discerning the meaning of the owl:sameAs claim expressed in the LCSH Linked Data Space.

Perspectives & Potential Confusion

From the Linked Data perspective, it may spook a few people to see owl:sameAs values such as: "info:lc/authorities/sh95000541", that cannot be de-referenced using HTTP.

It may confuse a few people or user agents that see URI de-referencing as not necessarily HTTP specific, thereby attempting to de-reference the URI.URN on the assumption that it's associated with a "handle system", for instance.

It may even confuse RDFizer / RDFization middleware that use owl:sameAs as a data provider attribution mechanism via hint/nudge URI values derived from original content / data URI.URLs that de-reference to nothing e.g., an original resource URI.URL plus "#this" which produces URI.URN-URL -- think of this pattern as "owl:shameAs" in a sense :-)

Unambiguously Discerning Meaning

Simply bring OWL reasoning (inference rules and reasoners) into the mix, thereby negating human dialogue about interpretation which ultimately unveils a mesh of orthogonal view points. Remember, OWL is all about infrastructure that ultimately enables you to express yourself clearly i.e., say what you mean, and mean what you say.

Path to Clarity (using Virtuoso, its in-built Sponger Middleware, and Inference Engine):

1. GET the data into the Virtuoso Quad store -- what the sponger does via its URIBurner Service (while following designated predicates such as owl:sameAs in case they point to other mesh-able data sources)
2. Query the data in Quad Store with "owl:sameAs" inference rules enabled
3. Repeat the last step with the inference rules excluded.

Actual SPARQL Queries:

• SPARQL Query against the HTTP based Subject Heading URI for WWW
• SPARQL Query (with reasoning via inference rule for owl:sameAs) against the URN based Subject Heading URI for WWW
• SPARQL Query (*without* reasoning via inference rule for owl:sameAs) against the URN based Subject Heading URI for WWW

Observations:

The SPARQL queries against the Graph generated and automatically populated by the Sponger reveal -- without human intervention-- that: "info:lc/authorities/sh95000541", is just an alternative name for < xmlns="http" id.loc.gov="id.loc.gov" authorities="authorities" sh95000541="sh95000541" concept="concept">, and that the graph produced by LCSH is self-describing enough for an OWL reasoner to figure this all out courtesy of the owl:sameAs property :-).

Hopefully, this post also provides a simple example of how OWL facilitates "Reasonable Linked Data".

Related

• State of the Linked Data Web
• Making Linked Data Reasonable Using Description Logics Series - post by Mike Bergman

This post is a reply to Jason Kolb's post titled: Using Advertising to Take Over the World. Jason's post is a response to Robert Scoble's post titled: Why Facebook has never listened and why it definitely won’t start now.

Jason:

Scoble is sensing what comes next, but in my opinion, describes it using an old obtrusive advertising model anecdote.

I've penned a post or two about the "Magic of You" which is all about the new Web power broker (Entity: "You").

Personally, I've long envisaged a complete overhaul of advertising where obtrusive advertising simply withers away; ultimately replaced by an unobtrusive model that is driven by individualized relevance and high doses of serendipity. Basically, this is ultimately about "taking the Ad out of item placement in Web pages".

The fundamental ingredients of an unobtrusive advertising landscape would include the following Human facts:

1. We are social beings and need stuff from time to time
2. We know what we need and would like to "Find stuff" when we are in "I Need Stuff" mode.

Ideally, we would like to be able to simply state the following, via a Web accessible profile:

1. Here are my "Wants" or "Needs" (my Wish-List)
2. Here are the products and services that I "Offer" (my Offer-List).

Now put the above into the context of an evolving Web where data items are becoming more visible by the second, courtesy of the "Linked Data" meme. Thus, things that weren't discernable via the Web: "People", "Places", "Music", "Books", "Products", etc., become much easier to identify and describe.

Assuming the comments above hold true re. the Web's evolution into a collection of Linked Data Spaces, and the following occur:

1. Structured profile pages become the basic units of Web presence
2. Wish-Lists and Offer-Lists are exposed by profile pages

Wish-Lists and Offer-Lists will gradually start bonding with increasing degrees of serendipity courtesy of exponential growth in Linked Data Web density.

So based on what I've stated so far, Scoble would simply browse the Web or visit his profile page, and in either scenario enjoy a "minority report" style of experience albeit all under his control (since he is the one driving his Web user agent).

What I describe above simply comes down to "Wish-lists" and associated recommendations becoming the norm outside the confines of Amazon's data space on the Web. Serendipitous discovery, intelligent lookups, and linkages are going to be the fundamental essence of Linked Data Web oriented applications, services, agents.

