http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/
Kingsley Idehen's Blog Data Space
I have seen the future and it's full of Linked Data! :-)
kidehen@openlinksw.com
kidehen@openlinksw.com
2024-03-29T14:37:33Z
Virtuoso Universal Server 08.03.3327
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/weblog/public/images/vbloglogo.gif
DBpedia + BBC (combined) Linked Data Space Installation Guide
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2011-02-17#1656
2011-02-17T22:15:41Z
2011-03-29T10:09:45.000001-04:00
<h2>What? </h2> <p> The <i><a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id0x1c489cc8">DBpedia</a> + <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/BBC" id="link-id0x1bf12698">BBC</a> Combo Linked Dataset </i> is a preconfigured <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1b16cbb0">Virtuoso</a> Cluster (4 Virtuoso Cluster Nodes, each comprised of one Virtuoso Instance; initial deployment is to a single Cluster Host, but license may be converted for physically distributed deployment), available via the Amazon EC2 Cloud, preloaded with the following datasets: </p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/About" id="link-id0x1d21e780">DBpedia 3.6</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes" id="link-id0x1e1e0b10">BBC Programmes</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/music" id="link-id0x1db12bd0">BBC Music</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/" id="link-id0x1bd46450">BBC Nature</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/" id="link-id0x1d1b2468">BBC Food Recipes</a> </li> </ul> <h2>Why?</h2> <p>The BBC has been publishing <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1b15eb60">Linked Data</a> from its <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> <a class="auto-href" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id0x1c4c38a8">Data Space</a> for a number of years. In line with best practices for injecting Linked Data into the <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x1e5acda0">World Wide Web</a> (Web), the BBC datasets are interlinked with other datasets such as DBpedia and MusicBrainz. </p> <p>Typical follow-your-nose exploration using a Web Browser (or even via sophisticated <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x1d21e728">SPARQL</a> query crawls) isn't always practical once you get past the initial euphoria that comes from comprehending the Linked Data concept. As your queries get more complex, the overhead of remote sub-queries increases its impact, until query results take so long to return that you simply give up.</p> <p>Thus, maximizing the effects of the BBC's efforts requires Linked Data that shares locality in a Web-accessible Data Space â i.e., where all Linked Data sets have been loaded into the same data store or warehouse. This holds true even when leveraging SPARQL-FED style virtualization â there's always a need to localize data as part of any marginally-decent locality-aware cost-optimization algorithm.</p> <p>This DBpedia + BBC dataset, exposed via a preloaded and preconfigured Virtuoso Cluster, delivers a practical point of presence on the Web for immediate and cost-effective exploitation of Linked Data at the individual and/or service specific levels.</p> <h2>How?</h2> To work through this guide, you'll need to start with 90 GB of free disk space. (Only 41 GB will be consumed after you delete the installer archives, but starting with 90+ GB ensures enough work space for the installation.) <h3>Install Virtuoso</h3> <ol> <li> <p> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/download/" id="link-id0x1af0d230">Download Virtuoso installer archive(s)</a>. You must deploy the Personal or Enterprise Edition; the Open Source Edition does not support Shared-Nothing Cluster Deployment.</p> </li> <li> <p> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/pricing/" id="link-id0x1e089f40">Obtain a Virtuoso Cluster license</a>.</p> </li> <li> <p> <a href="http://wikis.openlinksw.com/dataspace/owiki/wiki/VirtuosoWikiWeb/VirtuosoInstallDocs" id="link-id0x1e86d060">Install Virtuoso</a>.</p> </li> <li> <p>Set key environment variables and start the OpenLink License Manager, using command (this may vary depending on your shell and install directory): </p> <blockquote> <code>. /opt/virtuoso/virtuoso-enterprise.sh</code> </blockquote> </li> <li> <p> <i>Optional:</i> To keep the default single-server configuration file and demo database intact, set the <code>VIRTUOSO_HOME</code> environment variable to a different directory, e.g., </p> <blockquote> <code>export VIRTUOSO_HOME=/opt/virtuoso/cluster-home/</code> </blockquote> <p> <i><b>Note:</b> You will have to adjust this setting every time you shift between this cluster setup and your single-server setup. Either may be made your environment's default through the <code>virtuoso-enterprise.sh</code> and related scripts.</i> </p> </li> <li> <p> <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/clusterstcnf.html" id="link-id0x1e184dc0">Set up your cluster</a> by running the <code>mkcluster.sh</code> script. Note that initial deployment of the <i>DBpedia + BBC Combo</i> requires a 4 node cluster, which is the default for this script.</p> </li> <li> <p>Start the Virtuoso Cluster with this command:</p> <blockquote> <code>virtuoso-start.sh</code> </blockquote> </li> <li> <p>Stop the Virtuoso Cluster with this command:</p> <blockquote> <code>virtuoso-stop.sh</code> </blockquote> </li> </ol> <h3>Using the DBpedia + BBC Combo dataset</h3> <ol> <li> <p>Navigate to your installation directory.</p> </li> <li> <p>Download the combo dataset installer script â <code><a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/bbc-dbpedia-36-usa/bbc-dbpedia-install.sh" id="link-id0x195d7940">bbc-dbpedia-install.sh</a></code>.</p> </li> <li> <p>For best results, set the downloaded script to fully executable using this command:</p> <blockquote> <code>chmod 755 bbc-dbpedia-install.sh </code> </blockquote> </li> <li> <p>Shut down any Virtuoso instances that may be currently running.</p> </li> <li> <p> <i>Optional:</i> As above, if you have decided to keep the default single-server configuration file and demo database intact, set the <code>VIRTUOSO_HOME</code> environment variable appropriately, e.g., </p> <blockquote> <code>export VIRTUOSO_HOME=/opt/virtuoso/cluster-home/</code> </blockquote> </li> <li> <p>Run the combo dataset installer script with this command:</p> <blockquote> <code>sh bbc-dbpedia-install.sh</code> </blockquote> </li> </ol> <h3>Verify installation</h3> <p>The combo dataset typically deploys to EC2 virtual machines in under 90 minutes; your time will vary depending on your network connection speed, machine speed, and other variables.</p> <p>Once the script completes, perform the following steps:</p> <ol> <li> <p>Verify that the Virtuoso Conductor (HTTP-based Admin UI) is in place via:</p> <blockquote> <code>http://localhost:[port]/conductor</code> </blockquote> </li> <li> <p>Verify that the Virtuoso SPARQL endpoint is in place via:</p> <blockquote> <code>http://localhost:[port]/sparql</code> </blockquote> </li> <li> <p>Verify that the Precision Search & Find UI is in place via:</p> <blockquote> <code>http://localhost:[port]/fct</code> </blockquote> </li> <li> <p>Verify that the Virtuoso hosted PivotViewer is in place via:</p> <blockquote> <code>http://localhost:[port]/PivotViewer</code> </blockquote> </li> </ol> <h2>Related</h2> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/reduxd/beyond-the-polar-bear" id="link-id0x1bd43bf0">BBC Linked Data Spaces Presentation</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://kidehen-images.s3.amazonaws.com/bbc_music_solo_artists_snapshot.png" id="link-id0x1a7a5ae0">BBC Music Linked Dataset Snapshot</a> -- PivotViewer Page Screenshot </li> <li> <a href="http://kidehen-images.s3.amazonaws.com/bbc_programmes_snapshot_sorted_by_genre.png" id="link-id0x1c2022a8">BBC Programmes Linked Dataset Snapshot</a> -- -- PivotViewer Page Screenshot </li> <li> <a href="http://kidehen-images.s3.amazonaws.com/bbc_nature_snapshot_sorted_by_adaptation.png" id="link-id0x1e138ac0">BBC Nature Linked Dataset Snapshot</a> -- PivotViewer Page Screenshot </li> <li> <a href="http://kidehen-images.s3.amazonaws.com/bbc_recipes_snapshot.png" id="link-id0x1b795100">BBC Food Recipes Snapshot </a> -- PivotViewer Page Screenshot </li> <li> <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/bbc_linkeddata" id="link-id0x1c0ffcc8">My Del.icio.us bookmark collection re. BBC Linked Data Demos</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAWSDBpediaBBC" id="link-id0x1dc0cc08">Amazon EC2 Snapshots for DBpedia 3.6 + BBC combo</a> -- delivers the BBC and DBpedia dataset combo via a mountable Elasti<a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C%2B%2B" id="link-id0x1c2ad728">c</a> Block Storage (EBS) device usable with an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAWSDBpedia351C" id="link-id0x1de33b50">Amazon EC2 Snapshots for DBpedia 3.6 & 3.5</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/download/" id="link-id0x1c3e27c8">Virtuoso Commercial Edition Download Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/clusterstcnf.html" id="link-id0x1d0ff170">Virtuoso Cluster Edition Guide</a> </li> </ul>
SPARQL Guide for the Perl Developer
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2011-01-25#1655
2011-01-25T16:05:17Z
2011-01-26T18:11:13-05:00
<h3>What?</h3> <p>A simple guide usable by any <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Perl" id="link-id0x1bdcab80">Perl</a> developer seeking to exploit <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x17b447e8">SPARQL</a> without hassles.</p> <h3>Why?</h3> <p>SPARQL is a powerful query language, results serialization format, and an HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> access protocol from the W3C. It provides a mechanism for accessing and integrating data across <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deductive_database" id="link-id0x1cc76540">Deductive Database Systems</a> (colloquially referred to as triple or quad stores in <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0x1d944d78">Semantic Web</a> and <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1c7a87c8">Linked Data</a> circles) -- database systems (or data spaces) that manage proposition oriented records in 3-tuple (triples) or 4-tuple (quads) form. </p> <h3>How?</h3> <p>SPARQL queries are actually HTTP payloads (typically). Thus, using a RESTful client-server interaction pattern, you can dispatch calls to a SPARQL compliant data server and receive a payload for local processing.</p> <h4>Steps:</h4> <ol> <li>Determine which SPARQL endpoint you want to access e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/sparql" id="link-id0x1d476520">DBpedia</a> or a local <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1bcfe140">Virtuoso</a> instance (typically: http://localhost:8890/sparql). </li> <li>If using Virtuoso, and you want to populate its quad store using SPARQL, assign "<a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/rdfsparql.html#rdfsupportedprotocolendpointuri" id="link-id0x1c7630b8">SPARQL_SPONGE</a>" privileges to user "SPARQL" (this is basic control, more sophisticated WebID based ACLs are available for controlling SPARQL access).</li> </ol> <h4>Script:</h4> <pre> # # Demonstrating use of a single query to populate a # Virtuoso Quad Store via Perl. # # # HTTP <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x1d6465e8">URL</a> is constructed accordingly with CSV query results format as the default via mime type. # use CGI qw/:standard/; use LWP::UserAgent; use Data::Dumper; use Text::CSV_XS; sub sparqlQuery(@args) { my $query=shift; my $baseURL=shift; my $format=shift; %params=( "default-graph" => "", "should-sponge" => "soft", "query" => $query, "debug" => "on", "timeout" => "", "format" => $format, "save" => "display", "fname" => "" ); @fragments=(); foreach $k (keys %params) { $fragment="$k=".CGI::escape($params{$k}); push(@fragments,$fragment); } $query=join("&", @fragments); $sparqlURL="${baseURL}?$query"; my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new; $ua->agent("MyApp/0.1 "); my $req = HTTP::Request->new(GET => $sparqlURL); my $res = $ua->request($req); $str=$res->content; $csv = Text::CSV_XS->new(); foreach $line ( split(/^/, $str) ) { $csv->parse($line); @bits=$csv->fields(); push(@rows, [ @bits ] ); } return \@rows; } # Setting Data Source Name (DSN) $dsn="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia"; # Virtuoso pragmas for instructing SPARQL engine to perform an HTTP GET using the IRI in # FROM clause as Data Source URL en route to DBMS # record Inserts. $query="DEFINE get:soft \"replace\"\n # Generic (non Virtuoso specific SPARQL # Note: this will not add records to the # DBMS SELECT DISTINCT * FROM <$dsn> WHERE {?s ?p ?o}"; $data=sparqlQuery($query, "http://localhost:8890/sparql/", "text/csv"); print "Retrieved data:\n"; print Dumper($data); </pre> <h4>Output</h4> <pre> Retrieved data: $VAR1 = [ [ 's', 'p', 'o' ], [ 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia', 'http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type', 'http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#Thing' ], [ 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia', 'http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type', 'http://dbpedia.org/ontology/Work' ], [ 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia', 'http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type', 'http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Software106566077' ], ... </pre> <h3>Conclusion</h3> <p> CSV was chosen over XML (re. output format) since this is about a "no-brainer installation and utilization" guide for a Perl developer that already knows how to use Perl for HTTP based data access within HTML. SPARQL just provides an added bonus to URL dexterity (delivered via <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0x1d29da98">URI</a> abstraction) with regards to constructing Data Source Names or Addresses.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://cpansearch.perl.org/src/TOBYINK/RDF-Query-Client-0.103/README" id="link-id0x1c279130">RDF::Query::Client Guide</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1653" id="link-id0x1cf307f0">SPARQL Guide for the Perl Developer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1652" id="link-id0x1b0ffb28">SPARQL Guide for the PHP Developer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1651" id="link-id0x1a8c5ae0">SPARQL Guide for the Python Developer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1648" id="link-id0x1b86ad28">SPARQL Guide for the Ruby Developer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1646" id="link-id0x1c7af188">Simple Guide for using SPARQL with Virtuoso</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/sparql_tutorial" id="link-id0x1ac1ba48">General SPARQL Tutorial Collection</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/virtuoso_sparql_tutorial" id="link-id0x1c7be660">Virtuoso Specific SPARQL Tutorial Collection</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1567" id="link-id0x1c52b438">The URI, URL, and Linked Data Meme's Generic HTTP URI</a>. </li> </ul>
Virtuoso + DBpedia 3.6 Installation Guide (Update 1)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2011-01-24#1654
2011-01-25T01:08:55Z
2011-01-25T14:46:26-05:00
<h3>What is <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id0x1d8b5df0">DBpedia</a>?</h3> <p> DBpedia is a community effort to provide a contemporary deductive database derived from Wikipedia content. Project contributions can be partitioned as follows: </p> <ol> <li> Ontology Construction and Maintenance </li> <li> Dataset Generation via Wikipedia Content Extraction & Transformation </li> <li> Live Database Maintenance & Administration -- includes actual <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1ba81190">Linked Data</a> loading and publishing, provision of <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x1d8af808">SPARQL</a> endpoint, and traditional DBA activity </li> <li> Internationalization. </li> </ol> <h3>Why is DBpedia important?</h3> <p> Comprising the nucleus of the Linked Open <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> effort, DBpedia also serves as a fulcrum for the burgeoning <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> of Linked Data by delivering a dense and highly-interlinked lookup database. In its most basic form, DBpedia is a great source of strong and resolvable identifiers for People, Places, Organizations, Subject Matter, and many other data items of interest. Naturally, it provides a fantastic starting point for comprehending the fundamental concepts underlying <a class="auto-href" href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id0x1a8cc3d0">TimBL</a>'s initial <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id0x1cbbaf50">Linked Data</a> meme. </p> <h3>How do I use DBpedia?</h3> <p> Depending on your particular requirements, whether personal or service-specific, DBpedia offers the following: </p> <ul> <li> Datasets that can be loaded on your deductive database (also known as triple or quad stores) platform of choice </li> <li> Live browsable HTML+<a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id0x1d6b2148">RDFa</a> based <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id0x1d766a98">entity</a> description pages </li> <li> A wide variety of data formats for importing entity description data into a broad range of existing applications and services </li> <li> A SPARQL endpoint allowing ad-hoc querying over HTTP using the SPARQL query language, and delivering results serialized in a variety of formats </li> <li> A broad variety of tools covering query by example, faceted browsing, <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Full_text_search" id="link-id0x1b330ff8">full text search</a>, entity name lookups, etc. </li> </ul> <h3>What is the DBpedia 3.6 + <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1d705780">Virtuoso</a> Cluster Edition Combo?</h3> <p> <a class="auto-href" href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id0x1c894338">OpenLink Software</a> has preloaded the DBpedia 3.6 datasets into a preconfigured Virtuoso Cluster Edition database, and made the package available for easy installation.</p> <h3>Why is the DBpedia+Virtuoso package important?</h3> <p> The DBpedia+Virtuoso package provides a cost-effective option for personal or service-specific incarnations of DBpedia. </p> <p>For instance, you may have a service that isn't best-served by competing with the rest of the world for ad-hoc query time and resources on the live instance, which itself operates under various restrictions which enable this ad-hoc query service to be provided at Web Scale.</p> <p>Now you can easily commission your own instance and quickly exploit DBpedia and Virtuoso's database feature set to the max, powered by your own hardware and network infrastructure. </p> <h3>How do I use the DBpedia+Virtuoso package?</h3> <p>Pre-requisites are simply:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://wikis.openlinksw.com/dataspace/owiki/wiki/VirtuosoWikiWeb/VirtuosoInstallConfig" id="link-id0x19e3e450">Functional Virtuoso Cluster Edition installation</a>. </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/pricing/" id="link-id0x1b703ad8">Virtuoso Cluster Edition License</a>. </li> <li>90 GB of free disk space -- you ultimately only need 43 gigs, but this our recommended free disk space size pre installation completion.</li> </ol> <p> To install the Virtuoso Cluster Edition simply perform the following steps: </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/download/" id="link-id0x17b41648">Download Software</a>. </li> <li> Run installer </li> <li> <p>Set key environment variables and start the OpenLink License Manager, using command (this may vary depending on your shell): </p> <blockquote> <code>. /opt/virtuoso/virtuoso-enterprise.sh</code> </blockquote> </li> <li> Run the <code>mkcluster.sh</code> script which defaults to a 4 node cluster </li> <li> Set <code>VIRTUOSO_HOME</code> environment variable -- if you want to start cluster databases distinct from single server databases via distinct root directory for database files (one that isn't adjacent to single-server database directories) </li> <li> Start Virtuoso Cluster Edition instances using command: <blockquote> <code>virtuoso-start.sh</code> </blockquote> </li> <li> Stop Virtuoso Cluster Edition instances using command: <blockquote> <code>virtuoso-stop.sh</code> </blockquote> </li> </ol> <p>To install your personal or service specific edition of DBpedia simply perform the following steps:</p> <ol> <li> Navigate to your installation directory </li> <li> Download Installer script (<code><a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/dbpedia-36-usa/dbpedia-install.sh" id="link-id0x1da0c978">dbpedia-install.sh</a></code>) </li> <li> Set execution mode on script using command: <blockquote> <code>chmod 755 dbpedia-install.sh </code> </blockquote> </li> <li> Shutdown any Virtuoso instances that may be currently running </li> <li> Set your <code>VIRTUOSO_HOME</code> environment variable, e.g., to the current directory, via command (this may vary depending on your shell): <blockquote> <code>export VIRTUOSO_HOME=`pwd`</code> </blockquote> </li> <li> Run script using command: <blockquote> <code>sh dbpedia-install.sh</code> </blockquote> </li> </ol> <p> Once the installation completes (approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes from start time), perform the following steps: </p> <ol> <li> Verify that the Virtuoso Conductor (HTML based Admin UI) is in place via: <blockquote> <code>http://localhost:[port]/conductor</code> </blockquote> </li> <li> Verify that the Precision Search & Find UI is in place via: <blockquote> <code>http://localhost:[port]/fct</code> </blockquote> </li> <li>Verify that DBpedia's Green Entity Description Pages are in place via: <blockquote> <code>http://localhost:[port]/resource/DBpedia</code> </blockquote> </li> </ol> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAWSDBpedia351C" id="link-id0x1d819b90">Amazon EC2 Snapshots for DBpedia 3.6 & 3.5</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/download/" id="link-id0x1c3e27c8">Virtuoso Commercial Edition Download Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/clusterstcnf.html" id="link-id0x1d0ff170">Virtuoso Cluster Edition Guide</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1594" id="link-id0x1c891cf8">What is the DBpedia Project?</a> </li> </ul>
SPARQL Guide for the Javascript Developer
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2011-01-21#1653
2011-01-21T19:59:49Z
2011-01-26T18:10:28-05:00
<h3>What?</h3> <p>A simple guide usable by any Javascript developer seeking to exploit <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x17b447e8">SPARQL</a> without hassles.</p> <h3>Why?</h3> <p>SPARQL is a powerful query language, results serialization format, and an HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> access protocol from the W3C. It provides a mechanism for accessing and integrating data across <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deductive_database" id="link-id0x1cc76540">Deductive Database Systems</a> (colloquially referred to as triple or quad stores in <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0x1d944d78">Semantic Web</a> and <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1c7a87c8">Linked Data</a> circles) -- database systems (or data spaces) that manage proposition oriented records in 3-tuple (triples) or 4-tuple (quads) form. </p> <h3>How?</h3> <p>SPARQL queries are actually HTTP payloads (typically). Thus, using a RESTful client-server interaction pattern, you can dispatch calls to a SPARQL compliant data server and receive a payload for local processing.</p> <h4>Steps:</h4> <ol> <li>Determine which SPARQL endpoint you want to access e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/sparql" id="link-id0x1d476520">DBpedia</a> or a local <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1bcfe140">Virtuoso</a> instance (typically: http://localhost:8890/sparql). </li> <li>If using Virtuoso, and you want to populate its quad store using SPARQL, assign "<a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/rdfsparql.html#rdfsupportedprotocolendpointuri" id="link-id0x1c7630b8">SPARQL_SPONGE</a>" privileges to user "SPARQL" (this is basic control, more sophisticated WebID based ACLs are available for controlling SPARQL access).</li> </ol> <h4>Script:</h4> <pre> /* Demonstrating use of a single query to populate a # Virtuoso Quad Store via Javascript. */ /* HTTP <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x1bc27a18">URL</a> is constructed accordingly with JSON query results format as the default via mime type. */ function sparqlQuery(query, baseURL, format) { if(!format) format="application/json"; var params={ "default-graph": "", "should-sponge": "soft", "query": query, "debug": "on", "timeout": "", "format": format, "save": "display", "fname": "" }; var querypart=""; for(var k in params) { querypart+=k+"="+encodeURIComponent(params[k])+"&"; } var queryURL=baseURL + '?' + querypart; if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest(); } else { xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } xmlhttp.open("GET",queryURL,false); xmlhttp.send(); return JSON.parse(xmlhttp.responseText); } /* setting Data Source Name (DSN) */ var dsn="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia"; /* Virtuoso pragma "DEFINE get:soft "replace" instructs Virtuoso SPARQL engine to perform an HTTP GET using the IRI in FROM clause as Data Source URL with regards to DBMS record inserts */ var query="DEFINE get:soft \"replace\"\nSELECT DISTINCT * FROM <"+dsn+"> WHERE {?s ?p ?o}"; var data=sparqlQuery(query, "/sparql/"); </pre> <h4>Output</h4> <p> Place the snippet above into the <script/> section of an HTML document to see the <a href="http://twitpic.com/3s2vs3/full" id="link-id0x1cff2288">query result</a>. </p> <h3>Conclusion</h3> <p> JSON was chosen over XML (re. output format) since this is about a "no-brainer installation and utilization" guide for a Javascript developer that already knows how to use Javascript for HTTP based data access within HTML. SPARQL just provides an added bonus to URL dexterity (delivered via <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0x1d29da98">URI</a> abstraction) with regards to constructing Data Source Names or Addresses.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1652" id="link-id0x1b0ffb28">SPARQL Guide for the PHP Developer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1651" id="link-id0x1a8c5ae0">SPARQL Guide for the Python Developer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1648" id="link-id0x1b86ad28">SPARQL Guide for the Ruby Developer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1646" id="link-id0x1c7af188">Simple Guide for using SPARQL with Virtuoso</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/sparql_tutorial" id="link-id0x1ac1ba48">General SPARQL Tutorial Collection</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/virtuoso_sparql_tutorial" id="link-id0x1c7be660">Virtuoso Specific SPARQL Tutorial Collection</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1567" id="link-id0x1c52b438">The URI, URL, and Linked Data Meme's Generic HTTP URI</a>. </li> </ul>
