The keynote: Creating, Deploying, and Exploiting Linked Data, sought to achieve the fundamental goal of: Demystify the concept of "Linked Data" using anecdotal material that resonates with enterprise decision makers.
To my pleasure, 90% of the audience members confirmed familiarization with the "Data Source Name" concept of Open Database Connectivity (ODBC). Thus, all I had to do was map "Linked Data" to ODBC, and then unveil the fundamental add-ons that "Linked Data" delivers:
I believe a majority of attendees came to realize that the combination above injects a new Web interaction dynamic: access to "Subject matter Concepts" and Named Entities contained within a page via HTTP base Data Source Names (URIs).
BTW - My presentation is a Linked Data Space in it's own right courtesy of the Bibliographic Ontology (which provides slide show modeling) and RDFa that allows me to embed annotations into my Slidy based presentation :-)
Anyway, thanks to the Blogosphere, I can attempt to fix this problem myself -- via this post :-)
Q. If you wanted to provide a bewildered but still curious novice a public example of Linked Data at work in their everyday life, what would it be?
Kingsley Idehen: Any one of the following:
My Linking Open Data community Profile Page - the Linked Data integration is exposed via the "Explore Data" Tab My Linked Data Space - viewed via OpenLink's AJAR (Asynchronous Javascript and RDF) based Linked Data Brower My Events Calendar Tag Cloud - a Linked Data view of my Calendar Space using an RDF-aware browser In all cases, you have the ability to explore my data spaces by simply clicking on the links, which on the surface appear to be standard hypertext links, although in reality you are dealing with hyperdata links (i.e., links to entities that result in the generation of entity description pages that expose entity properties via hyperdata links). Thus, you have a single page that describes me in a very rich way since it encompasses all data associated with me, covering: personal profile, blog posts, bookmarks, tag clouds, social networks etc.
Q. What would you show the CEO or CTO of a company outside the tech industry?
Kingsley Idehen: A link to the Entity ALFKI, from the popular Northwind Database associated with Microsoft Access and SQL Server database installations. This particular link exposes a typical enterprise data space (orders, customers, employees, suppliers ...) in a single page. The hyperdata links represent intricate data relationships common to most business systems that will ultimately seek to repurpose existing legacy data sources and SOA services as Linked Data. Alternatively, I would show the same links via the Zitgist Data Viewer (another Linked Data-aware browser). In both cases, I am exploiting direct access to entities via HTTP due to the protocols incorporation into the Data Source Naming scheme.
]]>First up, the Library of Congress, take a look at the following pages which are "Human" and machine based "User Agent" friendly:
Key point: The pages above are served up in line with Linked Data deployment and publishing tenets espoused by the Linking Open Data Community (LOD) which include (in my preferred terminology):
The items above are features that users and decision makers should start to hone into when seeking, and evaluating, platforms that facilitate cost-effective exploitation of the Linked Data Web.
]]>When the DBpedia & Yago integration took place last year (around WWW2007, Banff) there was a little, but costly omission that occurred: nobody sought to load the Yago Class Hierarchy into the Virtuoso's Inference Engine :-(
Anyway, the Class Hierarchy has now been loaded into the Virtuoso's inference engine (as Virtuoso Inference Rules) and the following queries are now feasible using the live Virtuoso based DBpedia instance hosted by OpenLink Software:
define input:inference 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/inference/rules/yago#'
PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>
PREFIX dbpedia: <http://dbpedia.org/property/>
PREFIX yago: <http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/>
SELECT ?s
FROM <http://dbpedia.org>
WHERE {
?s a yago:Publication106589574 .
?s dbpedia:name "The Lord of the Rings"@en .
}
-- Variant of query with Virtuoso's Full Text Index extension: bif:contains
define input:inference 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/inference/rules/yago#'
PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>
PREFIX dbpedia: <http://dbpedia.org/property/>
PREFIX yago: <http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/>
SELECT ?s ?n
FROM <http://dbpedia.org>
WHERE {
?s a yago:Publication106589574 .
?s dbpedia:name ?n .