Beyond Scoble, it's also important to note that access to data will be controlled by entity "You". Your data space on the Web will be something you will controll access to in a myriad of ways, and it will include the option to provide licensed access to commercial entities on your terms. Naturally, you will also determine the currency that facilitates the value exchange :-)

Related

• The Numerati & The Magic of You!
• Serendipitous Discovery Quotient (SDQ) Explained
• Minority Report Clip

This post is a reply to Jason Kolb's post titled: Using Advertising to Take Over the World. Jason's post is a response to Robert Scoble's post titled: Why Facebook has never listened and why it definitely won’t start now.

Jason:

Scoble is sensing what comes next, but in my opinion, describes it using an old obtrusive advertising model anecdote.

I've penned a post or two about the "Magic of You" which is all about the new Web power broker (Entity: "You").

Personally, I've long envisaged a complete overhaul of advertising where obtrusive advertising simply withers away; ultimately replaced by an unobtrusive model that is driven by individualized relevance and high doses of serendipity. Basically, this is ultimately about "taking the Ad out of item placement in Web pages".

The fundamental ingredients of an unobtrusive advertising landscape would include the following Human facts:

1. We are social beings and need stuff from time to time
2. We know what we need and would like to "Find stuff" when we are in "I Need Stuff" mode.

Ideally, we would like to be able to simply state the following, via a Web accessible profile:

1. Here are my "Wants" or "Needs" (my Wish-List)
2. Here are the products and services that I "Offer" (my Offer-List).

Now put the above into the context of an evolving Web where data items are becoming more visible by the second, courtesy of the "Linked Data" meme. Thus, things that weren't discernable via the Web: "People", "Places", "Music", "Books", "Products", etc., become much easier to identify and describe.

Assuming the comments above hold true re. the Web's evolution into a collection of Linked Data Spaces, and the following occur:

1. Structured profile pages become the basic units of Web presence
2. Wish-Lists and Offer-Lists are exposed by profile pages

Wish-Lists and Offer-Lists will gradually start bonding with increasing degrees of serendipity courtesy of exponential growth in Linked Data Web density.

So based on what I've stated so far, Scoble would simply browse the Web or visit his profile page, and in either scenario enjoy a "minority report" style of experience albeit all under his control (since he is the one driving his Web user agent).

What I describe above simply comes down to "Wish-lists" and associated recommendations becoming the norm outside the confines of Amazon's data space on the Web. Serendipitous discovery, intelligent lookups, and linkages are going to be the fundamental essence of Linked Data Web oriented applications, services, agents.

Beyond Scoble, it's also important to note that access to data will be controlled by entity "You". Your data space on the Web will be something you will controll access to in a myriad of ways, and it will include the option to provide licensed access to commercial entities on your terms. Naturally, you will also determine the currency that facilitates the value exchange :-)

Related

• The Numerati & The Magic of You!
• Serendipitous Discovery Quotient (SDQ) Explained
• Minority Report Clip

This post is a reply to Jason Kolb's post titled: Using Advertising to Take Over the World. Jason's post is a response to Robert Scoble's post titled: Why Facebook has never listened and why it definitely won’t start now.

Jason:

Scoble is sensing what comes next, but in my opinion, describes it using an old obtrusive advertising model anecdote.

I've penned a post or two about the "Magic of You" which is all about the new Web power broker (Entity: "You").

Personally, I've long envisaged a complete overhaul of advertising where obtrusive advertising simply withers away; ultimately replaced by an unobtrusive model that is driven by individualized relevance and high doses of serendipity. Basically, this is ultimately about "taking the Ad out of item placement in Web pages".

The fundamental ingredients of an unobtrusive advertising landscape would include the following Human facts:

1. We are social beings and need stuff from time to time
2. We know what we need and would like to "Find stuff" when we are in "I Need Stuff" mode.

Ideally, we would like to be able to simply state the following, via a Web accessible profile:

1. Here are my "Wants" or "Needs" (my Wish-List)
2. Here are the products and services that I "Offer" (my Offer-List).

Now put the above into the context of an evolving Web where data items are becoming more visible by the second, courtesy of the "Linked Data" meme. Thus, things that weren't discernable via the Web: "People", "Places", "Music", "Books", "Products", etc., become much easier to identify and describe.

Assuming the comments above hold true re. the Web's evolution into a collection of Linked Data Spaces, and the following occur:

1. Structured profile pages become the basic units of Web presence
2. Wish-Lists and Offer-Lists are exposed by profile pages

Wish-Lists and Offer-Lists will gradually start bonding with increasing degrees of serendipity courtesy of exponential growth in Linked Data Web density.

So based on what I've stated so far, Scoble would simply browse the Web or visit his profile page, and in either scenario enjoy a "minority report" style of experience albeit all under his control (since he is the one driving his Web user agent).