SPARQL Guide for the PHP Developer
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2011-01-20#1652
2011-01-20T21:25:49Z
2011-01-25T10:36:58-05:00
<h3>What?</h3> <p>A simple guide usable by any <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP_programming_language" id="link-id0x1bdca7b8">PHP</a> developer seeking to exploit <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x1c894338">SPARQL</a> without hassles.</p> <h3>Why?</h3> <p>SPARQL is a powerful query language, results serialization format, and an HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> access protocol from the W3C. It provides a mechanism for accessing and integrating data across <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deductive_database" id="link-id0x1c319af0">Deductive Database Systems</a> (colloquially referred to as triple or quad stores in <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0x1d944d78">Semantic Web</a> and <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1c7a87c8">Linked Data</a> circles) -- database systems (or data spaces) that manage proposition oriented records in 3-tuple (triples) or 4-tuple (quads) form. </p> <h3>How?</h3> <p>SPARQL queries are actually HTTP payloads (typically). Thus, using a RESTful client-server interaction pattern, you can dispatch calls to a SPARQL compliant data server and receive a payload for local processing e.g. local object binding re. PHP.</p> <h4>Steps:</h4> <ol> <li> From your command line execute: aptitude search '^PHP26', to verify PHP is in place </li> <li>Determine which SPARQL endpoint you want to access e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/sparql" id="link-id0x1d476520">DBpedia</a> or a local <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1bcfe140">Virtuoso</a> instance (typically: http://localhost:8890/sparql). </li> <li>If using Virtuoso, and you want to populate its quad store using SPARQL, assign "<a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/rdfsparql.html#rdfsupportedprotocolendpointuri" id="link-id0x1c7630b8">SPARQL_SPONGE</a>" privileges to user "SPARQL" (this is basic control, more sophisticated WebID based ACLs are available for controlling SPARQL access).</li> </ol> <h4>Script:</h4> <pre> #!/usr/bin/env php <?php # # Demonstrating use of a single query to populate a # Virtuoso Quad Store via PHP. # # HTTP <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x1ce1d6d8">URL</a> is constructed accordingly with JSON query results format in mind. function sparqlQuery($query, $baseURL, $format="application/json") { $params=array( "default-graph" => "", "should-sponge" => "soft", "query" => $query, "debug" => "on", "timeout" => "", "format" => $format, "save" => "display", "fname" => "" ); $querypart="?"; foreach($params as $name => $value) { $querypart=$querypart . $name . '=' . urlencode($value) . "&"; } $sparqlURL=$baseURL . $querypart; return json_decode(file_get_contents($sparqlURL)); }; # Setting Data Source Name (DSN) $dsn="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia"; #Virtuoso pragmas for instructing SPARQL engine to perform an HTTP GET #using the IRI in FROM clause as Data Source URL $query="DEFINE get:soft \"replace\" SELECT DISTINCT * FROM <$dsn> WHERE {?s ?p ?o}"; $data=sparqlQuery($query, "http://localhost:8890/sparql/"); print "Retrieved data:\n" . json_encode($data); ?> </pre> <h4>Output</h4> <pre> Retrieved data: {"head": {"link":[],"vars":["s","p","o"]}, "results": {"distinct":false,"ordered":true, "bindings":[ {"s": {"type":"<a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0x1ca44a98">uri</a>","value":"http:\/\/dbpedia.org\/resource\/DBpedia"},"p": {"type":"uri","value":"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/02\/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type"},"o": {"type":"uri","value":"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2002\/07\/owl#Thing"}}, {"s": {"type":"uri","value":"http:\/\/dbpedia.org\/resource\/DBpedia"},"p": {"type":"uri","value":"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/02\/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type"},"o": {"type":"uri","value":"http:\/\/dbpedia.org\/ontology\/Work"}}, {"s": {"type":"uri","value":"http:\/\/dbpedia.org\/resource\/DBpedia"},"p": {"type":"uri","value":"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/02\/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type"},"o": {"type":"uri","value":"http:\/\/dbpedia.org\/class\/yago\/Software106566077"}}, ... </pre> <h3>Conclusion</h3> <p> JSON was chosen over XML (re. output format) since this is about a "no-brainer installation and utilization" guide for a PHP developer that already knows how to use PHP for HTTP based data access. SPARQL just provides an added bonus to URL dexterity (delivered via URI abstraction) with regards to constructing Data Source Names or Addresses.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1651" id="link-id0x1a8c5ae0">SPARQL Guide for the Python Developer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1648" id="link-id0x1b86ad28">SPARQL Guide for the Ruby Developer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1646" id="link-id0x1c7af188">Simple Guide for using SPARQL with Virtuoso</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/sparql_tutorial" id="link-id0x1ac1ba48">General SPARQL Tutorial Collection</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/virtuoso_sparql_tutorial" id="link-id0x1c7be660">Virtuoso Specific SPARQL Tutorial Collection</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1567" id="link-id0x1c52b438">The URI, URL, and Linked Data Meme's Generic HTTP URI</a>. </li> </ul>
SPARQL Guide for Python Developer
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2011-01-19#1651
2011-01-19T17:13:30Z
2011-01-25T10:35:46-05:00
<h3>What?</h3> <p>A simple guide usable by any <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Python_programming_language" id="link-id0x1bdca7b8">Python</a> developer seeking to exploit <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x1c894338">SPARQL</a> without hassles.</p> <h3>Why?</h3> <p>SPARQL is a powerful query language, results serialization format, and an HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> access protocol from the W3C. It provides a mechanism for accessing and integrating data across <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deductive_database" id="link-id0x1c319af0">Deductive Database Systems</a> (colloquially referred to as triple or quad stores in <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0x1d944d78">Semantic Web</a> and <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1c7a87c8">Linked Data</a> circles) -- database systems (or data spaces) that manage proposition oriented records in 3-tuple (triples) or 4-tuple (quads) form. </p> <h3>How?</h3> <p>SPARQL queries are actually HTTP payloads (typically). Thus, using a RESTful client-server interaction pattern, you can dispatch calls to a SPARQL compliant data server and receive a payload for local processing e.g. local object binding re. Python.</p> <h4>Steps:</h4> <ol> <li> From your command line execute: aptitude search '^python26', to verify Python is in place </li> <li>Determine which SPARQL endpoint you want to access e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/sparql" id="link-id0x1d476520">DBpedia</a> or a local <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1bcfe140">Virtuoso</a> instance (typically: http://localhost:8890/sparql). </li> <li>If using Virtuoso, and you want to populate its quad store using SPARQL, assign "<a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/rdfsparql.html#rdfsupportedprotocolendpointuri" id="link-id0x1c7630b8">SPARQL_SPONGE</a>" privileges to user "SPARQL" (this is basic control, more sophisticated WebID based ACLs are available for controlling SPARQL access).</li> </ol> <h4>Script:</h4> <pre> #!/usr/bin/env python # # Demonstrating use of a single query to populate a # Virtuoso Quad Store via Python. # import urllib, json # HTTP <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x1bd91cf0">URL</a> is constructed accordingly with JSON query results format in mind. def sparqlQuery(query, baseURL, format="application/json"): params={ "default-graph": "", "should-sponge": "soft", "query": query, "debug": "on", "timeout": "", "format": format, "save": "display", "fname": "" } querypart=urllib.urlencode(params) response = urllib.urlopen(baseURL,querypart).read() return json.loads(response) # Setting Data Source Name (DSN) dsn="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" # Virtuoso pragmas for instructing SPARQL engine to perform an HTTP GET # using the IRI in FROM clause as Data Source URL query="""DEFINE get:soft "replace" SELECT DISTINCT * FROM <%s> WHERE {?s ?p ?o}""" % dsn data=sparqlQuery(query, "http://localhost:8890/sparql/") print "Retrieved data:\n" + json.dumps(data, sort_keys=True, indent=4) # # End </pre> <h4>Output</h4> <pre> Retrieved data: { "head": { "link": [], "vars": [ "s", "p", "o" ] }, "results": { "bindings": [ { "o": { "type": "<a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0x1b1470b8">uri</a>", "value": "http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#Thing" }, "p": { "type": "uri", "value": "http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type" }, "s": { "type": "uri", "value": "http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" } }, ... </pre> <h3>Conclusion</h3> <p> JSON was chosen over XML (re. output format) since this is about a "no-brainer installation and utilization" guide for a Python developer that already knows how to use Python for HTTP based data access. SPARQL just provides an added bonus to URL dexterity (delivered via URI abstraction) with regards to constructing Data Source Names or Addresses.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1648" id="link-id0x1c9e26b0">SPARQL Guide for the Ruby Developer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1646" id="link-id0x1c7af188">Simple Guide for using SPARQL with Virtuoso</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/sparql_tutorial" id="link-id0x1ac1ba48">General SPARQL Tutorial Collection</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/virtuoso_sparql_tutorial" id="link-id0x1c7be660">Virtuoso Specific SPARQL Tutorial Collection</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1567" id="link-id0x1c52b438">The URI, URL, and Linked Data Meme's Generic HTTP URI</a>. </li> </ul>
SPARQL for the Ruby Developer
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2011-01-18#1648
2011-01-18T19:48:34Z
2011-01-25T10:17:12.000002-05:00
<h3>What?</h3> <p>A simple guide usable by any <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ruby_programming_language" id="link-id0x1bb88908">Ruby</a> developer seeking to exploit <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x1ae67500">SPARQL</a> without hassles.</p> <h3>Why?</h3> <p>SPARQL is a powerful query language, results serialization format, and an HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> access protocol from the W3C. It provides a mechanism for accessing and integrating data across <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deductive_database" id="link-id0x1bc61d88">Deductive Database Systems</a> (colloquially referred to as triple or quad stores in <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0x1cc11420">Semantic Web</a> and <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1b2e7780">Linked Data</a> circles) -- database systems (or data spaces) that manage proposition oriented records in 3-tuple (triples) or 4-tuple (quads) form. </p> <h3>How?</h3> <p>SPARQL queries are actually HTTP payloads (typically). Thus, using a RESTful client-server interaction pattern, you can dispatch calls to a SPARQL compliant data server and receive a payload for local processing e.g. local object binding re. Ruby. </p> <h4>Steps:</h4> <ol> <li> From your command line execute: aptitude search '^ruby', to verify Ruby is in place </li> <li>Determine which SPARQL endpoint you want to access e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/sparql" id="link-id0x1d476520">DBpedia</a> or a local <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1bcfe140">Virtuoso</a> instance (typically: http://localhost:8890/sparql). </li> <li>If using Virtuoso, and you want to populate its quad store using SPARQL, assign "<a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/rdfsparql.html#rdfsupportedprotocolendpointuri" id="link-id0x1c7630b8">SPARQL_SPONGE</a>" privileges to user "SPARQL" (this is basic control, more sophisticated WebID based ACLs are available for controlling SPARQL access).</li> </ol> <h4>Script:</h4> <pre> #!/usr/bin/env ruby # # Demonstrating use of a single query to populate a # Virtuoso Quad Store. # require 'net/http' require 'cgi' require 'csv' # # We opt for CSV based output since handling this format is straightforward in Ruby, by default. # HTTP <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x1acee348">URL</a> is constructed accordingly with CSV as query results format in mind. def sparqlQuery(query, baseURL, format="text/csv") params={ "default-graph" => "", "should-sponge" => "soft", "query" => query, "debug" => "on", "timeout" => "", "format" => format, "save" => "display", "fname" => "" } querypart="" params.each { |k,v| querypart+="#{k}=#{CGI.escape(v)}&" } sparqlURL=baseURL+"?#{querypart}" response = Net::HTTP.get_response(<a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0x1d24dfd8">URI</a>.parse(sparqlURL)) return CSV::parse(response.body) end # Setting Data Source Name (DSN) dsn="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" #Virtuoso pragmas for instructing SPARQL engine to perform an HTTP GET #using the IRI in FROM clause as Data Source URL query="DEFINE get:soft \"replace\" SELECT DISTINCT * FROM <#{dsn}> WHERE {?s ?p ?o} " #Assume use of local installation of Virtuoso #otherwise you can change URL to that of a public endpoint #for example DBpedia: http://dbpedia.org/sparql data=sparqlQuery(query, "http://localhost:8890/sparql/") puts "Got data:" p data # # End </pre><h4>Output</h4> <pre> Got data: [["s", "p", "o"], ["http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia", "http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type", "http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#Thing"], ["http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia", "http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type", "http://dbpedia.org/ontology/Work"], ["http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia", "http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type", "http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Software106566077"], ... </pre> <h3>Conclusion</h3> <p> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma-separated_values" id="link-id0x1cac8420">CSV</a> was chosen over XML (re. output format) since this is about a "no-brainer installation and utilization" guide for a Ruby developer that already knows how to use Ruby for HTTP based data access. SPARQL just provides an added bonus to URL dexterity (delivered via URI abstraction) with regards to constructing Data Source Names or Addresses.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.taxonconcept.org/how-to/ruby-code-examples/how-do-i-use-ruby-to-query-a-sparql-endpoint.html" id="link-id0x1aa83678">SPARQL and Ruby SPARQL Client Library Example</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1646" id="link-id0x1c7af188">Simple Guide for using SPARQL with Virtuoso</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/sparql_tutorial" id="link-id0x1ac1ba48">General SPARQL Tutorial Collection</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/virtuoso_sparql_tutorial" id="link-id0x1c7be660">Virtuoso Specific SPARQL Tutorial Collection</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1567" id="link-id0x1c52b438">The URI, URL, and Linked Data Meme's Generic HTTP URI</a>. </li> </ul>
Simple Virtuoso Installation & Utilization Guide for SPARQL Users (Update 5)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2011-01-16#1647
2011-01-16T07:06:21Z
2011-01-19T10:43:35-05:00
<h3>What is <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x1ab60ac0">SPARQL</a>?</h3> <p>A declarative query language from the W3C for querying structured propositional <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> (in the form of 3-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuple" id="link-id0x1b1e0010">tuple</a> [triples] or 4-tuple [quads] records) stored in a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deductive_database" id="link-id0x1cf8af98">deductive database</a> (colloquially referred to as triple or quad stores in <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0x1caf5050">Semantic Web</a> and <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x19d781b8">Linked Data</a> parlance).</p> <p>SPARQL is inherently platform independent. Like <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id0x1b879140">SQL</a>, the query language and the backend database engine are distinct. Database clients capture SPARQL queries which are then passed on to compliant backend databases.</p> <h3>Why is it important?</h3> <p>Like SQL for relational databases, it provides a powerful mechanism for accessing and joining data across one or more data partitions (named graphs identified by IRIs). The aforementioned capability also enables the construction of sophisticated Views, Reports (HTML or those produced in native form by desktop productivity tools), and data streams for other services.</p> <p>Unlike SQL, SPARQL includes result serialization formats and an HTTP based wire protocol. Thus, the ubiquity and sophistication of HTTP is integral to SPARQL i.e., client side applications (user agents) only need to be able to perform an HTTP GET against a <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x1ba287e8">URL</a> en route to exploiting the power of SPARQL.</p> <h3>How do I use it, generally?</h3> <ol> <li>Locate a SPARQL endpoint (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/sparql" id="link-id0x1d7436b0">DBpedia</a>, <a href="http://lod.openlinksw.com/sparql" id="link-id0x1bf20690">LOD Cloud Cache</a>, <a href="http://semantic.data.gov" id="link-id0x1a8ebc28">Data.Gov</a>, <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/sparql" id="link-id0x1be93070">URIBurner</a>, <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/sparql_endpoint" id="link-id0x1cce9b40">others</a>), or;</li> <li>Install a SPARQL compliant database server (quad or triple store) on your desktop, workgroup server, data center, or cloud (e.g., <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtuosoEC2AMI" id="link-id0x1cd697a0">Amazon EC2 AMI</a>)</li> <li>Start the database server</li> <li>Execute SPARQL Queries via the <a href="http://lod.openlinksw.com/sparql" id="link-id0x1b99d790">SPARQL endpoint.</a> </li> </ol> <h3>How do I use SPARQL with <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1c9adc80">Virtuoso</a>?</h3> <p>What follows is a very simple guide for using SPARQL against your own instance of Virtuoso:</p> <ol> <li>Software Download and Installation</li> <li>Data Loading from Data Sources exposed at Network Addresses (e.g. HTTP URLs) using very simple methods</li> <li>Actual SPARQL query execution via SPARQL endpoint.</li> </ol> <h3>Installation Steps</h3> <ol> <li> Download <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VOSDownload" id="link-id0x1b795100">Virtuoso Open Source</a> or <a href="http://download.openlinksw.com/virtwiz/virtuoso.php" id="link-id0x1cce46f0">Virtuoso Commercial</a> Editions </li> <li> Run installer (if using Commercial edition of Windows Open Source Edition, otherwise follow build guide) </li> <li> Follow post-installation guide and verify installation by typing in the command: virtuoso -? (if this fails check you've followed installation and setup steps, then verify environment variables have been set) </li> <li> Start the Virtuoso server using the command: virtuoso-start.sh </li> <li> Verify you have a connection to the Virtuoso Server via the command: isql localhost (assuming you're using default DB settings) or the command: isql localhost:1112 (assuming demo database) or goto your browser and type in: http://<virtuoso-server-host-name>:[port]/conductor (e.g. http://localhost:8889/conductor for default DB or http://localhost:8890/conductor if using Demo DB) </li> <li> Go to SPARQL endpoint which is typically -- http://<virtuoso-server-host-name>:[port]/sparql </li> <li> Run a quick sample query (since the database always has system data in place): select distinct * where {?s ?p ?o} limit 50 .</li> </ol> <h3>Troubleshooting</h3> <ol> <li>Ensure environment settings are set and functional -- if using Mac OS X or Windows, so you don't have to worry about this, just start and stop your Virtuoso server using native OS services applets</li> <li>If using the Open Source Edition, follow the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VOSMake#Getting%20Started" id="link-id0x1bfa7548">getting started guide</a> -- it covers PATH and startup directory location re. starting and stopping Virtuoso servers.</li> <li>Sponging (HTTP GETs against external Data Sources) within SPARQL queries is disabled by default. You can enable this feature by assigning "<a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/rdfsparql.html#rdfsupportedprotocolendpointuri" id="link-id0x1d566270">SPARQL_SPONGE</a>" privileges to user "SPARQL". Note, more sophisticated security exists via <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAuthPolicyFOAFSSL" id="link-id0x1a3c9eb8">WebID based ACLs</a>. </li> </ol> <h3>Data Loading Steps</h3> <ol> <li> Identify an RDF based structured data source of interest -- a file that contains 3-tuple / triples available at an address on a public or private HTTP based network </li> <li>Determine the Address (URL) of the RDF data source</li> <li>Go to your Virtuoso SPARQL endpoint and type in the following SPARQL query: DEFINE GET:SOFT "replace" SELECT DISTINCT * FROM <RDFDataSourceURL> WHERE {?s ?p ?o} </li> <li> All the triples in the RDF resource (data source accessed via URL) will be loaded into the Virtuoso Quad Store (using RDF Data Source URL as the internal quad store Named Graph IRI) as part of the SPARQL query processing pipeline. </li> </ol> <p> Note: the data source URL doesn't even have to be RDF based -- which is where the Virtuoso <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id0x1d1a0978">Sponger</a> Middleware comes into play (download and install the <a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/opldownload/uda/vad-packages/6.1/virtuoso/rdf_mappers_dav.vad" id="link-id0x1d0e1530">VAD installer package</a> first) since it delivers the following features to Virtuoso's SPARQL engine: </p> <ol> <li> Transformation of data from non RDF data sources (file content, hypermedia resources, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">web</a> services output etc..) into RDF based 3-tuples (triples)</li> <li> Cache Invalidation Scheme Construction -- thus, subsequent queries (without the define get:soft "replace" pragma will not be required bar when you forcefully want to override cache).</li> <li> If you have very large data sources like DBpedia etc. from CKAN, simply use our <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtBulkRDFLoader" id="link-id0x1d19b4b0">bulk loader</a> . </li> </ol> <h3>SPARQL Endpoint Discovery</h3> <p>Public SPARQL endpoints are emerging at an ever increasing rate. Thus, we've setup up a DNS lookup service that provides access to a large number of SPARQL endpoints. Of course, this doesn't cover all existing endpoints, so if our endpoint is missing please ping <a class="auto-href" href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id0x1d634848">me</a>.</p> <p>Here are a collection of commands for using DNS-SD to discover SPARQL endpoints:</p> <ol> <li>dns-sd -B _sparql._tcp sparql.openlinksw.com -- browse for services instances</li> <li>dns-sd -Z _sparql._tcp sparql.openlinksw.com -- output results in Zone File format</li> <li></li> </ol> <h3>Related</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.ensta.fr/~diam/ruby/online/ruby-doc-stdlib/libdoc/net/http/rdoc/index.html" id="link-id0x1b156610">Using HTTP from Ruby</a> -- you can just make <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VOSSparqlProtocol" id="link-id0x1d024d60">SPARQL Protocol URLs</a> re. SPARQL</li> <li> <a href="http://sparql.rubyforge.org/client/" id="link-id0x1cd43a48">Using SPARQL Endpoints via Ruby</a> -- Ruby example using DBpedia endpoint</li> <li> <a href="http://wikis.openlinksw.com/dataspace/owiki/wiki/OATWikiWeb/InteractiveSparqlQueryBuilder" id="link-id0x1b9d2190">Interactive SPARQL Query By Example (QBE) tool</a> -- provides a graphical user interface (as is common in SQL realm re. query building against <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id0x1bfffb70">RDBMS</a> engines) that works with any SPARQL endpoint </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtRDFInsert" id="link-id0x1ab63de0">Other methods of loading RDF data into Virtuoso</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtSponger" id="link-id0x1ca248e0">Virtuoso Sponger</a> -- architecture and how it turns a wide variety of non RDF data sources into SPARQL accessible data </li> <li> <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com/example.html" id="link-id0x1be34758">Using OpenLink Data Explorer</a> (ODE) to populate Virtuoso -- locate a resource of interest; click on a bookmarklet or use <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id0x1ca84af0">context</a> menus (if using ODE extensions for Firefox, Safari, or Chrome); and you'll have SPARQL accessible data automatically inserted into your Virtuoso instance. </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1295" id="link-id0x1c9060f0">W3C's SPARQLing Data Access Ingenuity</a> -- an older generic SPARQL introduction post </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtSPARQLRef" id="link-id0x1cf1e298">Collection of SPARQL Query Examples </a>-- GoodRelations (Product Offers), <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id0x1c0445d0">FOAF</a> (Profiles), <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SIOC" id="link-id0x1b785e48">SIOC</a> (Data Spaces -- <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleBlog" id="link-id0x1b6c9f78">Blogs</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleWiki" id="link-id0x1c188280">Wikis</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleBookmarks" id="link-id0x1a9a8f98">Bookmarks</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleFeeds" id="link-id0x1720c658">Feed Collections</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleGallery" id="link-id0x1cdba348">Photo Galleries</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleBriefcase" id="link-id0x1c8f1148">Briefcase/DropBox</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleAddressbook" id="link-id0x1b5eb7e0">AddressBook</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleCalendar" id="link-id0x1c575120">Calendars</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleDiscussions" id="link-id0x1c73be98">Discussion Forums</a>) </li> <li> <a href="http://lod.openlinksw.com/demo_queries/" id="link-id0x1b08aa00">Collection of Live SPARQL Queries against LOD Cloud Cache</a> -- simple and advanced queries. </li> </ol>