?n bif:contains 'Lord and Rings'
}
-- Retrieve all individuals instances of the Book Class
PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>
PREFIX dbpedia: <http://dbpedia.org/property/>
PREFIX yago: <http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/>
SELECT ?s ?n
FROM <http://dbpedia.org>
WHERE {
?s a yago:Book106410904 .
?s dbpedia:name ?n .
}
-- Retrieve all individuals instances of Publication Class which should include all Books.
define input:inference 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/inference/rules/yago#'
PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>
PREFIX dbpedia: <http://dbpedia.org/property/>
PREFIX yago: <http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/>
SELECT ?s ?n
FROM <http://dbpedia.org>
WHERE {
?s a yago:Publication106589574 .
?s dbpedia:name ?n .
}
Note: you can also move the inference pragmas to the Virtuoso Sever side i.e place the inference rules in a server instance config file, thereby negating the need to place "define input:inference 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/inference/rules/yago#'" pragmas directly in your SPARQL queries.
1995 (and the early 90’s) must have been a visionaries time of dreaming… most of their dreams are happening today.
Watch Steve Jobs (then of NeXT) discuss what he thinks will be popular in 1996 and beyond at OpenStep Days 1995:
Heres a spoiler:
The thing that OpenStep propose is:
What Steve was suggesting was one of the beginnings of the Data Web! Yep, Portable Distributed Objects and Enterprise Objects Framework was one of the influences of the Semantic Web / Linked Data Web…. not surprising as Tim Berners-Lee designed the initial web stack on a NeXT computer!
I’m going to spend a little time this evening figuring out how much ‘distributed objects’ stuff has been taken from the OpenStep stuff into the Objective-C + Cocoa environment. (<- I guess I must be quite geeky ;-))
"(Via Daniel Lewis.)
]]>Ivan's presentation titled: State of the Semantic Web, is a must view for those who need a quick update on where things are re. the Semantic Web in general.
I also liked the fact that in proper "Lead by example" manner, his presentation isn't PDF or PPT based, it's a Web Document :-)
Hint: as per usual, this post contains a Linked Data demo nugget. This time around, it's in the form of a shared calendar covering a large number of Semantic Web Technology events. All I had to do was subscribe to a number of WebDAV accessible iCal files from my Calendar Data Space and the platform did the rest i.e. produce Linked Data Objects for events associated with a plethora of conferences.
If you assimilate Ivan's presentation properly, you will note I've just generated, and shared, a large number of URIs covering a range of conference events. Thus, you can extend my contributions (thereby enriching the GGG) by simply associating additional data from your Linked Data Space with mine. All you have to do is use my calendar data objects URIs in your statements.
]]>When tagging a document, the semantic tagging service passes the content of a target document through a processing pipeline (a distillation process of sorts) that results in automagic extraction of the following:
Once the extraction phase is completed, a user is presented with a list of "suggested tags" using a variety of user interaction techniques. The literal values of elected Tags are then associated with one or more Tag and Tag Meaning Data Objects, with each Object type endowed with a unique Identifier.
Broad acceptance that: "Context is king", is gradually taking shape. That said, "Context" landlocked within Literal values offers little over what we have right now (e.g. at Del.icio.us or Technorati), long term. By this I mean: if the end product of semantically enhanced tagging leaves us with: Literal Tag values only, Tags associated with Tag Data Objects endowed with platform specific Identifiers, or Tag Data Objects with any other Identity scheme that excludes HTTP, the ability of Web users to discern or derive multiple perspectives from the base Context (exposed by semantically enhanced Tags) will be lost, or severely impeded at best.
The shape, form, and quality of the lookup substrate that underlies semantic tagging services, ultimately affects "context fidelity" matters such as Entity Disambiguation. The importance of quality lookup infrastructure on the burgeoning Linked Data Web is the reason why OpenLink Software is intimately involved with the DBpedia and UMBEL projects.
I am immensely happy to see that the Web 2.0 and Semantic Web communities are beginning to coalesce around the issue of "Context". This was the case at the WWW2008 Linked Data Workshop, I am feeling a similar vibe emerging from the Semantic Web Technologies conference currently nearing completion in San Jose. Of course, I will be talking about, and demonstrating practical utility of all of this, at the upcoming Linked Data Planet conference.