What I describe above simply comes down to "Wish-lists" and associated recommendations becoming the norm outside the confines of Amazon's data space on the Web. Serendipitous discovery, intelligent lookups, and linkages are going to be the fundamental essence of Linked Data Web oriented applications, services, agents.

Beyond Scoble, it's also important to note that access to data will be controlled by entity "You". Your data space on the Web will be something you will controll access to in a myriad of ways, and it will include the option to provide licensed access to commercial entities on your terms. Naturally, you will also determine the currency that facilitates the value exchange :-)

Related

• The Numerati & The Magic of You!
• Serendipitous Discovery Quotient (SDQ) Explained
• Minority Report Clip

Here is a tabulated "compare and contrast" of Web usage patterns 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0.

Naturally, I am not expecting everyone to agree with me. I am simply making my contribution to what will remain facinating discourse for a long time to come :-)

Related

• Web 3.0 The Best Official Definition Imaginable -- Nova Spivack's

Here is a tabulated "compare and contrast" of Web usage patterns 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0.

Naturally, I am not expecting everyone to agree with me. I am simply making my contribution to what will remain facinating discourse for a long time to come :-)

Related

• Web 3.0 The Best Official Definition Imaginable -- Nova Spivack's

Another post done in response to lost comments. This time, the comments relate to Robin Bloor's article titled: What is Web 3.0 and Why Should I Care?

Robin:

Web 3.0 is fundamentally about the World Wid Web becoming a structured database equipped with a formal data model (RDF which is a moniker for Entity-Attribute-Value with Classes & Relationships based Graph Model), query language, and a protocol for handling divrerse data representational requirements via negotiation

Web 3.0 is about a Web that facilitates serendipitous discovery of relevant things; thereby making serendipitous discovery quotient (SDQ), rather than search engine optimization (SEO), the critical success factor that drives how resources get published on the Web.

Personally, I believe we are on the cusp of a major industry inflection re. how we interact with data hosted in computing spaces. In a nutshell, the conceptual model interaction based on real-world entities such as people, places, and other things (including abstract subject matter) will usurp traditional logical model interaction based on rows and columns of typed and/or untyped literal values exemplified by relational data access and management systems.

Labels such as "Web 3.0", "Linked Data", and "Semantic Web", are simply about the aforementioned model transition playing out on the World Wide Web and across private Linked Data Webs such as Intranets & Extranets, as exemplified emergence of the "Master Data Management" label/buzzword.

What's the critical infrastructure supporting Web 3.0?

As was the case with Web Services re. Web 2.0, there is a critical piece of infrastructure driving the evolution in question, and in this case it comes down to the evolution of Hyperlinking.

We now have a new and complimentary variant of Hyperlinking commonly referred to as "Hyperdata" that now sits alongside "Hypertext". Hyperdata when used in conjunction with HTTP based URIs as Data Source Names (or Identifiers), delivers a potent and granular data access mechanism scoped down to the datum (object or record) level; which is much different from the document (record or entity container) level linkage that Hypertext accords.

In addition, the incorporation of HTTP into this new and enhanced granular Data Source Naming mechanism also addresses past challenges relating to separation of data, data representation, and data transmission protocols -- remember XDR woes familiar to all sockets level programmers -- courtesy of in-built content negotiation. Hence, via a simple HTTP GET --against a Data Source Name exposed by a Hyperdata link -- I can negotiate (from client or server sides) the exact representation of the description (entity-attribute-value graph) of an Entity / Data Object / Resource, dispatched by a data server.

For example, this is how a description of entity "Me" ends up being available in (X)HTML or RDF document representations (as you will observe when you click on that link to my Personal URI).

The foundation of what I describe above comes from:

1. Entity-Attribute-Value & Class Relationship Data Model (originating from LISP era with detours via the Object Database era. into the Triples approach in RDF)
2. Use of HTTP based Identifiers in the Entity ID construction process
3. SPARQL query language for the Data Model.

Some live examples from DBpedia:

• http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data
• http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hyperdata
• http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model
• http://dbpedia.org/resource/Benjamin_Franklin

Related

• The End of RDBMS Primacy is Nigh
• Linking Open Data Community

What is Virtuoso+DBpedia AMI for EC2?

A pre-installed and fully tuned edition of Virtuoso that includes a fully configured DBpedia instance on Amazon's EC2 Cloud platform.

Benefits?

Generally, it provides a no hassles mechanism for instantiating personal, organization, or service specific instances of DBpedia within approximately 1.5 hours as opposed to a lengthy rebuild from RDF source data that takes between 8 - 22 hours depending on machine hardware configuration and host operating system resources.