Virtuoso Linked Data Deployment In 3 Simple Steps
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-10-29#1642
2010-10-29T22:54:32Z
2010-11-02T11:55:31.000005-04:00
<p>Injecting <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x17012e18">Linked Data</a> into the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> has been a major pain point for those who seek personal, service, or organization-specific variants of <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id0x196518a8">DBpedia</a>. Basically, the sequence goes something like this: </p> <ol> <li> You encounter DBpedia or the <a class="auto-href" href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id0x1b26d008">LOD</a> Cloud Pictorial.</li> <li> You look around (typically following your nose from link to link). </li> <li> You attempt to publish your own stuff. </li> <li> You get stuck. </li> </ol> <p>The problems typically take the following form:</p> <ol> <li> Functionality confusion about the complementary Name and Address functionality of a single <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0xa108a00">URI</a> abstraction </li> <li> Terminology confusion due to conflation and over-loading of terms such as Resource, <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x1b3d08f8">URL</a>, Representation, Document, etc. </li> <li> Inability to find robust tools with which to generate Linked Data from existing <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> sources such as relational databases, CSV files, XML, Web Services, etc. </li> </ol> <p>To start addressing these problems, here is a simple guide for generating and publishing Linked Data using <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1a7841e0">Virtuoso</a>.</p> <h3>Step 1 - RDF Data Generation</h3> <p>Existing RDF data can be added to the Virtuoso RDF Quad Store via a variety of built-in data loader utilities.</p> <p>Many options allow you to easily and quickly generate RDF data from other data sources:</p> <ul> <li> Install the Sponger Bookmarklet for the <a href="http://uriburner.com" id="link-id0x1aa50800">URIBurner service</a>. Bind this to your own <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x1a4255e0">SPARQL</a>-compliant backend RDF database (in this scenario, your local Virtuoso instance), and then Sponge some HTTP-accessible resources. </li> <li> Convert relational DBMS data to RDF using the Virtuoso RDF Views Wizard. </li> <li> Starting with CSV files, you can <ul> <li>Place them at an HTTP-accessible location, and use the Virtuoso <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id0x16f7ba58">Sponger</a> to convert them to RDF or; </li> <li> Use the CVS import feature to import their content into Virtuoso's relational data engine; then use the built-in RDF Views Wizard as with other <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id0x1982ea80">RDBMS</a> data. </li> </ul> </li> <li> Starting from XML files, you can <ul> <li> Use Virtuoso's inbuilt XSLT-Processor for manual XML to RDF/XML transformation or;</li> <li>Leverage the Sponger Cartridge for <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/GRDDL" id="link-id0x1b350968">GRDDL</a>, if there is a transformation service associated with your XML data source, or;</li> <li>Let the Sponger analyze the XML data source and make a best-effort transformation to RDF.</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <h3>Step 2 - Linked Data Deployment</h3> <p> Install the <a href="http://download.openlinksw.com/packages/6.2/virtuoso/fct_dav.vad" id="link-id0x19845ad0">Faceted Browser VAD package (<code>fct_dav.vad</code>)</a> which delivers the following:</p> <ol> <li> Faceted Browser Engine UI</li> <li> Dynamic Hypermedia Resource Generator <ul> <li>delivers descriptor resources for every <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id0x1b3a69f0">entity</a> (data object) in the Native or Virtual Quad Stores</li> <li>supports a broad array of output formats, including HTML+<a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id0x1a92d2f8">RDFa</a>, RDF/XML, N3/Turtle, NTriples, RDF-JSON, OData+Atom, and OData+JSON. </li> </ul> </li> </ol> <h3>Step 3 - Linked Data Consumption & Exploitation</h3> <p> Three simple steps allow you, your enterprise, and your customers to consume and exploit your newly deployed Linked Data -- </p> <ol> <li> Load a page like this in your browser: <code>http://<cname>[:<port>]/describe/?uri=<entity-uri></code> <ul> <li> <code><cname>[:<port>]</code> gets replaced by the host and port of your Virtuoso instance</li> <li> <code><entity-uri></code> gets replaced by the URI you want to see described -- for instance, the URI of one of the resources you let the Sponger handle. </li> </ul> </li> <li> Follow the links presented in the descriptor page. </li> <li>If you ever see a blank page with a hyperlink subject name in the About: section at the top of the page, simply add the parameter "&sp=1" to the URL in the browser's Address box, and hit [ENTER]. This will result in an "on the fly" resource retrieval, transformation, and descriptor page generation.</li> <li> Use the navigator controls to page up and down the data associated with the "in scope" resource descriptor. </li> </ol> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/describe/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flinkeddata.uriburner.com%2Fabout%2Fid%2Fentity%2Fhttp%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fo%2FASIN%2F006251587X" id="link-id0x1a8aeaf8">Sample Descriptor Page</a> (what you see post completion of the steps in this post) </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1639" id="link-id0x1af66f38">What is Linked Data, really?</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1613" id="link-id0x1acdbc58">Painless Linked Data Generation via URIBurner</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtRDFInsert" id="link-id0x1abe3b18">How To Load RDF Data Into Virtuoso</a> (various methods)</li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtBulkRDFLoader" id="link-id0x1a441ff0">Virtuoso Bulk Loader Script for RDF</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtCsvFileBulkLoader" id="link-id0x190382e8">Bulk Loader Script for CSV</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtRdb2RDFViewsGeneration#OneClickLinkedDataGenerationAndDemployment" id="link-id0x1ac9c9c0">Wizard based generation of RDF based Linked Data from ODBC accessible Relational Databases </a> </li> </ul>
Solving Real Problems by Leveraging Linked Data: Unambiguous & Verifiable Identity for HTTP Networks
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-07-11#1625
2010-07-12T03:25:03Z
2010-07-12T07:22:02.000018-04:00
<h3>Problem: Unambiguous Verifiable Network Identity.</h3> <p>How Does <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1b1ad1d0">Linked Data</a> Address This Problem? It provides critical infrastructure for the WebID Protocol that enables an innovative tweak of SSL/TLS. </p> <p>What about OpenID? The WebID Protocol embraces and extends OpenID (<strong><em>in an open and positive way</em></strong>) via the WebID + OpenID Hybrid variant of the protocol -- basic effect is that OpenID calls are re-routed to the WebID aspect which simply removes Username and Password Authentication from the authentication challenge interaction pattern.</p> <h3>WebID Components</h3> <ol> <li> X.509 Certificate and Private Key Generator </li> <li> Structured Profile Document (e.g. a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id0x1a301338">FOAF</a> based Profile) published to an HTTP Network (e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x1ba50e10">World Wide Web</a>) and accessible at an Address (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x12ded2e0">URL</a>) </li> <li> An Agent Identifier aka. WebID (an HTTP Name Reference re. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0x1b197378">URI</a> variant) that's the Subject of a Structured Profile Document (actually a Descriptor Resource)</li> <li> Mechanism for persisting Public Key data from X.509 Certificate to Structured Profile Document and associating it with Subject WebID (e.g. SPARUL or other HTTP based methods) </li> <li> Mechanism for de-referencing Public Key data associated with a WebID (from its Structured Profile Document) for comparison against Public Key data following successful standard SSL/TLS protocol handshake (e.g. via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x16d26ec8">SPARQL</a> Query). </li> </ol> <h3>Demo</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjgXsjd8PDE" id="link-id0x1b9cc4d8">WebID + OpenID Hybrid Protocol Demo using ODS, Stackoverflow.com, and identi.ca.</a> - YouTube Screencast Demo Part 1 using Firefox</li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXoxUo7Py4M " id="link-id0x1a2db140">WebID + OpenID Hybrid Protocol Demo using ODS, Stackoverflow.com, and identi.ca.</a> - YouTube Screencast Demo Part 2 using Safari </li> </ul> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=webid&type=text&output=html" id="link-id0x1bc37a58">Prior Posts about WebIDs</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://payswarm.com/webid/drafts/ED-webid-20100711/" id="link-id0x1a0eecb8">Draft WebID Spec</a> </li> </ul>
Data 3.0 (a Manifesto for Platform Agnostic Structured Data) Update 5
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-04-16#1624
2010-04-16T21:09:05Z
2010-05-25T17:10:28.000001-04:00
<p>After a long period of trying to demystify and unravel the wonders of standards compliant structured <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> access, combined with protocols (e.g., HTTP) that separate: </p> <ol> <li>Identity,</li> <li>Access,</li> <li>Storage,</li> <li>Representation, and</li> <li>Presentation.</li> </ol> <p>I ended up with what I can best describe as the Data 3.0 Manifesto. A manifesto for standards complaint access to structured data object (or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id0x1a0bc238">entity</a>) descriptors.</p> <h3>Some Related Work</h3> <p> <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/alexj/" id="link-id0x1a3c5b70">Alex James</a> (Program Manager <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/efdesign/" id="link-id0x1a3c5bd8">Entity Frameworks</a> at Microsoft), put together something quite similar to this via his Base4 <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id0x13c374c8">blog</a> (around the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> 2.0 bootstrap time), sadly -- quoting Alex -- that post has gone where discontinued blogs and their host platforms go (deep deep irony here). </p> <p>It's also important to note that this manifesto is also a variant of the <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id0x1a29f338">TimBL</a>'s <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id0x1a4e8580">Linked Data Design Issues</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Meme" id="link-id0x199efc30">meme</a> re. Linked Data, but totally decoupled from RDF (data representation formats aspect) and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x199efc58">SPARQL</a> which -- in my world view -- remain implementation details.</p> <h3>Data 3.0 manifesto</h3> <ul> <li>An "Entity" is the "Referent" of an "Identifier."</li> <li>An "Identifier" SHOULD provide a global, unambiguous, and unchanging (though it MAY be opaque!) "Name" for its "Referent".</li> <li>A "Referent" MAY have many "Identifiers" (Names), but each "Identifier" MUST have only one "Referent".</li> <li>Structured Entity Descriptions SHOULD be based on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id0x1a2a15c0">Entity-Attribute-Value (EAV) Data Model</a>, and SHOULD therefore take the form of one or more 3-tuples (triples), each comprised of: <ul> <li>an "Identifier" that names an "Entity" (i.e., Entity Name),</li> <li>an "Identifier" that names an "Attribute" (i.e., Attribute Name), and</li> <li>an "Attribute Value", which may be an "Identifier" or a "Literal".</li> </ul> </li> <li>Structured Descriptions SHOULD be CARRIED by "Descriptor Documents" (i.e., purpose specific documents where Entity Identifiers, Attribute Identifiers, and Attribute Values are clearly discernible by the document's intended consumers, e.g., humans or machines).</li> <li>Structured Descriptor Documents can contain (carry) several Structured Entity Descriptions</li> <li>Stuctured Descriptor Documents SHOULD be network accessible via network addresses (e.g., HTTP URLs when dealing with HTTP-based Networks).</li> <li>An Identifier SHOULD resolve (de-reference) to a Structured Representation of the Referent's Structured Description.</li> </ul> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://twitpic.com/1g02q8/full" id="link-id0x1a3d1428">Referent, Identifier, and Descriptor/Sense (The Data Perception Trinity)</a> illustration</li> <li> <a href="http://twitpic.com/1g03vo/full" id="link-id0x1a353a20">Referent, Identifier, and Descriptor/Sense Trinity</a> (as exploited in <a href="http://esw.w3.org/Foaf%2Bssl" id="link-id0x135ed828">FOAF+SSL</a> based Secure WebIDs) illustration</li> <li> <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/kidehen/understanding-linked-data-via-eav-model-based-structured-descriptions" id="link-id0x1961ae30">Demystifying Linked Data via EAV Model based Structured Descriptions</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1388" id="link-id0x1a28db38">What do people have against URIs and URLs?</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1567" id="link-id0x1a4cedc8">The URI, URL, and Linked Data Meme's Generic HTTP URI</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1543" id="link-id0x19ac04c8">Simple Explanation of RDF and Linked Data Dynamics</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1547" id="link-id0x13c24748">Linked Data and Identity</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/Foaf%2Bssl/FAQ" id="link-id0x199ef720">FOAF+SSL FAQ</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-lod/2010Apr/0278.html" id="link-id0x1a361640">LOD Community Thread</a> (showing evolution of this manifesto based on feedback from members such as <a href="http://richard.cyganiak.de/foaf.rdf#cygri" id="link-id0x1a361668">Richard Cyganiak</a>).</li> <li> <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/base/starting-out.html#terms" id="link-id0x18e0b578">Googlebase Data API Docs</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/gdata/docs/2.0/basics.html" id="link-id0x199c77b0">Google Data Protocol</a> (GData)</li> <li> <a href="http://odata.org" id="link-id0x19d1e578">Microsoft's OData Protocol</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pmWojisM_E" id="link-id0x1a40a998">Magic of De-referencable Names and actual Data via Binky Video</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/jyri/building-sites-around-social-objects-web-20-expo-sf-2009" id="link-id0x19ad7e70">Social Objects Presentation</a> (aka. Social Linked Data Objects) - by <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/jyri" id="link-id0x19e71700">Jyri Engeström</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_%28computer_science%29" id="link-id0x199c6178">What's a Reference?</a> </li> </ul>
Meshups Demonstrating How SPARQL-GEO Enhances Linked Data Exploitation (Update 2)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-03-06#1612
2010-03-06T22:43:49Z
2010-03-24T11:44:24.000002-04:00
<p>Deceptively simple demonstrations of how <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id11dfe45b8">Virtuoso</a>'s <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id11a3d8968">SPARQL</a>-GEO extensions to SPARQL lay critical foundation for Geo Spatial solutions that seek to leverage the burgeoning <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11ae855b8">Linked Data</a>. </p> <h3>Setup <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id120a6f478">Information</a> </h3> <p>SPARQL Endpoint: <a href="http://lod.openlinksw.com/sparql" id="link-id120401958">Linked Open Data Cache</a> (8.5 Billion+ Quad Store which includes data from Geonames and the <a href="http://dl-learner.org/Projects/LinkedGeoData" id="link-id11b8f31d8">Linked GeoData Project</a> Data Sets) .</p> <h3>Live Linked Data Meshup Links:</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://bit.ly/cyJjwo" id="link-id120396168">LinkedGeoData things within 2km ORDER BY Dist LIMIT 10 </a>(Use from <strong>iPhone</strong> only since its an iPhone oriented Linked Data driven application)</li> <li> <a href="http://uriburner.com/isparql/view/?query=PREFIX%20foaf%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fxmlns.com%2Ffoaf%2F0.1%2F%3E%0APREFIX%20lgv%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Flinkedgeodata.org%2Fvocabulary%23%3E%0Aconstruct%20%7B%3Fthing%20a%20%3Ftype%3B%0A%20geo%3Ageometry%20%3Fgeo%3B%0A%20foaf%3Aname%20%3Fname%7D%0Awhere%20%7B%0A%3Fthing%20geo%3Ageometry%20%3Fgeo%20.%0A%3Fthing%20lgv%3Aname%20%3Fname%20.%0A%3Fthing%20a%20%3Ftype.%0AFILTER%20%28bif%3Ast_intersects%20%28%3Fgeo%2C%20bif%3Ast_point%20%28-0.128056%2C%2051.508057%29%2C%202%29%29%0A%7D%0ALIMIT%20100&endpoint=http://lod.openlinksw.com/sparql&resultview=map&maxrows=50" id="link-id1209a6f38">LinkedGeoData things within 2km of Trafalgar Square</a> | <a href="http://uriburner.com/isparql/view/?query=PREFIX%20foaf%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fxmlns.com%2Ffoaf%2F0.1%2F%3E%0APREFIX%20lgv%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Flinkedgeodata.org%2Fvocabulary%23%3E%0Aconstruct%20%7B%0A%20%3Fthing%20rdfs%3Atype%20%3Ftype%3B%0A%20geo%3Ageometry%20%3Fgeo%3B%0A%20foaf%3Aname%20%3Fname%7D%0Awhere%20%7B%0A%20%3Fthing%20geo%3Ageometry%20%3Fgeo%20.%0A%20%3Fthing%20lgv%3Aname%20%3Fname%20.%0A%20%3Fthing%20a%20%3Ftype.%0AFILTER%20(bif%3Ast_intersects%20(%3Fgeo%2C%20bif%3Ast_point%20(-0.128056%2C%2051.508057)%2C%202))%0A%7D%0Aorder%20by%20asc%20(bif%3Ast_distance%20(%3Fgeo%2C%20bif%3Ast_point%20(-0.128056%2C%2051.508057)))%0ALIMIT%20100&endpoint=http://lod.openlinksw.com/sparql&resultview=map&maxrows=50" id="link-id11ebb07f8">ORDER By Distance - closest first</a> | <a href="http://uriburner.com/isparql/view/?query=PREFIX%20foaf%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fxmlns.com%2Ffoaf%2F0.1%2F%3E%0APREFIX%20lgv%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Flinkedgeodata.org%2Fvocabulary%23%3E%0Aconstruct%20%7B%0A%20%3Fthing%20rdfs%3Atype%20%3Ftype%3B%0A%20geo%3Ageometry%20%3Fgeo%3B%0A%20foaf%3Aname%20%3Fname%7D%0Awhere%20%7B%0A%20%3Fthing%20geo%3Ageometry%20%3Fgeo%20.%0A%20%3Fthing%20lgv%3Aname%20%3Fname%20.%0A%20%3Fthing%20a%20%3Ftype.%0AFILTER%20(bif%3Ast_intersects%20(%3Fgeo%2C%20bif%3Ast_point%20(-0.128056%2C%2051.508057)%2C%202))%0A%7D%0Aorder%20by%20desc%20(bif%3Ast_distance%20(%3Fgeo%2C%20bif%3Ast_point%20(-0.128056%2C%2051.508057)))%0ALIMIT%20100&endpoint=http://lod.openlinksw.com/sparql&resultview=map&maxrows=50" id="link-id1207a27e8">ORDER By Distance - most distant first</a> .</li> </ul> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://delicious.com/kidehen/linked_data_demo" id="link-id11ac9a2a8">Collection of Live Linked Data Demos</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/oerling/weblog/Orri%20Erling%27s%20Blog/1587" id="link-id11aca1d68">Virtuoso's SPARQL-GEO Extensions</a> </li> </ul>
Re-introducing the Virtuoso Virtual Database Engine
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-02-17#1608
2010-02-17T21:38:01Z
2010-02-17T16:46:53-05:00
<p>In recent times a lot of the commentary and focus re. <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id16a22f48">Virtuoso</a> has centered on the RDF Quad Store and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id112d82a0">Linked Data</a>. What sometimes gets overlooked is the sophisticated <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtual_Database" id="link-id6493cc8">Virtual Database</a> Engine that provides the foundation for all of Virtuoso's <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> integration capabilities.</p> <p>In this post I provide a brief re-introduction to this essential aspect of Virtuoso.</p> <h3>What is it?</h3> <p>This component of Virtuoso is known as the Virtual Database Engine (VDBMS). It provides transparent high-performance and secure access to disparate data sources that are external to Virtuoso. It enables federated access and integration of data hosted by any <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id13c26008">ODBC</a>- or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id166604c0">JDBC</a>-accessible <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id139dfdb8">RDBMS</a>, RDF Store, XML database, or Document (Free Text)-oriented Content Management System. In addition, it facilitates integration with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Services (SOAP-based SOA RPCs or REST-fully accessible Web Resources). </p> <h3>Why is it important?</h3> <p>In the most basic sense, you shouldn't need to upgrade your existing database engine version simply because your current DBMS and Data Access Driver combo isn't compatible with ODBC-compliant desktop tools such as Microsoft Access, Crystal Reports, BusinessObjects, Impromptu, or other of ODBC, JDBC, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id13c7ceb8">ADO</a>.NET, or OLE DB-compliant applications. Simply place Virtuoso in front of your so-called "legacy database," and let it deliver the compliance levels sought by these tools</p> <p>In addition, it's important to note that today's enterprise, through application evolution, company mergers, or acquisitions, is often faced with disparately-structured data residing in any number of line-of-business-oriented data silos. Compounding the problem is the exponential growth of user-generated data via new social media-oriented collaboration tools and platforms. For companies to cost-effectively harness the opportunities accorded by the increasing intersection between line-of-business applications and social media, virtualization of data silos must be achieved, and this virtualization must be delivered in a manner that doesn't prohibitively compromise performance or completely undermine security at either the enterprise or personal level. Again, this is what you get by simply installing Virtuoso.</p> <h3>How do I use it?</h3> <p>The VDBMS may be used in a variety of ways, depending on the data access and integration task at hand. Examples include: </p> <h4>Relational Database Federation</h4> <p>You can make a single ODBC, JDBC, ADO.NET, OLE DB, or XMLA connection to multiple ODBC- or JDBC-accessible RDBMS data sources, concurrently, with the ability to perform intelligent distributed joins against externally-hosted database tables. For instance, you can join internal human resources data against internal sales and external stock market data, even when the HR team uses <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Oracle_Database" id="link-id16706720">Oracle</a>, the Sales team uses <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IBM_Informix" id="link-ide5a15c8">Informix</a>, and the Stock Market figures come from <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ingres" id="link-id13c0e138">Ingres</a>!</p> <h4>Conceptual Level Data Access using the RDF Model</h4> <p>You can construct RDF Model-based Conceptual Views atop Relational Data Sources. This is about generating HTTP-based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id115150f8">Entity</a>-Attribute-Value (E-A-V) graphs using data culled "on the fly" from native or external data sources (Relational Tables/Views, XML-based Web Services, or User Defined Types).</p> <p>You can also derive RDF Model-based Conceptual Views from Web Resource transformations "on the fly" -- the Virtuoso <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id1675db50">Sponger</a> (RDFizing middleware component) enables you to generate RDF Model Linked Data via a RESTful Web Service or within the process pipeline of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id166b8d90">SPARQL</a> query engine (i.e., you simply use the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id167d00c8">URL</a> of a Web Resource in the FROM clause of a SPARQL query).</p> <p>It's important to note that Views take the form of HTTP links that serve as both Data Source Names and Data Source Addresses. This enables you to query and explore relationships across entities (i.e., People, Places, and other Real World Things) via HTTP clients (e.g., Web Browsers) or directly via SPARQL Query Language constructs transmitted over HTTP.</p> <h4>Conceptual Level Data Access using ADO.NET <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id13c6bb60">Entity</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET_Entity_Framework" id="link-id16ad3f68">Frameworks</a> </h4> <p>As an alternative to RDF, Virtuoso can expose ADO.NET Entity Frameworks-based Conceptual Views over Relational Data Sources. It achieves this by generating Entity Relationship graphs via its native ADO.NET Provider, exposing all externally attached ODBC- and JDBC-accessible data sources. In addition, the ADO.NET Provider supports direct access to Virtuoso's native RDF database engine, eliminating the need for resource intensive Entity Frameworks model transformations.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtLinkRemoteTables" id="link-id1183acd8">Attaching ODBC or JDBC accessible Relational Tables to Virtuoso</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtRdb2RDFViewsGeneration#One-Click%20Linked%20Data%20Generation%20&%20Deployment" id="link-id113f2fd8">Using an HTML based Wizard to Generate RDF based Linked Views over Relational Tables</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj7AbJ0ZYCk&feature=channel" id="link-id16ad4480">Screencast Demonstrating Wizard based generation of RDF based Linked Data Views Part 1</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXNlcISS0aY&feature=channel" id="link-id114eb720">Screencast Demonstrating Wizard based generation of RDF based Linked Data Views Part 1</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtSponger" id="link-id116e5810">Generating RDF based Linked Data from non RDF based Web Resources via the Sponger</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAdoNet35Provider" id="link-id16706118">Building ADO.NET based Entity Frameworks Views over Relational Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtSilverlightSPARQLExample" id="link-id139c1278">Building Silverlight Rich Internat Applicaitons using ADO.NET, Entity Frameworks, and RDF based Linked Data</a>.</li> </ul>