ODBC identifies data sources using Data Source Names (DSNs).
WODBC (Web Open Database Connectivity) delivers open data access to Web Databases / Data Spaces. The Data Source Naming scheme: URI or IRI, is HTTP based thereby enabling data access by reference via the Web.
ODBC DSNs bind ODBC client applications to Tables, Views, Stored Procedures.
WODBC DSNs bind you to a Data Space (e.g. my FOAF based Profile Page where you can use the "Explore Data Tab" to look around if you are a human visitor) or a specific Entity within a Data Space (i.e Person Entity Me).
ODBC Drivers are built using APIs (DBMS Call Level Interfaces) provided by DBMS vendors. Thus, a DBMS vendor can chose not to release an API, or do so selectivity, for competitive advantage or market disruption purposes (it's happened!).
WODBC Drivers are also built using APIs (Web Services associated with a Web Data Space). These drivers are also referred to as RDF Middleware or RDFizers. The "Web" component of WODBC ensures openness, you publish Data with URIs from your Linked Data Server and that's it; your data space or specific data entities are live and accessible (by reference) over the Web!
So we have come full circle (or cycle), the Web is becoming more of a structured database everyday! What's new is old, and what's old is new!
Data Access is everything, without "Data" there is no information or knowledge. Without "Data" there's not notion of vitality, purpose, or value.
URIs make or break everything in the Linked Data Web just as ODBC DSNs do within the enterprise.
I've deliberately left JDBC, ADO.NET, and OLE-DB out of this piece due to their respective programming languages and frameworks specificity. None of these mechanisms match the platform availability breadth of ODBC.
The Web as a true M-V-C pattern is now crystalizing. The "M" (Model) component of M-V-C is finally rising to the realm of broad attention courtesy of the "Linked Data" meme and "Semantic Web" vision.
By the way, M-V-C lines up nicely with Web 1.0 (Web Forms / Pages), Web 2.0 (Web Services based APIs), and Web 3.0 (Data Web, Web of Data, or Linked Data Web) :-)
]]>Unfortunately, the cost of completing ZDNet's unwieldy signup process simply exceeded the benefits of dropping my comments in their particular space :-( Thus, I'll settle for a trackback ping instead.
What follows is the cut and paste of my intended comment contributions to Paul's post.
Paul,
As discussed earlier this week during our podcast session, commercialization of Semantic Web technology shouldn't be a mercurial matter at this stage in the game :-) It's all about looking at how it provides value :-)
From the Linked Data angle, the ability to produce, dispatch, and exploit "Context" across an array of "Perspectives" from a plethora of disparate data sources on the Web and/or behind corporate firewalls, offers immense commercial value.
Yahoo's Searchmonkey effort will certainly bring clarity to some of the points I made during the podcast re. the role of URIs as "value consumption tickets" (Data Services are exposed via URIs). There has to be a trigger (in user space) that compels Web users to seek broader, or simply varied, perspectives as a response to data encountered on the Web. Yahoo! is about to put this light on in a big way (imho).
The "self annotating" nature of the Web is what ultimately drives the manifestation of the long awaited Semantic Web. I believe I postulated about "Self Annotation & the Semantic Web" in a number of prior posts which, by the way, should be DataRSS compatible right now due to Yahoo's support of OpenSearch Data Providers (which this Blog Space has been for eons).
Today, have many communities adding strucuture to the Web (via their respective tools of preference) without explicitly realizing what they are contributing. Every RSS/Atom feed, Tag, Weblog, Shared Bookmark, Wikiword, Microformat, Microformat++ (eRDF or RDFa), GRDDL stylesheet, and RDFizer etc.. is a piece of structured data.
Finally, the different communities are all finding ways to work together (thank heavens!) and the results are going to be cataclysmic when it all plays out :-)
Data, Structure, and Extraction are the keys to the Semantic Life! First you get the Data in a container (information resource), and then you add Structure to the information resource (RSS, Atom, microformats, RDFa, eRDF, SIOC, FOAF, etc.), once you have Structure RDFization (i.e. transformation to Linked Data) is a synch thanks to RDF Middleware (as per earlier RDF middleware posts).
]]>