From a Web Entrepreneur perspective it offers all of the generic benefits of a Virtuoso EC2 AMI plus the following:

1. Instant bootstrap of a dense Lookup Hub for Linked Data Web oriented solutions
2. No exposure to any of the complexities and nuances associated with deployment of dereferencable URIs (you have a DBpedia replica)
3. Predictable performance and scalability due localization of query processing (you aren't sharing the public DBpedia server with the rest of the world).

Features:

1. DBpedia public instance functionality replica (re. RDF and (X)HTML resource description representations & SPARQL endpoint)
2. Local URI de-referencing (so no contention with public endpoint) as part of the Linked Data Deployment
3. Fully tuned Virtuoso instance for DBpedia data set hosting.

How Do I Get Started?

Here are a few live examples of DBpedia resource URIs deployed and de-referencable via one of my EC2 based personal data spaces:

• Linked Data
• Entity-Attribute-Value (aka. Triples) Model
• Hyperdata Linking (aka. Object Hyperlinking)
• Barack Obama

What is it?

A pre-installed edition of Virtuoso for Amazon's EC2 Cloud platform.

What does it offer?

1. Low cost entry point to a game-changing Web 3.0+ (and beyond) platform that combines SQL, RDF, XML, and Web Services functionality
2. Flexible variable cost model (courtesy of EC2 DevPay) tightly bound to revenue generated by your services
3. Delivers federated and/or centralized model flexibility for you SaaS based solutions
4. Simple entry point for developing and deploying sophisticated database driven applications (SQL or RDF Linked Data Web oriented)
5. Complete framework for exploiting OpenID, OAuth (including Role enhancements) that simplifies exploitation of these vital Identity and Data Access technologies
6. Easily implement RDF Linked Data based Mail, Blogging, Wikis, Bookmarks, Calendaring, Discussion Forums, Tagging, Social-Networking as Data Space (data containers) features of your application or service offering
7. Instant alleviation of challenges (e.g. service costs and agility) associated with Data Portability and Open Data Access across Web 2.0 data silos
8. LDAP integration for Intranet / Extranet style applications.

From the DBMS engine perspective it provides you with one or more pre-configured instances of Virtuoso that enable immediate exploitation of the following services:

1. RDF Database (a Quad Store with SPARQL & SPARUL Language & Protocol support)
2. SQL Database (with ODBC, JDBC, OLE-DB, ADO.NET, and XMLA driver access)
3. XML Database (XML Schema, XQuery/Xpath, XSLT, Full Text Indexing)
4. Full Text Indexing.

From a Middleware perspective it provides:

1. RDF Views (Wrappers / Semantic Covers) over SQL, XML, and other data sources accessible via SOAP or REST style Web Services
2. Sponger Service for converting non RDF information resources into RDF Linked Data "on the fly" via a large collection of pre-installed RDFizer Cartridges.

From the Web Server Platform perspective it provides an alternative to LAMP stack components such as MySQL and Apace by offering

1. HTTP Web Server
2. WebDAV Server
3. Web Application Server (includes PHP runtime hosting)
4. SOAP or REST style Web Services Deployment
5. RDF Linked Data Deployment
6. SPARQL (SPARQL Query Language) and SPARUL (SPARQL Update Language) endpoints
7. Virtuoso Hosted PHP packages for MediaWiki, Drupal, Wordpress, and phpBB3 (just install the relevant Virtuoso Distro. Package).

From the general System Administrator's perspective it provides:

1. Online Backups (Backup Set dispatched to S3 buckets, FTP, or HTTP/WebDAV server locations)
2. Synchronized Incremental Backups to Backup Set locations
3. Backup Restore from Backup Set location (without exiting to EC2 shell).

Higher level user oriented offerings include:

1. OpenLink Data Explorer front-end for exploring the burgeoning Linked Data Web
2. Ajax based SPARQL Query Builder (iSPARQL) that enables SPARQL Query construction by Example
3. Ajax based SQL Query Builder (QBE) that enables SQL Query construction by Example.

For Web 2.0 / 3.0 users, developers, and entrepreneurs it offers it includes Distributed Collaboration Tools & Social Media realm functionality courtesy of ODS that includes:

1. Point of presence on the Linked Data Web that meshes your Identity and your Data via URIs
2. System generated Social Network Profile & Contact Data via FOAF?
3. System generated SIOC (Semantically Interconnected Online Community) Data Space (that includes a Social Graph) exposing all your Web data in RDF Linked Data form
4. System generated OpenID and automatic integration with FOAF
5. Transparent Data Integration across Facebook, Digg, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, Twitter, and any other Web 2.0 data space equipped with RSS / Atom support and/or REST style Web Services
6. In-built support for SyncML which enables data synchronization with Mobile Phones.

How Do I Get Going with It?

• Standard Installation Guide
• Personal or Service Specific DBpedia Installation Guide