What is the DBpedia Project? (Updated)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-01-31#1594
2010-01-31T22:45:55Z
2010-01-31T17:46:10.000002-05:00
<p>The recent <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:DBpedia" id="link-id1120a260">Wikipedia imbroglio</a> centered around <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id14a5e588">DBpedia</a> is the fundamental driver for this particular <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id113ddc10">blog</a> post. At time of writing this blog post, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBpedia" id="link-id158edec0">DBpedia project definition in Wikipedia</a> remains unsatisfactory due to the following shortcomings:</p> <ol> <li>inaccurate and incomplete definition of the Project's What, Why, Who, Where, When, and How</li> <li>inaccurate reflection of project essence, by skewing focus towards <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0x1bc892d0">data</a> extraction and data set dump production, which is at best a quarter of the project.</li> </ol> <p>Here are some insights on DBpedia, from the perspective of someone intimately involved with the other three-quarters of the project.</p> <h3>What is DBpedia?</h3> <p>A live <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x1c0c0cc0">Web</a> accessible RDF model database (Quad Store) derived from Wikipedia content snapshots, taken periodically. The RDF database underlies a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11ba0ad0">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id1183c978">Space</a> comprised of: HTML (and most recently HTML+<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id602eab8">RDFa</a>) based data browser pages and a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id11af5400">SPARQL</a> endpoint.</p> <p>Note: <a href="http://blog.dbpedia.org/2009/11/11/dbpedia-34-released/" id="link-id110b8248">DBpedia 3.4</a> now exists in snapshot (warehouse) and <a href="http://dbpedia-live.openlinksw.com/stats/" id="link-id6473258">Live Editions</a> (currently being hot-staged). This post is about the snapshot (warehouse) edition, I'll drop a different post about the DBpedia Live Edition where a new Delta-Engine covers both extraction and database record replacement, in realtime.</p> <h3>When was it Created?</h3> <p>As an idea under the moniker "DBpedia" it was conceptualized in late 2006 by researchers at University of Leipzig (lead by Soren Auer) and Freie University, Berlin (lead by <a href="http://www.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/en/institute/pwo/bizer/" id="link-id14982c78">Chris Bizer</a>). The first public instance of DBpedia (as described above) was released in February 2007. The official DBpedia coming out party occurred at <a href="http://www2007.org/" id="link-id1497c788">WWW2007</a>, Banff, during the <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData/BanffGathering" id="link-id1448b9e8">inaugural Linked Data gathering</a>, where it showcased the virtues and immense potential of <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id152257e0">TimBL</a>'s <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id111759a8">Linked Data meme</a>.</p> <h3>Who's Behind It?</h3> <p> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id110e70f8">OpenLink Software</a> (developers of OpenLink <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14462f60">Virtuoso</a> and providers of Web Hosting infrastructure), University of Leipzig, and Freie Univerity, Berlin. In addition, there is a burgeoning community of collaborators and contributors responsible DBpedia based applications, cross-linked data sets, ontologies (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cyc" id="link-id11244aa0">OpenCyc</a>, <a href="http://www.ontologyportal.org/" id="link-id110e4a40">SUMO</a>, <a href="http://umbel.org/about/" id="link-id11109e48">UMBEL</a>, and <a href="http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/yago-naga/yago/" id="link-id10fb4218">YAGO</a>) and other utilities. Finally, DBpedia wouldn't be possible without the global content contribution and curation efforts of Wikipedians, a point typically overlooked (albeit inadvertently).</p> <h3>How is it Constructed?</h3> <p>The steps are as follows:</p> <ol> <li> RDF data set dump preparation via Wikipedia content extraction and transformation to RDF model data, using the N3 data representation format - Java and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id111c93b8">PHP</a> extraction code produced and maintained by the teams at Leipzig and Berlin </li> <li> Deployment of Linked Data that enables Data browsing and exploration using any HTTP aware user agent (e.g. basic Web Browsers) - handled by OpenLink Virtuoso (handled by Berlin via the Pubby Linked Data Server during the early months of the DBpedia project) </li> <li> SPARQL compliant Quad Store, enabling direct access to database records via SPARQL (Query language, REST or SOAP Web Service, plus a variety of query results serialization formats) - OpenLink Virtuoso since first public release of DBpedia </li> </ol> <p> In a nutshell, there are four distinct and vital components to DBpedia. Thus, DBpedia doesn't exist if all the project offered was a collection of RDF data dumps. Likewise, it doesn't exist if you have a SPARQL compliant Quad Store without loaded data sets, and of course it doesn't exist if you have a fully loaded SPARQL compliant Quad Store is up to the cocktail of challenges presented by live Web accessibility.</p> <h3>Why is it Important?</h3> <p> It remains a live exemplar for any individual or organization seeking to publishing or exploit HTTP based Linked Data on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id118e6388">World Wide Web</a>. Its existence continues to stimulate growth in both density and quality of the burgeoning Web of Linked Data.</p> <h3>How Do I Use it?</h3> <p> In the most basic sense, simply browse the HTML pages en route to discovery erstwhile relationships that exist across <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Named_entity_recognition" id="link-id112def88">named entities</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Topic" id="link-id1591c5f8">subject matter concepts</a> / headings. Beyond that, simply look at DBpedia as a master lookup table in a Web hosted <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/federated_database_system" id="link-id11762618">distributed database</a> setup; enabling you to mesh your local domain specific details with DBpedia records via structured relations (triples or 3-tuples records) comprised of HTTP URIs from both realms e.g., owl:sameAs relations.</p> <h3>What Can I Use it For?</h3> <p> Expanding on the Master-Details point above, you can use its rich <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id1170c000">URI</a> corpus to alleviate tedium associated with activities such as: </p> <ol> <li>List maintenance - e.g., Countries, States, Companies, Units of Measurement, Subject Headings etc.</li> <li>Tagging - as a compliment to existing practices</li> <li>Analytical Research - you're only a LINK (URI) away from erstwhile difficult to attain research data spread across a broad range of topics</li> <li>Closed Vocabulary Construction - rather than commence the futile quest of building your own closed vocabulary, simply leverage Wikipedia's human curated vocabulary as our common base. </li> </ol> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAWSDBpedia34S" id="link-id14a2e698">Pre-loaded and Pre-configured instances of DBpedia 3.4</a> - via publicly shared <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/ebs/" id="link-id1147fcf0">Amazon Elastic Block Storage</a> Snapshots</li> <li> <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/rdfperformancetuning.html#rdfperfgeneraldbpedia" id="link-id149ab528">Virtuoso & DBpedia Tunning Guide</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dowhatimean.net/2009/11/whats-in-a-name-and-the-linked-data-police" id="link-id110cba10">What's In a Name & The Linked Data Police</a>. </li> </ul>
Getting The Linked Data Value Pyramid Layers Right (Update #2)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-01-31#1593
2010-01-31T22:44:04Z
2010-02-01T09:02:14.000004-05:00
<p> One of the real problems that pervades all routes to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13539328">Linked Data</a> value prop. incomprehension stems from the layering of its value pyramid; especially when communicating with -initially detached- end-users. </p> <p> <strong>Note to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Programmers:</strong> Linked Data is about <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> (Wine) and not about Code (Fish). Thus, it isn't a "programmer only zone", far from it. More than anything else, its inherently inclusive and spreads its participation net widely across: Data Architects, Data Integrators, Power Users, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id13600d98">Knowledge</a> Workers, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id149f8230">Information</a> Workers, Data Analysts, etc.. Basically, everyone that can "click on a link" is invited to this particular party; remember, it is about "Linked Data" not "Linked Code", after all. :-) </p> <h3>Problematic Value Pyramid Layering</h3> <p> Here is an example of a Linked Data value pyramid that I am stumbling across --with some frequency-- these days (note: 1 being the pyramid apex):</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id10e85538">SPARQL</a> Queries</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id1495b578">RDF</a> Data Stores</li> <li> RDF Data Sets </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id158e4be0">HTTP</a> scheme URIs</li> </ol> <p> Basically, Linked Data deployment (assigning de-referencable HTTP URIs to DBMS records, their attributes, and attribute values [optionally] ) is occurring last. Even worse, this happens in the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id626d988">context</a> of Linked Open Data oriented endeavors, resulting in nothing but confusion or inadvertent perpetuation of the overarching pragmatically challenged "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id111774b8">Semantic Web</a>" stereotype. </p> <p> As you can imagine, hitting SPARQL as your introduction to Linked Data is akin to hitting <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id151f9938">SQL</a> as your introduction to Relational Database Technology, neither is an elevator-style value prop. relay mechanism. </p> <p> In the relational realm, killer demos always started with desktop productivity tools (spreadsheets, report-writers, SQL QBE tools etc.) accessing, relational data sources en route to unveiling the "Productivity" and "Agility" value prop. that such binding delivered i.e., the desktop application (clients) and the databases (servers) are distinct, but operating in a mutually beneficial manner to all, courtesy of a data access standards such as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id1519aac0">ODBC</a> (Open Database Connectivity). </p> <p> In the Linked Data realm, learning to embrace and extend best practices from the relational dbms realm remains a challenge, a lot of this has to do with hangovers from a misguided perception that RDF databases will somehow completely replace <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id110dec88">RDBMS</a> engines, rather than compliment them. Thus, you have a counter productive variant of NIH (Not Invented Here) in play, taking us to the dreaded realm of: Break the Pot and You Own It (exemplified by the 11+ year Semantic Web Project comprehension and appreciation odyssey). </p> <p> From my vantage point, here is how I believe the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/images/URI_Data_Source_SemWeb.png" id="link-id1592f528">Linked Data value pyramid should be layered</a>, especially when communicating the essential value prop.: </p> <ol> <li> HTTP URLs -- LINKs to documents (Reports) that users already appreciate, across the public Web and/or Intranets </li> <li> HTTP URIs -- typically not visually distinguishable from the URLs, so use the Data exposed by de-referencing a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id11209ce8">URL</a> to show how each Data Item (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1449b558">Entity</a> or Object) is uniquely identified by a Generic HTTP <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id112065f8">URI</a>, and how clicking on the said URIs leads to more structured metadata bearing documents available in a variety of data representation formats, thereby enabling flexible data presentation (e.g., smarter HTML pages) </li> <li> SPARQL -- when a user appreciates the data representation and presentation dexterity of a Generic HTTP URI, they will be more inclined to drill down an additional layer to unravel how HTTP URIs mechanically deliver such flexibility </li> <li> RDF Data Stores -- at this stage the user is now interested data sources behind the Generic HTTP URIs, courtesy of natural desire to tweak the data presented in the report; thus, you now have an engaged user ready to absorb the "How Generic HTTP URIs Pull This Off" message </li> <li>RDF Data Sets -- while attempting to make or tweak HTTP URIs, users become curious about the actual data loaded into the RDF Data Store, which is where data sets used to create powerful Lookup Data Spaces (e.g., <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id110675c0">DBpedia</a>) come into play such as those from the <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/bizer/pub/lod-datasets_2009-07-14.html" id="link-id11127ff8">LOD</a> constellation as exemplified by <a href="http://wiki.dbpedia.org/Datasets" id="link-id14a2fad8">DBpedia (extractions from Wikipedia)</a>.</li> </ol> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1565" id="link-id149c7048">Exploring the Linked Data Value Proposition</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1543" id="link-id14998f98">Simple Explanation of Linked Data & RDF Dynamics</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1546" id="link-id114fbd58">What is the Linked Data Meme About?</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1547" id="link-id1447ada0">Linked Data & Data Item Identifiers (Identity)</a> </li> </ul>
What is the DBpedia Project? (Updated)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-01-31#1592
2010-01-31T22:43:08Z
2010-09-15T18:10:51.000002-04:00
<p> The recent <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:DBpedia" id="link-id1120a260">Wikipedia imbroglio</a> centered around <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id14a5e588">DBpedia</a> is the fundamental driver for this particular <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id113ddc10">blog</a> post. At time of writing this blog post, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBpedia" id="link-id158edec0">DBpedia project definition in Wikipedia</a> remains unsatisfactory due to the following shortcomings:</p> <ol> <li> inaccurate and incomplete definition of the Project's What, Why, Who, Where, When, and How</li> <li> inaccurate reflection of project essence, by skewing focus towards <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> extraction and data set dump production, which is at best a quarter of the project.</li> </ol> <p> Here are some insights on DBpedia, from the perspective of someone intimately involved with the other three-quarters of the project.</p> <h3> What is DBpedia?</h3> <p> A live <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> accessible RDF model database (Quad Store) derived from Wikipedia content snapshots, taken periodically. The RDF database underlies a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11ba0ad0">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id1183c978">Space</a> comprised of: HTML (and most recently HTML+<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id602eab8">RDFa</a>) based data browser pages and a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id11af5400">SPARQL</a> endpoint.</p> <p> Note: <a href="http://blog.dbpedia.org/2009/11/11/dbpedia-34-released/" id="link-id110b8248">DBpedia 3.4</a> now exists in snapshot (warehouse) and <a href="http://dbpedia-live.openlinksw.com/stats/" id="link-id6473258">Live Editions</a> (currently being hot-staged). This post is about the snapshot (warehouse) edition, I'll drop a different post about the DBpedia Live Edition where a new Delta-Engine covers both extraction and database record replacement, in realtime.</p> <h3> When was it Created?</h3> <p> As an idea under the moniker "DBpedia" it was conceptualized in late 2006 by researchers at University of Leipzig (lead by Soren Auer) and Freie University, Berlin (lead by <a href="http://www.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/en/institute/pwo/bizer/" id="link-id14982c78">Chris Bizer</a>). The first public instance of DBpedia (as described above) was released in February 2007. The official DBpedia coming out party occurred at <a href="http://www2007.org/" id="link-id1497c788">WWW2007</a>, Banff, during the <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData/BanffGathering" id="link-id1448b9e8">inaugural Linked Data gathering</a>, where it showcased the virtues and immense potential of <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id152257e0">TimBL</a>'s <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id111759a8">Linked Data meme</a>.</p> <h3> Who's Behind It?</h3> <p> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id110e70f8">OpenLink Software</a> (developers of OpenLink <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14462f60">Virtuoso</a> and providers of Web Hosting infrastructure), University of Leipzig, and Freie Univerity, Berlin. In addition, there is a burgeoning community of collaborators and contributors responsible DBpedia based applications, cross-linked data sets, ontologies (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cyc" id="link-id11244aa0">OpenCyc</a>, <a href="http://www.ontologyportal.org/" id="link-id110e4a40">SUMO</a>, <a href="http://umbel.org/about/" id="link-id11109e48">UMBEL</a>, and <a href="http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/yago-naga/yago/" id="link-id10fb4218">YAGO</a>) and other utilities. Finally, DBpedia wouldn't be possible without the global content contribution and curation efforts of Wikipedians, a point typically overlooked (albeit inadvertently).</p> <h3> How is it Constructed?</h3> <p> The steps are as follows:</p> <ol> <li> RDF data set dump preparation via Wikipedia content extraction and transformation to RDF model data, using the N3 data representation format - Java and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id111c93b8">PHP</a> extraction code produced and maintained by the teams at Leipzig and Berlin</li> <li> Deployment of Linked Data that enables Data browsing and exploration using any HTTP aware user agent (e.g. basic Web Browsers) - handled by OpenLink Virtuoso (handled by Berlin via the Pubby Linked Data Server during the early months of the DBpedia project)</li> <li> SPARQL compliant Quad Store, enabling direct access to database records via SPARQL (Query language, REST or SOAP Web Service, plus a variety of query results serialization formats) - OpenLink Virtuoso since first public release of DBpedia</li> </ol> <p> In a nutshell, there are four distinct and vital components to DBpedia. Thus, DBpedia doesn't exist if all the project offered was a collection of RDF data dumps. Likewise, it doesn't exist without a fully populated SPARQL compliant Quad Store. Last but not least, it doesn't exist if you have a fully loaded SPARQL compliant Quad Store isn't up to the cocktail of challenges (query load and complexity) presented by live Web database accessibility.</p> <h3> Why is it Important?</h3> <p> It remains a live exemplar for any individual or organization seeking to publishing or exploit HTTP based Linked Data on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id118e6388">World Wide Web</a>. Its existence continues to stimulate growth in both density and quality of the burgeoning Web of Linked Data.</p> <h3> How Do I Use it?</h3> <p> In the most basic sense, simply browse the HTML based resource decriptor pages en route to discovering erstwhile undiscovered relationships that exist across <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Named_entity_recognition" id="link-id112def88">named entities</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Topic" id="link-id1591c5f8">subject matter concepts</a> / headings. Beyond that, simply look at DBpedia as a master lookup table in a Web hosted <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/federated_database_system" id="link-id11762618">distributed database</a> setup; enabling you to mesh your local domain specific details with DBpedia records via structured relations (triples or 3-tuples records), comprised of HTTP URIs from both realms e.g., via owl:sameAs relations.</p> <h3> What Can I Use it For?</h3> <p> Expanding on the Master-Details point above, you can use its rich <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id1170c000">URI</a> corpus to alleviate tedium associated with activities such as:</p> <ol> <li> List maintenance - e.g., Countries, States, Companies, Units of Measurement, Subject Headings etc.</li> <li> Tagging - as a compliment to existing practices</li> <li> Analytical Research - you're only a LINK (URI) away from erstwhile difficult to attain research data spread across a broad range of topics</li> <li> Closed Vocabulary Construction - rather than commence the futile quest of building your own closed vocabulary, simply leverage Wikipedia's human curated vocabulary as our common base.</li> </ol> <h3> Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAWSDBpedia34S" id="link-id14a2e698">Pre-loaded and Pre-configured instances of DBpedia 3.4</a> - via publicly shared <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/ebs/" id="link-id1147fcf0">Amazon Elastic Block Storage</a> Snapshots</li> <li> <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/rdfperformancetuning.html#rdfperfgeneraldbpedia" id="link-id149ab528">Virtuoso & DBpedia Tunning Guide</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dowhatimean.net/2009/11/whats-in-a-name-and-the-linked-data-police" id="link-id110cba10">What's In a Name & The Linked Data Police</a>.</li> </ul>
Virtuoso Chronicles from the Field: Nepomuk, KDE, and the quest for a sophisticated RDF DBMS.
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-01-28#1602
2010-01-28T16:14:04Z
2010-02-01T09:02:55-05:00
<p>For this particular user experience chronicle, I've simply inserted the content of <a href="http://trueg.wordpress.com" id="link-id1368b4d8">Sebastian Trueg</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://trueg.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/what-we-did-last-summer-and-the-rest-of-2009-a-look-back-onto-the-nepomuk-development-year-with-an-obscenely-long-title/#comments" id="link-id139dddb0">What We Did Last Summer (And the Rest of 2009) â A Look Back Onto the Nepomuk Development Year ...</a>, directly into this post, without any additional commentary or modification.</p> <div class="snap_preview"> <p>2009 is over. <em>Yeah, sure, trueg, we know that, it has been over for a while now!</em> Ok, ok, I am a bit late, but still I would like to get this one out - if only for my archive. So here goes.</p> <h2> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id64672f0">Virtuoso</a> </h2> <p>Letâs start with the major topic of 2009 (and also the beginning of 2010): The new Nepomuk database backend: <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/" id="link-id13cc47e0">Virtuoso</a>. Everybody who used Nepomuk had the same problems: you either used the <a href="http://openrdf.org/" id="link-id13a4ac88">sesame2</a> backend which depends on Java and steals all of your memory or you were stuck with <a href="http://librdf.org/" id="link-id11b6a550">Redland</a> which had the worst performance and missed some <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id139d82b8">SPARQL</a> features making important parts of Nepomuk like queries unusable. So more than a year ago I had the idea to use the one GPLâed database server out there that supported RDF in a professional manner: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/" id="link-id139fd948">OpenLin</a>kâs <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/" id="link-id12329590">Virtuoso</a>. It has all the features we need, has a very good performance, and scales up to dimensions we will probably never reach on the desktop (<em>yeah, right, and 64k main memory will be enough forever!</em>). So very early I started coding the necessary Soprano plugin which would talk to a locally running Virtuoso server through <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id14930d90">ODBC</a>. But since I ran into tons of small problems (as always) and got sidetracked by other tasks I did not finish it right away. OpenLink, however, was very interested in the idea of their server being part of every KDE installation (why wouldnât they ;)). So they not only introduced a <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/databaseadmsrv.html#ini_Parameters" id="link-id136763c0">lite-mode</a> which makes Virtuoso suitable for the desktop but also helped in debugging all the problems that I had left. Many test runs, patches, and a Virtuoso 5.0.12 release later <a href="http://trueg.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/virtuoso-once-more-with-feeling/" id="link-id13c5a5a0">I could finally announce the Virtuoso integration</a> as usable.</p> <p>Then end of last year I dropped the support for sesame2 and redland. Virtuoso is now the only supported database backend. The reason is simple: Virtuoso is way more powerful than the rest - not only in terms of performance - and it is fully implemented in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C%2B%2B" id="link-id13a17cd8">C</a>(++) without any traces of Java. Maybe even more important is the integration of the full text index which makes the previously used CLucene index unnecessary. Thus, we can finally combine full text and graph queries in one SPARQL query. This results in a cleaner API and way faster return of search results since there is no need to combine the results from several queries anymore. A direct result of that is the new <a href="http://api.kde.org/4.x-api/kdelibs-apidocs/nepomuk/html/namespaceNepomuk_1_1Query.html" id="link-id149a9fd8">Nepomuk Query API</a> which I will discuss later.</p> <p>So now the only thing I am waiting for is the first bugfix release of Virtuoso 6, i.e. 6.0.1 which will fix the bugs that make 6.0.0 fail with Nepomuk. Should be out any day now. :)</p> <h2>The Nepomuk Query API</h2> <p>Querying <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> in Nepomuk pre-KDE-4.4 could be done in one of two ways: 1. Use the very limited capabilities of the <a href="http://api.kde.org/4.x-api/kdelibs-apidocs/nepomuk/html/classNepomuk_1_1ResourceManager.html" id="link-id139ad3d0">ResourceManager</a> to list resources with certain properties or of a certain type; or 2. Write your own <a href="http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Metadata/Nepomuk/AdvancedQueries" id="link-id13c74608">SPARQL query using ugly QString::arg replacements</a>.</p> <p>With the introduction of Virtuoso and its awesome power we can now do pretty much everything in one query. This allowed <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id13c4cf18">me</a> to finally create a query API for KDE: <a href="http://api.kde.org/4.x-api/kdelibs-apidocs/nepomuk/html/classNepomuk_1_1Query_1_1Query.html" id="link-id602e818">Nepomuk::Query::Query</a> and friends. I wonât go into much detail here since I did that <a href="http://trueg.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/convenient-querying-in-libnepomuk/" id="link-id11282ff8">before</a>.</p> <p>All in all you should remember one thing: whenever you think about writing your own SPARQL query in a KDE application - have a look at libnepomukquery. It is very likely that you can avoid the hassle of debugging a query by using the query API.</p> <p>The first nice effect of the new API (apart from me using it all over the place obviously) is the new query interface in Dolphin. Internally it simply combines a bunch of <a href="http://api.kde.org/4.x-api/kdelibs-apidocs/nepomuk/html/classNepomuk_1_1Query_1_1Term.html" id="link-id11952270">Nepomuk::Query::Term</a> objects into a <a href="http://api.kde.org/4.x-api/kdelibs-apidocs/nepomuk/html/classNepomuk_1_1Query_1_1AndTerm.html" id="link-id13aa85b8">Nepomuk::Query::AndTerm</a>. All very readable and no ugly query strings.</p> <div id="attachment_234" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 610px"> <a href="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/dolphin-kde-4-4-search-panel.png" id="link-id11454028"><img class="size-full wp-image-234" title="Dolphin Search Panel in KDE SC 4.4" src="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/dolphin-kde-4-4-search-panel.png?w=600&h=208" alt="" width="600" height="208" /> </a> <p class="wp-caption-text">Dolphin Search Panel in KDE SC 4.4</p> </div> <h2>Shared Desktop Ontologies</h2> <p>An important part of the <a href="http://nepomuk.semanticdesktop.org/" id="link-id13a35a90">Nepomuk research project</a> was the creation of a set of <a href="http://www.semanticdesktop.org/ontologies/" id="link-id123a6700">ontologies</a> for describing desktop resources and their metadata. After the <a href="http://xesam.org/main/XesamAbout" id="link-id13c70ab8">Xesam</a> project under the umbrella of <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/" id="link-id139e2108">freedesktop.org</a> had been convinced to use RDF for describing file metadata they developed their own ontology. Thanks to Evgeny (phreedom) Egorochkin and Antonie Mylka both the Xesam ontology and the Nepomuk <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id119be318">Information</a> Elements Ontology were already very close in design. Thus, it was relatively easy to merge the two and be left with only one ontology to support. Since then not only KDE but also <a href="http://strigi.sourceforge.net/" id="link-id123b63f0">Strigi</a> and <a href="http://projects.gnome.org/tracker/" id="link-id13d02a30">Tracker</a> are using the Nepomuk ontologies.</p> <p>At the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit I met some of the guys from Tracker and we tried to come up with a plan to create a joint project to maintain the ontologies. This got off to a rough start as nobody really felt responsible. So I simply took the initiative and released the <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/oscaf/files/" id="link-id148d7078">shared-desktop-ontologies</a> version 0.1 in November 2009. The result was a s***-load of hate-mails and bug reports due to me breaking KDE build. But in the end it was worth it. Now the package is established and other projects can start to pick it up to create data compatible to the Nepomuk system and Tracker.</p> <p>Today the ontologies (and the shared-desktop-ontologies package) are maintained in the <a href="http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/oscaf/" id="link-id10ce1038">Oscaf project at Sourceforge</a>. The situation is far from perfect but it is a good start. If you need specific properties in the ontologies or are thinking about creating one for your own application - come and join us in the <a href="http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/oscaf/report/1" id="link-id11413910">bug tracker</a>â¦</p> <h2>Timeline KIO Slave</h2> <p>It was at the Akonadi meeting that Will Stephenson and myself got into talking about mimicking some <a href="http://live.gnome.org/Zeitgeist" id="link-id116888b0">Zeitgeist</a> functionality through Nepomuk. Basically it meant gathering some data when opening and when saving files. We quickly came up with a hacky patch for KIO and <a href="http://api.kde.org/4.x-api/kdelibs-apidocs/kio/html/classKFileDialog.html" id="link-id13637348">KFileDialog</a> which covered most cases and allowed us to track when a file was modified and by which application. This little experiment did not leave that state though (it will, however, this year) but another one did: Zeitgeist also provides a fuse filesystem which allows to browse the files by modification dates. Well, whatever fuse can do, KIO can do as well. <a href="http://trueg.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/just-another-way-of-browsing-your-files/" id="link-id13cf58c0">Introducing the timeline:/ KIO slave</a> which gives a calendar view onto your files.</p> <p> <a href="http://trueg.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/just-another-way-of-browsing-your-files/" id="link-id113d4988"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-208" title="timeline-october" src="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/timeline-october.png?w=300&h=235" alt="" width="300" height="235" /> </a> </p> <h2>Tips And Tricks</h2> <p>Well, I thought I would mention the <a href="http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Metadata/Nepomuk/TipsAndTricks" id="link-id116357d0">Tips And Tricks</a> section I wrote for the <a href="http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Metadata/Nepomuk" id="link-id14473520">techbase</a>. It might not be a big deal but I think it contains some valuable information in case you are using Nepomuk as a developer.</p> <h2>Google Summer Of Code 2009</h2> <p>This time around I had the privilege to <a href="http://trueg.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/nepomuk-in-the-summer-x2/" id="link-id116b0cf8">mentor two students</a> in the Google Summer of Code. Alessandro Sivieri and Adam Kidder did outstanding work on <a href="http://trueg.wordpress.com/2009/08/25/gsoc-wrap-up-part-1/" id="link-id13c9f2f8">Improved Virtual Folders</a> and the <a href="http://trueg.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/gsoc-wrap-up-part-2/" id="link-id123bac00">Smart File Dialog</a>.</p> <p>Adamâs work lead me to some heavy improvements in the Nepomuk KIO slaves myself which I only finished this week (more details on that coming up). Alessandro continued his work on faceted file browsing in KDE and created:</p> <h3>Sembrowser</h3> <p>Alessandro is following up on his work to make faceted file browsing a reality in 2010 (and KDE SC 4.5). Since it was too late to get faceted browsing into KDE SC 4.4 he is working on <a href="http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php/Sembrowser?content=117692" id="link-id117c67d0">Sembrowser</a>, a stand-alone faceted file browser which will be the grounds for experiments until the code is merged into Dolphin.</p> <div id="attachment_238" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 310px"> <a href="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/sembrowser.png" id="link-id13aa8e80"><img class="size-medium wp-image-238" title="sembrowser" src="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/sembrowser.png?w=300&h=189" alt="" width="300" height="189" /> </a> <p class="wp-caption-text">Faceted Browsing in KDE with Sembrowser</p> </div> <h2>Nepomuk Workshops</h2> <p>In 2009 I organized the first Nepomuk workshop in Freiburg, Germany. And also the second one. While <a href="http://trueg.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/the-first-nepomuk-workshop-its-a-wrap/" id="link-id13b553e0">I reported properly on the first one</a> I still owe a summary for the second one. I will get around to that - sooner or later. ;)</p> <h2>CMake Magic</h2> <p> <a href="http://soprano.sourceforge.net/" id="link-id148bfad8">Soprano</a> gives us a nice command line tool to create a C++ namespace from an ontology file: <a href="http://soprano.sourceforge.net/apidox/trunk/soprano_devel_tools.html" id="link-iddac3b58">onto2vocabularyclass</a>. It produces nice convenience namespaces like <a href="http://soprano.sourceforge.net/apidox/trunk/namespaceSoprano_1_1Vocabulary_1_1NAO.html" id="link-idfd4b970">Soprano::Vocabulary::NAO</a>. Nepomuk adds another tool named <a href="http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Metadata/Nepomuk/ResourceGenerator" id="link-id11b60200">nepomuk-rcgen</a>. Both were a bit clumsy to use before. Now we have nice cmake macros which make it very simple to use both.</p> <p>See the <a href="http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Metadata/Nepomuk/ResourceGenerator" id="link-id11963490">techbase article</a> on how to use the new macros.</p> <h2>Bangarang</h2> <p>Without my <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-iddcbd7c8">knowledge</a> (imagine that!) Andrew Lake created an amazing new media player named <a href="http://bangarangkde.wordpress.com/" id="link-id113d9500">Bangarang</a> - <em>a Jamaican word for noise, chaos or disorder.</em> This player is Nepomuk-enabled in the sense that it has a media library which lets you browse your media files based on the Nepomuk data. It remembers the number of times a song or a video has been played and when it was played last. It allows to add detail such as the TV series name, season, episode number, or actors that are in the video - all through Nepomuk (I hope we will soon get <a href="http://thetvdb.com/" id="link-id1154d7a0">tvdb</a> integration).</p> <div id="attachment_242" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 310px"> <a href="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/bangarang2.png" id="link-id148bcdb8"><img class="size-medium wp-image-242" title="bangarang2" src="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/bangarang2.png?w=300&h=208" alt="" width="300" height="208" /> </a> <p class="wp-caption-text">Edit metadata directly in Bangarang</p> </div> <div id="attachment_243" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 303px"> <a href="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/bangarang-dolphin-fileinfo.png" id="link-id11c70a48"><img class="size-full wp-image-243" title="bangarang-dolphin-fileinfo" src="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/bangarang-dolphin-fileinfo.png?w=293&h=242" alt="" width="293" height="242" /> </a> <p class="wp-caption-text">Dolphin showing TV episode metadata created by Bangarang</p> </div> <div id="attachment_245" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 310px"> <a href="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/bangarang-dolphin-search.png" id="link-id149200f8"><img class="size-medium wp-image-245" title="bangarang-dolphin-search" src="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/bangarang-dolphin-search.png?w=300&h=212" alt="" width="300" height="212" /> </a> <p class="wp-caption-text">And of course searching for it works, too...</p> </div> <div id="attachment_244" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 310px"> <a href="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/bangarang1.png" id="link-id114f7c80"><img class="size-medium wp-image-244" title="bangarang1" src="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/bangarang1.png?w=300&h=225" alt="" width="300" height="225" /> </a> <p class="wp-caption-text">And it is pretty, too...</p> </div> <p>I am especially excited about this since finally applications not written or mentored by me start contributing Nepomuk data.</p> <h2>Gran Canaria Desktop Summit</h2> <p>2009 was also the year of the first Gnome-KDE joint-conference. Let me make a bulletin for completeness and refer to <a href="http://trueg.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/gran-canaria-desktop-summit-2009-the-nepomuk-perspective/" id="link-id143ff668">my previous blog post reporting on my experiences on the island</a>.</p> <p>Well, that was by far not all I did in 2009 but I think I covered most of the important topics. And after all it is âjust a blog entryâ - there is no need for completeness. Thanks for reading.</p> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/trueg.wordpress.com/232/" id="link-id118a1950"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/trueg.wordpress.com/232/" /></a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/godelicious/trueg.wordpress.com/232/" id="link-id148ffb08"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/delicious/trueg.wordpress.com/232/" /></a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gostumble/trueg.wordpress.com/232/" id="link-id13c65a88"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/stumble/trueg.wordpress.com/232/" /></a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/godigg/trueg.wordpress.com/232/" id="link-id119b85a0"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/digg/trueg.wordpress.com/232/" /></a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/goreddit/trueg.wordpress.com/232/" id="link-id13f5d6b8"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/reddit/trueg.wordpress.com/232/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=trueg.wordpress.com&blog=6648236&post=232&subd=trueg&ref=&feed=1" /> </div>"
One Technology That Will Rock 2010 (Update 1)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-01-02#1601
2010-01-02T17:30:38Z
2010-02-01T09:02:41-05:00
<p>Thanks to the <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/" id="link-id114eb070">TechCrunch</a> post titled: <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/01/ten-technologies-2010/" id="link-id1146e550">Ten Technologies That Will Rock 2010</a>, I've been able to quickly construct a derivative post that condenses the ten item list down to a Single Technology That Will Rock 2010 :-)</p> <p>Sticking with the TechCrunch layout, here is why all roads simply lead to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11141d50">Linked Data</a> come 2010 and beyond: </p> <ol> <li> <strong>The Tablet: </strong>a new form factor addition re. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id13f09418">Internet</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> application hosts which is just another way of saying: Linked Data will be accessible from Tablet applications.</li> <li> <strong>Geo:</strong> GPS chips are now standard features of mobile phones, so <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/23/location-2010/" id="link-id112cfdd0">geolocation</a> is increasingly becoming a necessary feature for any killer app. Thus, GeoSpatial Linked Data and GeopSpatial Queries are going to be a critical success factor for any endeavor that seeks to engage mobile applications developers and ultimately their end-users. Basiacally, you want to be able to perform Esoteric Search from these devices of the form: Find Vendors of a Camcorder (e.g., with a Zoom Factor: Weight Ratio of X) within a 2km Radius of my current location. Or how many items from my WishList are available from a Vendor within a 2km radius of my current location. Conversely, provide Vendors with the ability to spot potential Customers within a 2km of a given "clicks & mortar" location (e.g. BestBuy store).</li> <li> <strong>Realtime Search: </strong>Rich Structured Profiles that leverage standards such as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id140ece38">FOAF</a> and <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/foaf_ssl_creating_a_global" id="link-id11856318">FOAF+SSL</a> will enable Highly Personalized Realtime Search (HPRS) without compromisng privacy. Tecnically, this is about <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/WebID" id="link-id13ec6260">WebID</a>s securely bound to X.509 Certificates, providing access to verifiable and highly navigable Personal Profile <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Spaces that also double as personal search index entry points.</li> <li> <strong>Chrome OS: </strong>Just another operating system for exploiting the burgeoning Web of Linked Data</li> <li> <strong>HTML5: </strong>Courtesy of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id115b08f0">RDFa</a>, just another mechanism for exposing Linked Data by making HTML+RDFa a bona fide markup for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Metadata" id="link-id1195b070">metadata</a> (i.e., format for describing real world objects via their attribute-value graphs)</li> <li> <strong>Mobile Video:</strong> Simplifies the production and sharing of Video annotations (comments, reviews etc.) en route to creating rich Linked Discourse Data Spaces.</li> <li> <strong>Augmented Reality:</strong> Ditto</li> <li> <strong>Mobile Transactions:</strong> As per points 1&2 above, Vendor Discovery and Transaction Conusmation will increasingly be driven by high SDQ applications. The "Funnel Effect" (more choices based on individual preferences) will be a critical success factor for any one operating in the Mobile Transaction realm. Note, without Linked Data you cannot deliver scalable solutions that handle the combined requirements of: SDQ, "Funnel Effect", and Mobile Device form factor, will simply maginify the importance of Web accessible Linked Data.</li> <li> <strong>Android:</strong> An additional platform for items 1-8; basically, 2010 isn't going to be an iPhone only zone. Personally, this reminds <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id111ab5e8">me</a> of a battle from the past i.e., Microsoft vs Apple, re. desktop computing dominance. Google has studied history very well :-)</li> <li> <strong>Social CRM:</strong> this is simply about applying points 1-9 alongide the construction of Linked Data from eCRM Data Spaces.</li> </ol> <p>As I've stated in the past (across a variety of mediums), you cannot build applications that have long term value without addressing the following issues:</p> <ol> <li>Data Item or Object Identity</li> <li>Data Structure -- Data Models</li> <li>Data Representation -- Data Model <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1148eaf8">Entity</a> & Relationships Representation mechanism (as delivered by metadata oriented markup)</li> <li>Data Storage -- Database Management Systems</li> <li>Data Access -- Data Access Protocols </li> <li>Data Presentation -- How you present Views and Reports from Structured Data Sources</li> <li>Data Security -- Data Access Policies</li> </ol> <p>The items above basically showcase the very essence of the HTTP <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id1239af68">URI</a> abstraction that drives HTTP based Linked Data; which is also the basic payload unit that underlies <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Representational_State_Transfer" id="link-id11489a98">REST</a>.</p> <h3>Conclusion</h3> <p>I simply hope that the next decade marks a period of broad appreciation and comprehension of Data Access, Integration, and Management issues on the parts of: application developers, integrators, analysts, end-users, and decision makers. Remember, without structured Data we cannot produce or share <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id13cb5040">Information</a>, and without Information, we cannot produce of share <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id647abb0">Knowledge</a>.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1567" id="link-id13fa3a20">HTTP URI Abstraction and Linked Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.dataflux.com/dfblog/?p=1458," id="link-id138f3ea8">First Law of Data Quality</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://walkingoncoals.blogspot.com/2009/12/whos-data-is-it-part-1.html" id="link-id13efccb8">Who's Data Is It?</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1442" id="link-id1355df68">Serendipitous Discovery Quotient</a> (SDQ)</li> <li> <a href="http://www.seangolliher.com/2009/linked-data/serendipitous-discovery-quotient-sdq-the-future-of-seo-or-an-abstract-concept/" id="link-id11217cb8">SDQ: The Future of SEO or an Abstract Concept?</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/oerling/weblog/Orri%20Erling%27s%20Blog/1587" id="link-id139cfbe0">SPARQL & GeoSpatial Indexing</a> (implications of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id13f51b78">SPARQL</a>-GEO)</li> <li> <a href="http://blog.jonudell.net/2009/09/09/talking-with-kingsley-idehen-about-mastering-your-own-search-index/" id="link-id13c5c248">Mastering Your Own Search Index</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://blog.jonudell.net/2009/11/23/talking-with-martin-hepp-about-solving-the-paradox-of-choice/" id="link-id135ba4d0">Solving the Paradox of Choice</a>.</li> </ul>
Personal and/or Service Specific Linked Data Spaces in the Cloud: DBpedia 3.4
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-11-16#1589
2009-11-16T18:17:46Z
2009-11-16T13:30:20-05:00
<p> We have just released an Amazon EC2 based public Snapshot of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id18e899b8">DBpedia</a> 3.4. Thus, you can now instantiate a personal and/or service specific variant of the DBpedia 3.4 <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id168dec90">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id18911268">Space</a>. Basically, you can replicate what we host, within minutes (as opposed to days). In addition, you no longer need to squabble --on an unpredictable basis with others-- for the infrastructure resources behind DBpedia's public instance, when using the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id18d5bd78">SPARQL</a> Endpoint, Faceted Search & Find Services, or HTML Browser Pages etc.</p> <h3>How Does It work?</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtInstallationEC2" id="link-id115932b8">Instantiate a Virtuoso EC2 AMI</a> (paid variety, which is aggressively priced at $49.99 for setup and $19.99 per month thereafter)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAWSDBpedia34S" id="link-id182dc800"> Mount the shared DBpedia 3.4 public snapshot</a> </li> <li> Start Virtuoso Server</li> <li> Start exploiting the DBpedia Linked Data Space.</li> </ol> <h3>What Interfaces are exposed?</h3> <ol> <li> SPARQL Endpoint</li> <li> Linked Data Viewer Pages (as you see in the public DBpedia instance)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtFacetBrowserInstallConfig" id="link-id117f6e80">Faceted Search & Find UI and Web Services</a> (REST or SOAP)</li> <li> All the inference rules for <a href="http://umbel.org/about/" id="link-id144b84a8">UMBEL</a>, SUMO, YAGO, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cyc" id="link-id16b69da8">OpenCYC</a>, and DBpedia-OWL <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> dictionaries</li> <li>Type Correlations Between DBpedia and Freebase</li> </ol> <p>Enjoy!</p>
Personal and/or Service Specific Linked Data Spaces in the Cloud: DBpedia 3.4
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-11-16#1599
2009-11-16T18:17:46Z
2010-02-01T08:58:14-05:00
<p> We have just released an Amazon EC2 based public Snapshot of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id18e899b8">DBpedia</a> 3.4. Thus, you can now instantiate a personal and/or service specific variant of the DBpedia 3.4 <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id168dec90">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id18911268">Space</a>. Basically, you can replicate what we host, within minutes (as opposed to days). In addition, you no longer need to squabble --on an unpredictable basis with others-- for the infrastructure resources behind DBpedia's public instance, when using the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id18d5bd78">SPARQL</a> Endpoint, Faceted Search & Find Services, or HTML Browser Pages etc.</p> <h3>How Does It work?</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtInstallationEC2" id="link-id115932b8">Instantiate a Virtuoso EC2 AMI</a> (paid variety, which is aggressively priced at $49.99 for setup and $19.99 per month thereafter)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAWSDBpedia34S" id="link-id182dc800"> Mount the shared DBpedia 3.4 public snapshot</a> </li> <li> Start Virtuoso Server</li> <li> Start exploiting the DBpedia Linked Data Space.</li> </ol> <h3>What Interfaces are exposed?</h3> <ol> <li> SPARQL Endpoint</li> <li> Linked Data Viewer Pages (as you see in the public DBpedia instance)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtFacetBrowserInstallConfig" id="link-id117f6e80">Faceted Search & Find UI and Web Services</a> (REST or SOAP)</li> <li> All the inference rules for <a href="http://umbel.org/about/" id="link-id144b84a8">UMBEL</a>, SUMO, YAGO, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cyc" id="link-id16b69da8">OpenCYC</a>, and DBpedia-OWL <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> dictionaries</li> <li>Type Correlations Between DBpedia and Freebase</li> </ol> <p>Enjoy!</p>
The URI, URL, and Linked Data Meme's Generic HTTP URI (Updated)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-08-07#1567
2009-08-07T18:34:50Z
2010-03-28T12:19:00-04:00
<h3> Situation Analysis</h3> <p> As the "<a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id12f96a00">Linked Data" meme</a> has gained momentum you've more than likely been on the receiving end of dialog with Linked Open <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> community members (myself included) that goes something like this:</p> <blockquote> <cite>"Do you have a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id139252a0">URI</a>", "Get yourself a URI", "Give <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id140eab68">me</a> a de-referencable URI" etc..</cite> </blockquote> <p> And each time, you respond with a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id112c1860">URL</a> -- which to the best of your <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id140b51c0">knowledge</a> is a bona fide URI. But to your utter confusion you are told: Nah! You gave me a Document URI instead of the URI of a real-world thing or object etc..</p> <h3> What's up with that?</h3> <p> Well our everyday use of the Web is an unfortunate conflation of two distinct things, which have Identity: Real World Objects (RWOs) & Address/Location of Documents (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id144838b0">Information</a> bearing Resources).</p> <p> The "Linked Data" meme is about enhancing the Web by unobtrusively reintroducing its core essence: the generic HTTP URI, a vital piece of Web Architecture DNA. Basically, its about so realizing the full capabilities of the Web as a platform for Open Data Identification, Definition, Access, Storage, Representation, Presentation, and Integration.</p> <h3> What is a Real World Object?</h3> <p> People, Places, Music, Books, Cars, Ideas, Emotions etc..</p> <h3> What is a URI?</h3> <p> A Uniform Resource Identifier. A global identifier mechanism for network addressable data items. Its sole function is Name oriented Identification.</p> <h4> URI Generic Syntax</h4> <p> The constituent parts of a URI (from <a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2396.txt" id="link-id1180c700">URI Generic Syntax RFC</a>) are depicted below: <img src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/images/generic_uri_syntax_image.png" /> </p> <h3> What is a URL?</h3> <p> A location oriented HTTP scheme based URI. The HTTP scheme introduces a powerful and inherent duality that delivers:</p> <ol> <li> Resource Address/Location Identifier</li> <li> Data Access mechanism for an Information bearing Resource (Document, File etc..)</li> </ol> <p> So far so good!</p> <h3> What is an HTTP based URI?</h3> <p> The kind of URI <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11100a28">Linked Data</a> aficionados mean when they use the term: URI.</p> <p> An HTTP URI is an HTTP scheme based URI. Unlike a URL, this kind of HTTP scheme URI is devoid of any Web Location orientation or specificity. Thus, Its inherent duality provides a more powerful level of abstraction. Hence, you can use this form of URI to assign Names/Identifiers to Real World Objects (RWO). Even better, courtesy of the Identity/Address duality of the HTTP scheme, a single URI can deliver the following:</p> <ol> <li> RWO Identfier/Name</li> <li> RWO Metadata document Locator (courtesy of URL aspect)</li> <li> Negotiable Representation of the Located Document (courtesy of HTTP's content negotiation feature).</li> </ol> <h3> What is Metadata?</h3> <p> Data about Data. Put differently, data that describes other data in a structured manner.</p> <h3> How Do we Model Metadata?</h3> <p> The predominant model for metadata is the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id11193d30">Entity</a>-Attribute-Value + Classes & Relationships model (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id11725710">EAV</a>/CR). A model that's been with us since the inception of modern computing (long before the Web).</p> <h3> What about RDF?</h3> <p> The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a framework for describing Web addressable resources. In a nutshell, its a framework for adding Metadata bearing Information Resources to the current Web. Its comprised of:</p> <ol> <li> Entity-Attribute-Value (aka. Subject-Predictate-Object) plus Classes & Relationships (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data_dictionary" id="link-id138df0f8">Data Dictionaries</a> e.g., <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_Ontology_Language" id="link-id116bf590">OWL</a>) metadata model</li> <li> A plethora of instance data representation formats that include: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id13360b90">RDFa</a> (when doing so within (X)HTML docs), Turtle, N3, TriX, RDF/XML etc.</li> </ol> <h3> What's the Problem Today?</h3> <p> The ubiquitous use of the Web is primarily focused on a Linked Mesh of Information bearing Documents. URLs rather than generic HTTP URIs are the prime mechanism for Web tapestry; basically, we use URLs to conduct Information -- which is inherently subjective -- instead of using HTTP URIs to conduct "Raw Data" -- which is inherently objective.</p> <blockquote> <strong>Note:</strong> Information is "data in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id1395ca50">context</a>", it isn't the same thing as "Raw Data". Thus, if we can link to Information via the Web, why shouldn't we be able to do the same for "Raw Data"?</blockquote> <h3> How Does the Link Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Meme" id="link-id1160ab70">meme</a> solve the problem?</h3> <p> The meme simply provides a set of guidelines (best practices) for producing Web architecture friendly metadata. Meaning: when producing EAV/CR model based metadata, endow Subjects, their Attributes, and Attribute Values (optionally) with HTTP URIs. By doing so, a new level of Link Abstraction on the Web is possible i.e., "Data Item to Data Item" level links (aka <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id137a78a0">hyperdata</a> links). Even better, when you de-reference a RWO hyperdata link you end up with a negotiated representations of its metadata.</p> <h3> Conclusion</h3> <p> Linked Data is ultimately about an HTTP URI for each item in the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data_hierarchy" id="link-id1393c3e0">Data Organization Hierarchy</a> :-)</p> <h3> Related</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-tag/2009Aug/0000.html" id="link-id140c1e78">History of how "Resource" became part of URI</a> - historic account by <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id1172b128">TimBL</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id1338cbd0">Linked Data Design Issues Document</a> - <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id13536ad8">TimBL</a>'s initial Linked Data Guide</li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1561" id="link-id116c1af8">Linked Data Rules Simplified</a> - My attempt at simplifying the Linked Data Meme without <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id116c3b40">SPARQL</a> & RDF distraction</li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1547" id="link-id135dd1b8">Linked Data & Identity</a> - another related post</li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1565" id="link-id134afc50">The Linked Data Meme's Value Proposition</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1323" id="link-id1251e9248">So What Does "HREF" stand for anyway?</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://delicious.com/kidehen/identifier_scheme" id="link-id14cc7e18">My Del.icio.us hosted Bookmark Data Space for Identity Schemes</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_berners_lee_on_the_next_web.html" id="link-id115a3748">TimBL's Ted Talk re. "Raw Linked Data"</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.infoq.com/articles/roa-rest-of-rest" id="link-id11b25558">Resource Oriented Architecture</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.blipfoto.com/view.php?id=465380&month=2&year=2010" id="link-id139824c8">More Famous Than Simon Cowell</a> .</li> </ol>
Important Things to Note about the World Wide Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-07-23#1564
2009-07-23T13:27:11Z
2009-07-23T10:33:58-04:00
<p>Based on the prevalence of confusion re. the <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id135eee50">Linked Data meme</a>, here are a few important points to remember about the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id1118b210">World Wide Web</a>.</p> <ol> <li>Its an HTTP based Network Cluster within the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id1332a6e8">Internet</a> (remember: Networks are about meshes of Nodes connected by Links)</li> <li>Its underlying <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> model is that of a Network (we've had Network Data models for eons. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id13350310">EAV</a>/CR is an example)</li> <li>Links are facilitated via URIs</li> <li>Until recently the granularity of Networking on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> was scoped to Data Containers (documents) (due to prevalence of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id12f7c078">URL</a> style links</li> <li>The Linked Data meme adds Data Item (Datum) level granularity to World Wide Web networking via HTTP URIs</li> <li>Data Items become Web Reference-able when you Identify/Name them using HTTP based URIs</li> <li>An HTTP <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id135ffdb8">URI</a> implicitly binds a Web Reference-able Data Item (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id113afb60">Entity</a>, Datum, Data Object, Resource) to its Web Accessible Metadata</li> <li>Web Accessible Metadata resides within Data Containers (documents or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id11402318">information</a> resources)</li> <li>The representation of a Web Accessible Metadata container is negotiable</li> <li>I am able to write and dispatch this <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id0x770cbd0">blog</a> post courtesy of the Web features listed above</li> <li>You are able to explore the many dimensions to data exposed by this blog should you decide to explore the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x7acd540">Linked Data</a> mesh exposed by this post's HTTP URI (via its permalink permalink)</li> </ol> <p>The HTTP URI is the secret sauce of the Web that is powerfully and unobtrusively reintroduced via the Linked Data meme (classic back to the future act). This powerful sauce possess a unique power courtesy of its inherent duality i.e., how it uniquely combines Data Item Identity (think keys in traditional DBMS parlance) with Data Access (e.g. access to negotiable representations of associated metadata).</p> <p>As you can see, I've made no mention of RDF or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1183bd48">SPARQL</a>, and I can still articulate the inherent value of the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id132e7058">Linked Data</a>" dimension that the "Linked Data" meme adds to the World Wide Web.</p> <p>As per usual this post is a live demonstration of Linked Data (dog-food style) :-)</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.semanticsincorporated.com/2009/07/if-linked-data-is-a-brand-it-has-big-problems-to-address.html" id="link-id1171d4e8">Greg Boutin's post about Linked Data Brand Management</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://iandavis.com/blog/2009/07/the-linked-data-brand" id="link-id12db0880">Ian Davis' "Linked Data Brand" post</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://cloudofdata.com/2009/07/does-linked-data-need-rdf/" id="link-id13537230">Paul Miller's "Does Linked Data need RDF" post</a> </li> </ul>
Understanding the BBC's Virtuoso Powered Linked Data Space
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-06-11#1559
2009-06-11T21:59:31Z
2009-06-26T23:15:13.000001-04:00
<p> The <a href="http://welcomebackstage.com/2009/06/bbc-backstage-sparql-endpoint/" id="link-id12969860">BBC's recently announced Linked Data space for Programmes and Music data</a>, joins a growing list of immediately useful "<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id110918f8">Virtuoso</a> Powered" linked data spaces, driving the burgeoning Web of Linked Data. Others include: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id12c0e720">DBpedia</a>, <a href="http://www.bio2rdf.org/" id="link-id14ee63a8">Bio2RDF</a>, NeuroCommons etc (the <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/bizer/pub/lod-datasets_2009-03-27.html" id="link-id129a8588">click friendly version of the LOD-Cloud</a> diagram reveals a snapshot of other Virtuoso driven linked data spaces).</p> <h3>Why is it important?</h3> <p> As a leading media organization, the BBC's use of Linked Data provides a clear beacon to other media players re. the imminence of a serious Linked Data induced sector inflection. In a nutshell, every Web Site has to evolve into a Linked Data Space: a location on the Web that provides granular access to discrete data items in line with the core principles of the <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id11a14710">Linked Data meme</a>.</p> <p> Remember, the essence of the Linked Data meme is simply this: you reference data items and access their metadata, in variety of formats via a single HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id1136b1c8">URI</a>. This approach to Web data publishing is compatible with any HTTP aware user agent (e.g., your Web Browser or tools & applications that provide abstracted access to HTTP).</p> <h3>How Do I use it?</h3> <p>There a number of very powerful things available to end-users and developers alike.</p> <h4>End-Users:</h4> <p> The most powerful feature of our variant of the BBC's Linked Data Space is the exposure of Faceted Find (think Search++ and beyond). Thus, you can go the the <a href="http://bbc.openlinksw.com" id="link-id12a32770">home page of the service</a> and commence data discovery and exploration via any of the following interfaces:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Full_text_search" id="link-id1179d618">Full Text Search</a> Tab -- type in a full text pattern and then experience <a href="http://bbc.openlinksw.com/facet_doc.html" id="link-id12c6dab0">Linked Data Entity Ranking as opposed to Page Ranking</a> </li> <li>URI Lookup (By Label) Tab -- type in part of a URI and let the system auto-complete by looking up Entity Labels</li> <li>URI Lookup (Raw String Pattern) Tab -- type in part of a URI and let the system auto-complete by looking up the raw URI</li> <li> <a href="http://bbc.openlinksw.com/ode/" id="link-id114b53c8">OpenLink Data Explorer Service</a> -- "deceptively simple" Linked Data explorer and Data Mesher (simply type in a URI or Text pattern, then view the data via a myriad of entity type specific viewer tabs).</li> </ul> <p>Once you are comfortable with at least one of the items above, you can exploit the system further by performing any of the following:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://bbc.openlinksw.com/page/void/Dataset" id="link-id117616c0">Explore the Linked Data Space via Data Dictionary</a> -- click on a Named Data Set URI and then <a href="http://bbc.openlinksw.com/describe/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fontology%2Fpo%2FEpisode" id="link-id11664778">explore Class instances</a> (rdf:type property values) </li> <li> <a href="http://bbc.openlinksw.com/fct/rdfdesc/usage.vsp?g=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fmusic%2Fartists%2F5f6ab597-f57a-40da-be9e-adad48708203%23artist&tp=4&sid=519&urilookup=&orig_refr=http://bbc.openlinksw.com/describe/?url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/5f6ab597-f57a-40da-be9e-adad48708203" id="link-id128a1aa8">Explore Entity Metadata</a> -- currently labeled "Statistics" but really is "Metadata" that describes data about an Entity (how you discern identifier co-reference, indirect identifiers, references from other data sets, and provenance/source graphs).</li> </ul> <h4> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id1136cc60">Information</a> Architects & Developers</h4> <ul> <li>Bare bones <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id13c15448">SPARQL</a> Endpoint -- usable by SPARQL aware user agents </li> <li> <a href="http://bbc.openlinksw.com/sparql_demo/" id="link-id114ed7f0">SPARQL Query Tool</a> -- type in SPARQL and interact with result pages that enable URI navigation (de-referencing)</li> <li> <a href="http://bbc.openlinksw.com/isparql" id="link-id12a25b38">iSPARQL Query By Example</a> -- paint your SPARQL Query and Learn <a href="http://wikis.openlinksw.com/dataspace/owiki/wiki/OATWikiWeb/InteractiveSparqlQueryBuilder" id="link-id13c0c578">SPARQL by Example</a> (just take defaults and then click "OK" to get in)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtFacetBrowserInstallConfig" id="link-id15001fe0">Virtuoso Facets API</a> - REST API for Faceted Browsing & Navigation across Linked Data Set Dimensions.</li> </ul> <h3>Disambiguated Search (aka. Search++ or Find)</h3> <p> In line with the time-tested "embrace and extend" pattern, we provide Full Text search capability, but unlike Google, Yahoo!, Bing and other search engines, we don't use use "Page Rank" algorithm to sort results; instead, we use an "Entity Rank" algorithm since we are dealing with an RDF based Graph model DBMS where links exist between entities across instance data and data dictionary (vocabularies, schemas, ontologies) boundaries. In addition, when you get results (by clicking "show values" or "show values with distinct counts") that list entities associated with a full text search pattern, we take a quantum leap beyond search engines by allowing you to use "Entity Type" and/or "Entity Properties" (all of these have HTTP URIs too) to set your own <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id13c15c30">context</a> for what you seek.</p> <p>Much more to come in the form of <a href="http://bbc.openlinksw.com/fct/facet.vsp?cmd=featured&sid=423&no_qry=1" id="link-id128a0fd0">BBC specific demo queries</a> and tutorials :-)</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> Live <a href="http://lod.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14eb3010">LOD Cloud Cache</a> instance that combines BBC data with other data sets from the LOD Cloud (in a single Virtuoso RDF DBMS hosting 5 Billion+ triples & counting) </li> </ul>
Library of Congress & Reasonable Linked Data
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-05-05#1556
2009-05-05T17:53:24Z
2009-05-06T14:26:15.000034-04:00
<p> While exploring the <a href="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/" id="link-id1488cca8">Subject Headings Linked Data Space</a> (LCSH) recently unveiled by the <a href="http://id.loc.gov/" id="link-id1672ad10">Library of Congress</a>, I noticed that the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id158fef78">URI</a> for the subject heading: <a href="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/sh95000541#concept" id="link-id14c8d3e8">World Wide Web</a>, exposes an "owl:sameAs" link to resource URI: "info:lc/authorities/sh95000541" -- in fact, a URI.URN that isn't HTTP protocol scheme based.</p> <p> The observations above triggered a <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=&ands=&phrase=&ors=&nots=&tag=linkeddata&lang=all&from=kidehen&to=edsu&ref=&near=&within=15&units=mi&since=2009-05-01&until=2009-05-05&rpp=10" id="link-id14e21ba0">discussion thread on Twitter</a> that involved: <a href="http://twitter.com/edsu" id="link-ide411808">@edsu</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/iand" id="link-id11915ed0">@iand</a>, and <a href="http://twitter.com/kidehen" id="link-id1519c028">moi</a>. Naturally, it morphed into a live demonstration of: human vs machine, interpretation of claims expressed in the RDF graph.</p> <h3>What makes this whole thing interesting?</h3> <p>It showcases (in Man vs Machine style) the issue of unambiguously discerning the meaning of the owl:sameAs claim expressed in the LCSH <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id17004728">Linked Data Space</a>.</p> <h4>Perspectives & Potential Confusion</h4> <p> 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. </p> <p> 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 "<a href="http://www.handle.net/overviews/overview.html" id="link-id155517a8">handle system</a>", for instance.</p> <p> It may even confuse RDFizer / RDFization middleware that use owl:sameAs as a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> 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.<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id119e0d80">URL</a> plus "#this" which produces URI.URN-URL -- think of this pattern as "owl:shameAs" in a sense :-)</p> <h3> Unambiguously Discerning Meaning</h3> <p> 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. </p> <h3>Path to Clarity (using <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id1537aa68">Virtuoso</a>, its in-built Sponger Middleware, and Inference Engine):</h3> <ol> <li>GET the data into the Virtuoso Quad store -- what the sponger does via its <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/html/http://id.loc.gov/authorities/sh95000541#concept" id="link-id1669fa40">URIBurner Service</a> (while following designated predicates such as owl:sameAs in case they point to other mesh-able data sources)</li> <li>Query the data in Quad Store with "owl:sameAs" inference rules enabled</li> <li>Repeat the last step with the inference rules excluded.</li> </ol> <h4>Actual <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id17374110">SPARQL</a> Queries:</h4> <ul> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/DataWeb/lcsh_www_subject_heading.isparql" id="link-id16c986d0">SPARQL Query against the HTTP based Subject Heading URI for WWW</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/DataWeb/lcsh_www_subject_heading_sameAs_inference_on.isparql" id="link-id16d4fea0">SPARQL Query (with reasoning via inference rule for owl:sameAs)</a> against the URN based Subject Heading URI for WWW</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/DataWeb/lcsh_www_subject_heading_no_sameAs_inference_on.isparql" id="link-id11bad768">SPARQL Query (*without* reasoning via inference rule for owl:sameAs)</a> against the URN based Subject Heading URI for WWW</li> </ul> <h4>Observations:</h4> <p> The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-ide6acf68">SPARQL</a> 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 <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/html/http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl%23sameAs" id="link-id13e364b0">owl:sameAs</a> property :-).</p> <p>Hopefully, this post also provides a simple example of how <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_Ontology_Language" id="link-id158a3fe8">OWL</a> facilitates "Reasonable Linked Data". </p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1455" id="link-id164e19f8">State of the Linked Data Web</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=474" id="link-id11973d10">Making Linked Data Reasonable Using Description Logics Series</a> - post by <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/mkbergman#this" id="link-id1184bfb8">Mike Bergman</a> </li> </ul>
Simple Explanation of RDF and Linked Data Dynamics
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-04-24#1543
2009-04-24T20:59:08Z
2009-04-24T17:14:41-04:00
<h3>What is RDF?</h3> <p>The acronym stands for: Resource Description Framework. And that's just what it is.</p> <p>RDF is comprised of a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Model (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id11bb5cd8">EAV</a>/CR Graph) and Data Representation Formats such as: N3, Turtle, RDF/XML etc.</p> <p>RDF's essence is about: "Entities" and "Attributes" being <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id14362100">URI</a> based, while "Values" may be URI or Literals (typed or untyped) based. </p> <p>URIs are <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id139066e8">Entity</a> Identifiers.</p> <h3>What is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11ed5340">Linked Data</a>?</h3> <p>Short for "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> of Linked Data" or "Linked Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id13f4b878">Web</a>".</p> <p>A term coined by <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id117b4310">TimBL</a> that describes an HTTP based "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Reference_(computer_science)" id="link-id138fed30">data access by reference</a> pattern" that uses a single pointer or handle for "referring to" and "obtaining actual data about" an entity.</p> <p>Linked Data uses the deceptively simple messaging scheme of HTTP to deliver a granular entity reference and access mechanism that transcends traditional computing boundaries such as: operating system, application, database engines, and networks.</p> <h3>How are Linked Data & RDF Related?</h3> <p>Linked Data simply mandates the following re. RDF:</p> <ul> <li>URIs should be HTTP based so that you can "refer to" (Reference) an Entity, its Attributes, or URI based Attribute values via the Web (infact any HTTP based network e.g., Intranets and Extranets)</li> <li> URIs should also be HTTP based so that you can use them to de-reference resource descriptions via the Web (or Intranets and Extranets).</li> </ul> <p> <strong>Note:</strong> by Entity I am also referring to: a resource (Web parlance), data item, data object, real-world object, or datum. </p> <p>Linked Data is also about, using URIs and HTTP's content negotiation feature to separate: presentation, representation, access, and identity of data items. Even better, content negotiation can be driven by user agent and/or data server based quality of service algorithms (representation preference order schemes).</p> <p>To conclude, Linked Data is ultimately about the realization that: Data is the new Electricity, and it's conductors are URIs :-)</p> <p> <strong>Tip to governments of the world</strong>: we are in exponential times, the current downturn is but one side of the "exponential times ledger", the other side of the "exponential times ledger" is simply about unleashing "raw data" -- in structured form -- into the Web, so that "citizen analysts" can blossom and ultimately deliver the transparency desperately sought at every level of the economic value chain. Think: "raw data ready" whenever you ponder about "shovel ready" infrastructure projects!</p>
Take N: Yet Another OpenLink Data Spaces Introduction
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-04-22#1542
2009-04-22T18:46:18Z
2009-04-22T15:32:06.000020-04:00
<h3>Problem:</h3> <p>Your Life, Profession, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id0x1c6687f8">Internet</a> do not need to become mutually exclusive due to "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id0x1c6696e8">information</a> overload".</p> <h3>Solution:</h3> <p> A platform or service that delivers a point of online presence that embodies the fundamental separation of: Identity, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Access, Data Representation, Data Presentation, by adhering to Web and Internet protocols.</p> <h3>How:</h3> <p> Typical post installation (Local or Cloud) task sequence:</p> <ol> <li> Identify myself (happens automatically by way of registration)</li> <li>If in an LDAP environment, import accounts or associate system with LDAP for account lookup and authentication</li> <li> Identify Online Accounts (by fleshing out profile) which also connects system to online accounts and their data</li> <li>Use Profile for granular description (Biography, Interests, WishList, OfferList, etc.)</li> <li>Optionally upstream or downstream data to and from my online accounts</li> <li>Create content Tagging Rules</li> <li>Create rules for associating Tags with formal URIs</li> <li>Create automatic Hyperlinking Rules for reuse when new content is created (e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id11a7c660">Blog</a> posts)</li> <li>Exploit Data Portability virtues of RSS, Atom, OPML, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id13f54d50">RDFa</a>, RDF/XML, and other formats for imports and exports</li> <li>Automatically <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id121ddff0">tag</a> imported content</li> <li>Use function-specific helper application UIs for domain specific data generation e.g. AddressBook (optionally use vCard import), Calendar (optionally use iCalendar import), Email, File Storage (use WebDAV mount with copy and paste or HTTP GET), Feed Subscriptions (optionally import RSS/Atom/OPML feeds), Bookmarking (optionally import bookmark.html or XBEL) etc..</li> <li>Optionally enable "Conversation" feature (today: Social Media feature) across the relevant application domains (manage conversations under covers using NNTP, the standard for this functionality realm) </li> <li>Generate HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id13d5d378">Entity</a> IDs (URIs) for every piece of data in this burgeoning <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id11a69670">data space</a> </li> <li>Use REST based APIs to perform CRUD tasks against my data (local and remote) (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id11a76e10">SPARQL</a>, GData, Ubiquity Commands, Atom Publishing)</li> <li>Use OpenID, OAuth, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id11c9b3e0">FOAF</a>+SSL, FOAF+SSL+OpenID for accessing data elsewhere</li> <li>Use OpenID, OAuth, FOAF+SSL, FOAF+SSL+OpenID for Controlling access to my data (Self Signed Certificate Generation, Browser Import of said Certificate & associated Private Key, plus persistence of Certificate to FOAF based profile data space in "one click")</li> <li>Have a simple UI for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id14015bd0">Entity</a>-Attribute-Value or Subject-Predicate-Object arbitrary data annotations and creation since you can't pre model an "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_world_assumption" id="link-id11cd8548">Open World</a>" where the only constant is data flow</li> <li>Have my Personal <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id142beee8">URI</a> (Web ID) as the single entry point for controlled access to my HTTP accessible data space</li> </ol> <p> I've just outlined a snippet of the capabilities of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id13d64740">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> platform. A platform built using OpenLink <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13d74170">Virtuoso</a>, architected to deliver: open, platform independent, multi-model, data access and data management across heterogeneous data sources. </p> <p> All you need to remember is your URI when seeking to interact with your data space.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/GetAPersonalURIIn5MinutesOrLess" id="link-id13c97948">Get Yourself a URI (Web ID) in 5 Minutes or Less!</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=%22data%20spaces%22&type=text&output=html" id="link-id1431e088">Various posts over the years about Data Spaces</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1415" id="link-id11f837f0">Future of Desktop Post</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://bnode.org/blog/2009/04/22/semantic-web-apps-to-simplify-my-life" id="link-id1393f8a8">Simplify My Life Post</a> by <a href="http://bnode.org/about" id="link-id11da0cc8">Bengee Nowack</a> </li> </ol>
Live Virtuoso instance hosting Linked Open Data (LOD) Cloud
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-03-30#1539
2009-03-30T16:27:26Z
2009-04-01T14:26:22.000002-04:00
<p>We have reached a beachead re. the <a href="http://lod.openlinksw.com" id="link-id11a035e0">Virtuoso instance hosting the Linked Open Data (LOD) Cloud</a>; meaning, we are not going to be performing any major updates and deletions short-term, bar incorporation of fresh data sets from the Freebase and <a href="http://www.bio2rdf.org/" id="link-id121d7278">Bio2RDF</a> projects (both communities a prepping new RDF data sets).</p> <p>At the current time we have loaded 100% of all the very large data sets from the <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/bizer/pub/lod-datasets_2009-03-05.html" id="link-id1441f7e0">LOD Cloud</a>. As result, we can start the process of exposing <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id16c53de8">Linked Data</a> virtues in a manner that's palatable to users, developers, and database professionals across the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x20165290">Web</a> 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 spectrums.</p> <h3>What does this mean?</h3> <p>You can use the "Search & Find" or"<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id119c6878">URI</a> Lookup" or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id157acde8">SPARQL</a> endpoint associated with the LOD cloud hosting instance to perform the following tasks:</p> <p> </p> <ol> <li>Find entities associated with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Full_text_search" id="link-id11a82f28">full text search</a> patterns -- Google Style, but with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id131b6380">Entity</a> & Text proximity Rank instead of Page Rank, since we are dealing with Entities rather than documents about entities</li> <li>Find and Lookup entities by Identifier (URI) -- which is helpful when locating URIs to use for identify entities in your own linked data spaces on the Web</li> <li>View entity descriptions via a variety of representation formats (HTML, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id11e323b0">RDFa</a>, RDF/XML, N3, Turtle etc.)</li> <li>Determine uses of entity identifiers across the LOD cloud -- which helps you select preferred URIs based on usage statistics.</li> </ol> <h3>What does it offer Web 1.0 and 2.0 developers?</h3> <p> If you don't want to use the <a href="http://lod.openlinksw.com/sparql" id="link-id15c1ec30">SPARQL based Web Service</a>, or other Linked Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id15ebd3b0">Web</a> oriented APIs for interacting with the LOD cloud programmatically, you can simply use the powerful <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtuosoFacetsWebService" id="link-id12e556a8">REST style Web Service</a> that provides <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id12138090">URL</a> parameters for performing full text oriented "Search", entity oriented "Find" queries, and faceted navigation over the huge data corpus with results data returned in JSON and XML formats.</p> <h3>Next Steps:</h3> <p> Amazon have agreed to add all the LOD Cloud data sets to their existing <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/publicdatasets" id="link-id11989aa8">public data sets collective</a>. Thus, the data sets we are loading will be available in "raw data" (RDF) format on the public data sets page via Named Elastic Block Storage (EBS) Snapshots); meaning, you can make an EC2 AMI (e.g. a Linux, Windows, Solaris) and install an RDF quad or triple store of choice into your AMI, then simply load data from the LOD cloud based on your needs.</p> <p> In addition to the above, we are also going to offer a <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtInstallationEC2" id="link-id13982a88">Virtuoso 6.0 Cluster Edition based LOD Cloud AMI</a> (as we've already done with <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtEC2AMIDBpediaInstall" id="link-id12cba108">DBpedia</a>, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtEC2AMIMusicBrainzInstall" id="link-id1390d338">MusicBrainz</a>, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtEC2AMINeuroCommonsInstall" id="link-id15801668">NeuroCommons</a>, and <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtEC2AMIBio2rdfInstall" id="link-id133e0840">Bio2Rdf</a>) that will enable you to simply instantiate a personal and service specific edition of Virtuoso with all the LOD data in place and fully tuned for performance and scalability; basically, you will simply press "Instantiate AMI" and a LOD cloud <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id15ccbf80">data space</a>, in true Linked Data from, will be at your disposal within minutes (i.e. the time it takes the DB to start).</p> <p>Work on the migration of the LOD data to EC2 starts this week. Thus, if you are interested in contributing an RDF based data set to the LOD cloud now is the time to get your archive links in place on the (see: <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/DataSetRDFDumps" id="link-id154d6f88">ESW Wiki page for LOD Data Sets</a>).</p>
Simple Compare & Contrast of Web 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 (Update 1)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-03-14#1531
2009-03-14T18:20:00Z
2009-04-29T13:21:25.000004-04:00
<p>Here is a tabulated "compare and contrast" of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> usage patterns 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0.</p> <table border="1" width="715" height="286"> <tbody> <tr> <td>Â </td> <td><strong>Web 1.0</strong></td> <td><strong>Web 2.0</strong></td> <td><strong>Web 3.0</strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Simple Definition</strong></td> <td>Interactive / Visual Web</td> <td>Programmable Web</td> <td><a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id117a9a98">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id146bcdb0">Web</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Unit of Presence</strong></td> <td>Web Page</td> <td>Web Service Endpoint</td> <td><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id11a66c60">Data Space</a> (named structured data enclave)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Unit of Value Exchange</strong></td> <td>Page <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id146083f8">URL</a></td> <td>Endpoint URL for API</td> <td>Resource / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id121b2148">Entity</a> / Object <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id1467ed00">URI</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Data Granularity</strong></td> <td>Low (HTML)</td> <td>Medium (XML)</td> <td>High (RDF)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Defining Services</strong></td> <td>Search </td> <td>Community (Blogs to Social Networks) </td> <td>Find</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Participation Quotient</strong></td> <td>Low</td> <td>Medium</td> <td>High</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Serendipitous Discovery Quotient </strong></td> <td>Low</td> <td>Medium</td> <td>High</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Data Referencability Quotient </strong></td> <td>Low (Documents)</td> <td>Medium (Documents)</td> <td>High (Documents and their constituent Data)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Subjectivity Quotient</strong></td> <td>High</td> <td>Medium (from A-list bloggers to select source and partner lists)</td> <td>Low (everything is discovered via URIs)</td> </tr> <tr> <td> <strong><a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Transclusion" id="link-id155308d8">Transclusence</a> </strong></td> <td>Low</td> <td>Medium (Code driven Mashups)</td> <td>HIgh (Data driven Meshups)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>What You See Is What You Prefer (WYSIWYP)</strong></td> <td>Low</td> <td>Medium </td> <td>High (negotiated representation of resource descriptions)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Open Data Access (Data Accessibility)</strong></td> <td>Low</td> <td>Medium (Silos)</td> <td>High (no Silos)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Identity Issues Handling</strong></td> <td>Low</td> <td>Medium (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenID" id="link-id119d77f8">OpenID</a>)</td> <td><p>High (<a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/foaf+ssl" id="link-id135cc348">FOAF+SSL</a>)</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Solution Deployment Model</strong></td> <td>Centralized</td> <td>Centralized with sprinklings of Federation</td> <td>Federated with function specific Centralization (e.g. Lookup hubs like <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id1496d1d0">LOD</a> Cloud or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id1571f690">DBpedia</a>)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Data Model Orientation</strong></td> <td>Logical (Tree based DOM)</td> <td>Logical (Tree based XML)</td> <td>Conceptual (Graph based RDF)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>User Interface Issues</strong></td> <td>Dynamically generated static interfaces</td> <td>Dyanically generated interafaces with semi-dynamic interfaces (courtesy of XSLT or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XQuery" id="link-id118399e8">XQuery</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XPath" id="link-id14b00ba0">XPath</a>)</td> <td>Dynamic Interfaces (pre- and post-generation) courtesy of self-describing nature of RDF</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Data Querying</strong></td> <td><a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Full_text_search" id="link-id14fdd948">Full Text Search</a></td> <td>Full Text Search</td> <td>Full Text Search + Structured Graph Pattern Query Language (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id154a9368">SPARQL</a>)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>What Each Delivers</strong></td> <td>Democratized Publishing</td> <td>Democratized Journalism & Commentary (Citizen Journalists & Commentators)</td> <td>Democratized Analysis (Citizen Data Analysts)</td> </tr> <tr> <td> <strong><a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Star_Wars" id="link-id155ce920">Star Wars Edition Analogy</a> </strong></td> <td>Star Wars (original fight for decentralization via rebellion)</td> <td>Empire Strikes Back (centralization and data silos make comeback)</td> <td>Return of the JEDI (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1474" id="link-id11706640">FORCE</a> emerges and facilitates decentralization from "Identity" all the way to "Open Data Access" and "Negotiable Descriptive Data Representation")</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>Naturally, I am not expecting everyone to agree with <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id15be20c0">me</a>. I am simply making my contribution to what will remain facinating discourse for a long time to come :-)</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/2007/10/web-30----the-a.html" id="link-id14a9d738">Web 3.0 The Best Official Definition Imaginable</a> -- Nova Spivack's </li> </ul>
Response to: What is Web 3.0 and Why Should I Care?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-01-29#1524
2009-01-29T18:16:44Z
2009-01-29T13:45:11-05:00
<p>Another post done in response to lost comments. This time, the comments relate to Robin Bloor's article titled: <a href="http://havemacwillblog.com/2008/12/16/what-is-web-30-and-why-should-i-care/" id="link-id12e79d70">What is Web 3.0 and Why Should I Care?</a> </p> <p>Robin:</p> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_3.0" id="link-id12db8fb0">Web 3.0 </a>is fundamentally about the World Wid Web becoming a structured database equipped with a formal <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> model (RDF which is a moniker for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id11490990">Entity-Attribute-Value</a> with Classes & Relationships based Graph Model), query language, and a protocol for handling divrerse data representational requirements via negotiation</p>. <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>Labels such as "Web 3.0", "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13664538">Linked Data</a>", and "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id157ff968">Semantic Web</a>", are simply about the aforementioned model transition playing out on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id114bd0e8">World Wide Web</a> and across private Linked Data Webs such as Intranets & Extranets, as exemplified emergence of the "Master Data Management" label/buzzword.</p> <h3>What's the critical infrastructure supporting Web 3.0?</h3> <p>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.</p> <p>We now have a new and complimentary variant of Hyperlinking commonly referred to as "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id152ed150">Hyperdata</a>" 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 <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1141e830">entity</a> container) level linkage that Hypertext accords.</p> <p>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.</p> <blockquote>For example, this is how a description of entity "<strong><a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id141ce520">Me</a></strong>" ends up being available in (X)HTML or RDF document representations (as you will observe when you click on that link to my Personal <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id15f9fed0">URI</a>).</blockquote> <p> The foundation of what I describe above comes from:</p> <ol> <li> Entity-Attribute-Value & Class Relationship Data Model (originating from LISP era with detours via the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Object_database" id="link-id12db8fb0">Object Database</a> era. into the Triples approach in RDF) </li> <li>Use of HTTP based Identifiers in the Entity <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Identity_%28object-oriented_programming%29" id="link-id1193af48">ID</a> construction process</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1348f188">SPARQL</a> query language for the Data Model.</li> </ol> <p>Some live examples from <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id12e62a50">DBpedia</a>:</p> <ul> <li> http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data</li> <li>http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hyperdata</li> <li>http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model</li> <li>http://dbpedia.org/resource/Benjamin_Franklin</li> </ul> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1519?sid=5097848d70f69738bd366e2b6374672c&realm=wa" id="link-id13c31500">The End of RDBMS Primacy is Nigh</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData" id="link-id1356e6a0">Linking Open Data Community</a> </li> </ul>
ebiz RDF & Data Integration Article Retort
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-01-29#1522
2009-01-29T15:12:15Z
2009-01-29T16:25:58-05:00
<p>Yesterday, I stumbled across an <a href="http://www.ebizq.net" id="link-id13e41be8">ebiz</a> article by <a href="http://www.ebizq.net/MT4/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=43&id=16" id="link-id11c080a0">David Linthicum</a> titled:<a href="http://www.ebizq.net/blogs/linthicum/2009/01/rdf_and_data_integration.php" id="link-id13620940"> RDF & Data Integration</a>. Naturally, I read it, and while reading encountered a number of inaccuracies that compelled <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id152f4828">me</a> to comment on the post. </p> <p>Today, I revisited the same article -- and to my shock and horror -- my comments do not exist (note: the site did accept my comments yesterday!). Even more frustrating for me, I now have to expend time I don't have re-writing my comments due to the depth and danger of the inaccuracies in this post re. RDF in general.</p> <h3>Important Note to ebiz and David: </h3> <p>Please look into what happened to my comments. It's too early for me to conclude that subjective censorship is a play on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> -- which isn't a hard copy journalistic format style of platform where editors get away with such shenanigans. The Web is a sticky database, and outer joining is well and truly functional (meaning: exclusion and omission ultimately come back to bite via full outer join query results against the Web DB).</p> <p>By the way, if you publish the comments I made to the post (yesterday), I will add a note to this post, accordingly.</p> <p>Yes! David just confirmed to me via <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/html/http://dbpedia.org/resource/Category:Data_modeling" id="link-id15293c20">Twitter</a> that this is yet another comment system related issue and absolutely no intent to censor etc. His words <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/html/http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/rdf/http://twitter.com/DavidLinthicum/status/1159201301%23this" id="link-id14e5ac98">Twervatim</a> :-) </p> <p>For sake of clarity, I've itemized the inaccuracies and applied my correction comments (inline) accordingly:</p> <blockquote> <h3>Inaccuracy #1:</h3> <p>Resource Description Framework (RDF), a part of the XML story, provides interoperability between applications that exchange <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id15f48080">information</a>. </p> <h3>Correction #1: </h3> <p>RDF and XML are not inextricably linked in any way. RDF is part Data Model (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id119a7300">EAV</a>/CR style Graph) with associated markup and data serialization formats that include: N3, Turtle, TriX, RDF/XML etc.</p> <h3>Inaccuracy #2:</h3> <p>RDF uses XML to define a foundation for processing metadata and to provide a standard metadata infrastructure for both the Web and the enterprise. </p> <h3>Correction #2: </h3> <p>RDF/XML is an XML based markup and data serialization format. As a markup language it can be used for creating RDF model records/statements (using Subject, Predicate, Object or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id15120c28">Entity</a>, Attribute, Value). As a serialization format, it provides a mechanism for marshaling RDF data across data managers and data consumers.</p> <h3>Inaccuracy #3:</h3> <p>The difference between the two is that XML is used to transport data using a common format, while RDF is layered on top of XML defining a broad category of data. </p> <h3>Correction #3:</h3> <p>See earlier corrections above.</p> <h3>Inaccuracy #4:</h3> <p>When the XML data is declared to be of the RDF format, applications are then able to understand the data without understanding who sent it. </p> <h3>Correction #4:</h3> <p>You do not declare data to be of RDF format. RDF isn't a format it is a data model (as stated above). You can "up lift" or map data from XML to RDF (hierarchical to graph model mapping). Likewise you can "down shift" or map data from RDF to XML (example: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id146966c0">SPARQL</a> SELECT query patterns "down shift" to SPARQL Results XML, which isn't RDF/XML, while keeping access to graphs via URIs or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id14282528">Entity</a> Identifiers that reside within the serialization).</p> <h3>Inaccuracy #5:</h3> <p>RDF extends the XML model and syntax to be specified for describing either resources or a collection of information. (XML points to a resource in order to scope and uniquely identify a set of properties known as the schema.).</p> <h3>Correction #5:</h3> <p>See earlier comments. </p> </blockquote> <p>The single accurate paragraph in this ebiz article lies right at the end and it states the following:</p> <blockquote> <cite>"I've always thought RDF has been underutilized for data integration, and it's really an old standard. Now that we're focused on both understanding and integrating data, perhaps RDF should make a comeback."</cite> </blockquote> <h3>Related:</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/SW-FAQ#whrdfxml" id="link-id1534cdc8">Semantic Web FAQ fragment re. RDF and XML</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=rdf%20data%20integration&type=text&output=html" id="link-id15a7dbc0">Various posts re. RDF and Data Integration</a> from this <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id15da4618">Blog</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id1120d810">Data Space</a>.</li> </ul>
In Response to: This is Not the Future (Update #3)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-01-13#1518
2009-01-13T04:18:12Z
2009-01-21T19:02:47-05:00
<p>As I cannot post directly to Glenn's <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id149ad010">blog</a> titled: <a href="http://www.furia.com/page.cgi?type=log&id=319" id="link-id113ed070">This is Not the Near Future (Either)</a>, I have to basically respond to him here, in blog post form :-(</p> <p>What is our <a href="http://b3s.openlinksw.com/fct/facet.vsp" id="link-id10fbeec0">"Search" and "Find" demonstration</a> about? It is about how you use the "Description" of "Things" to unambiguously locate things in a database at <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Scale.</p> <p>To our perpetual chagrin, we are trying to demonstrate an engine -- not UI prowess -- but the immediate response is to jump to the UI aesthetics.</p> <p>Google, Yahoo etc.. offer a simple input form for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Full_text_search" id="link-id14296fb8">full text search</a> patterns, they have a processing window for completing full text searches across Web Content indexed on their servers. Once the search patterns are processed, you get a page ranked result set (collection of Web pages basically that claim/state: we found N pages out of a document corpus of about M indexed pages). </p> <p> <strong>Note:</strong> the estimate aspect of traditional search results in like "advertising small print" the user lives with the illusion that all possible documents on the Web (or even <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id13436b50">Internet</a>) have been searched whereas in reality: 25% of the possible total is a major stretch; since the Web and Internet are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal_dimension_on_networks" id="link-id1105ec48">fractal networks</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scale-free_network" id="link-id111ad558">scale-free</a>, inherently growing at exponential rates "ad infinitum" across boundless dimensions of human comprehension.</p> <p> The power of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id111dc7c8">Linked Data</a> ultimately comes down to the fact that the user constructs the path to what they seek via the properties of the "Things" in question. The routes are not hardwired since <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id15cbc6f8">URI</a> de-referencing (follow your nose pattern) is available to Linked Data aware query engines and crawlers. </p> <p>We are simply trying to demonstrate how you can combine the best of full text search with the best of structured querying while reusing familiar interaction patterns from Google/Yahoo. Thus, you start with full text search, find get all the entities associated with the pattern, then use the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1512c8a8">entity</a> types or entity properties to find what you seek.</p> <p>You state in your post:</p> <blockquote> <cite>"To state the obvious caveat, the claim OpenLink is making about this demo is not that it delivers better search-term relevance, therefore the ranking of searching results is not the main criteria on which it is intended to be assessed." </cite> </blockquote> <p> Correct. </p> <blockquote> <cite> "On the other hand, one of the things they are bragging about is that their server will automatically cut off long-running queries. So how do you like your first page of results?". </cite> </blockquote> <p> Not exactly correct. We are performing aggregates using a configurable interactive time factor. Example: tell <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id12fb67c0">me</a> how many entities of type: Person, with interest: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id159bffc8">Semantic Web</a>, exist in this database within 2 seconds. Also understand that you could retry the same query and get different numbers within the same interactive time factor. It isn't your basic "query cut-off". </p> <blockquote> <cite> "And on the other other hand, the big claim OpenLink is making about this demo is that the aggregate experience of using it is better than the aggregate experience of using "traditional" search. So go ahead, use it. If you can."</cite> </blockquote> <p>Yes, "Microsoft" was a poor example for sure, the example could have been pattern: "glenn mcdonald", which should demonstrate the fundamental utility of what we are trying to demonstrate i.e., entity disambiguation courtesy of entity properties and/or entity type filtering.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=glenn+mcdonald" id="link-id15e4dbc8">Compare Googles results for: Glenn McDonald</a> with those from our demo (which dissambiguate "Glenn McDonald" via associated properties and/or types), assuming we both agree that your Web Site or Blog Home isn't the center of your entity graph or personal <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id15754528">data space</a> (i.e., data about you); so getting your home page at the top of the Google page rank offers limited value, in reality.</p> <p>What are we bragging about? A little more than what you attempt to explain. Yes, we are showing that we can find stuff within a processing window, but understand the following:</p> <ul> <li> Processing Time Window (or interactive time) is configurable </li> <li> Data Corpus is a Billion+ Triples (from <a href="http://challenge.semanticweb.org/" id="link-id149a25e0">Billion Triples Challenge Data Set</a>) </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id15e13180">SPARQL</a> doesn't have Aggregation capabilities by default (we have implemented <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VOSArticleBISPARQL2" id="link-id1593a550">SPARQL-BI</a> to deliver aggregates for analytics against large data sets, we even handle the TPC-H industry standard benchmark with SPARQL-BI)</li> <li> Paging isn't possible without aggregates, and doing aggregates on a Billion+ triples as part of a query processing cycle isn't trivial stuff (otherwise it would be everywhere due to inherent and obvious necessity).</li> </ul> <p>I hope I've clarified what's going on with our demo? If not, pose your challenge via examples and I will respond with solutions or simply cry out loud: "no mas!".</p> <p>As for your "Mac OX X Leopard" comments, I can only say this: I emphasized that this is a demo, the data is pretty old, and the input data has issues (i.e. some of the input data is bad as your example shows). The purpose of this demo is not about the text per se., it's about the size of the data corpus and faceted querying. We are going to have the entire <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id15dfec08">LOD</a> Cloud loaded into the real thing, and in addition to that our Sponger Middleware will be enabled, and then you can take issue with data quality as per your reference to "Cyndi Lauper" (btw - it takes one property filter to find <a href="http://b3s.openlinksw.com/fct/facet.vsp?cmd=set_view&sid=552&type=text-properties&limit=20&offset=0" id="link-id1496d2a0">information about her quickly</a> using "<strong>dbpprop:name</strong>" after filtering for properties with text values).</p> <p>Of all things, this demo had nothing to do with UI and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id11009090">Information</a> presentation aesthetics. It was all about combining full text search and structured queries (sparql behind the scenes) against a huge data corpus en route to solving challenges associated with faceted browsing over large data sets. We have built a service that resides inside <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id118b36a8">Virtuoso</a>. The Service is naturally of the "Web Service" variety and can be used from any consumer / client environment that speaks HTTP (directly or indirectly).</p> <p>To be continued ...</p>
New ADO.NET 3.x Provider for Virtuoso Released (Update 2)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-01-08#1514
2009-01-08T04:36:47Z
2009-01-08T09:12:50.000006-05:00
<p>I am pleased to announce the immediate availability of the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAdoNet35Provider" id="link-id142e7390">Virtuoso ADO.NET 3.5 data provider</a> for Microsoft's .NET platform.</p> <h3>What is it?</h3> <p>A data access driver/provider that provides conceptual <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id11c36c00">entity</a> oriented access to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id12fb8618">RDBMS</a> data managed by Virtuoso. Naturally, it also uses Virtuoso's in-built virtual / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/federated_database_system" id="link-id115bedc8">federated database</a> layer to provide access to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id15153c08">ODBC</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id13418908">JDBC</a> accessible RDBMS engines such as: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Oracle_Database" id="link-id134d72f0">Oracle</a> (7.x to latest), <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id15757b88">SQL</a> Server (4.2 to latest), <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Sybase" id="link-id15ef8d48">Sybase</a>, IBM <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IBM_Informix" id="link-id12f56aa0">Informix</a> (5.x to latest), IBM <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IBM_DB2" id="link-id119feb38">DB2</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ingres" id="link-id14e3d6c8">Ingres</a> (6.x to latest), Progress (7.x to OpenEdge), <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MySQL" id="link-id11295630">MySQL</a>, PostgreSQL, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Firebird_database_server" id="link-id12f40448">Firebird</a>, and others using our ODBC or JDBC bridge drivers.</p> <h3>Benefits?</h3> <h4>Technical:</h4> <p>It delivers an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id14012040">Entity-Attribute-Value + Classes & Relationships model</a> over disparate data sources that are materialized as .NET Entity Framework Objects, which are then consumable via ADO.NET Data Object Services, LINQ for Entities, and other ADO.NET data consumers.</p> <p>The provider is fully integrated into Visual Studio 2008 and delivers the same "ease of use" offered by Microsoft's own SQL Server provider, but across Virtuoso, Oracle, Sybase, DB2, Informix, Ingres, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Progress_4GL" id="link-id158d1fe8">Progress (OpenEdge</a>), MySQL, PostgreSQL, Firebird, and others. The same benefits also apply uniformly to Entity Frameworks compatibility.</p> <p> Bearing in mind that Virtuoso is a multi-model (hybrid) data manager, this also implies that you can use .NET Entity Frameworks against all data managed by Virtuoso. Remember, Virtuoso's SQL channel is a conduit to Virtuoso's core; thus, RDF (courtesy of <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SPASQL" id="link-id133c9b70">SPASQL</a> as already implemented re. <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtJenaProvider" id="link-id11380b80">Jena</a>/<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtSesame2Provider" id="link-id10fc0c88">Sesame</a>/<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtRDFDriverRedland" id="link-id1390f730">Redland</a> providers), XML, and other data forms stored in Virtuoso also become accessible via .NET's Entity Frameworks.</p> <br /> <h4>Strategic:</h4> <p>You can choose which entity oriented data access model works best for you: RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id151354f0">Linked Data</a> & <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id15dc5eb0">SPARQL</a> or .NET Entity Frameworks & <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADO.NET_Entity_Framework#Entity_SQL" id="link-id14404e80">Entity SQL</a>. Either way, Virtuoso delivers a commercial grade, high-performance, secure, and scalable solution.</p> <br /> <h3>How do I use it?</h3> Simply follow one of guides below: <ul> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtEntityFrameworkSchoolDbWinFormApp" id="link-id15e5c580">Using Visual Studio 2008 & Virtuoso to build an Entity Frameworks based Windows forms application</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtUsingMsAdoNetDataServicesWithVirtuoso" id="link-id157912b0">Using Visual Studio 2008 & Virtuoso to build an ADO.NET Data Services based application</a> </li> </ul> <p> <b>Note:</b> When working with external or 3rd party databases, simply use the Virtuoso Conductor to link the external data source into Virtuoso. Once linked, the remote tables will simply be treated as though they are native Virtuoso tables leaving the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtual_Database" id="link-id15b04b18">virtual database</a> engine to handle the rest. This is similar to the role the Microsoft JET engine played in the early days of ODBC, so if you've ever linked an ODBC data source into Microsoft Access, you are ready to do the same using Virtuoso.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1420" id="link-id160afdd0">Entity Oriented Data Access</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1474" id="link-id113eeb50">Yoda & the Data FORCE.</a> </li> </ul>
Is Linked Data Always Relevant?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-12-29#1509
2008-12-29T22:32:00Z
2008-12-31T12:57:41-05:00
<p>I pose the question above because I stumbled across an interesting claim about <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id1193b2b0">OpenLink Software</a> and its representatives expressed in the <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com" id="link-id14e4e730">ReadWriteWeb</a> post titled: <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/xbrl_mashing_up_financial_statements.php" id="link-id1119ecd8">XBRL: Mashing Up Financial Statements</a>, where the following claim is made:</p> <blockquote> <cite>"..There is evidence that they promote <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11933ec0">LINKED DATA</a> at any expense without understanding the rationale behind other approaches...".</cite> </blockquote> <p> To answer the question above, Linked Data is always relevant as long as we are actually talking about "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0x199ba780">Data</a>" which is simply the case all of the time, irrespective of interaction medium.</p> <p>If XBRL can be disconnected in anyway from Linked Data, I desperately would like to be enlightened (as per my comments to the post). Why wouldn't anyone desire the ability to navigate the linked data inherent in any financial report? Every <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1145b868">entity</a> in an XBRL instance document is an entity, directly or indirectly related to other entities. Why "Mash" the data when you can harmonize XBRL data via a Generic Financial Dictionary (schema or ontology) such that descriptions of Balance Sheet, P&L, and other entities are navigable via their attributes and relationships? In short, why "Mash" (code based brute force joining across disparately shaped data) when you can "Mesh" (natural joining of structured data entities)?</p> <p>"Linked Data" is about the ability to connect all our observations (data)? , perceptions (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id11b79e98">information</a>), and inferences / conclusions (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id143e0aa8">knowledge</a>) across a spectrum of interaction media. And it just so happens that the RDF data model (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entity-Attribute-Value_model" id="link-id114e68b0">Entity-Attribute-Vaue</a> + Class Relationships + HTTP based Object Identifiers), a range of RDF data model serialization formats, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id115bca28">SPARQL</a> (Query Language and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x1c1ef2c8">Web</a> Service combo) actually make this possible, in a manner consistent with the essence of the global space we know as the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id13dc10d8">World Wide Web</a>.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/britainfromabove/stories/visualisations/communication.shtml" id="link-id115f3858">BBC's Britain from Above</a> (core message: Data is Everything).</li> </ul>
Bio2Rdf EC2 AMI is now Ready! (Updated)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-12-23#1508
2008-12-23T15:37:45Z
2008-12-24T11:05:13-05:00
<p>Adding to the collection of Amazon EC2 AMI based knowledgebases already unveiled for <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtEC2AMIDBpediaInstall" id="link-id117a3710">DBpedia</a> and <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtEC2AMINeuroCommonsInstall" id="link-id11293c10">NeuroCommons</a>, we now have a <a href="http://www.bio2rdf.org/" id="link-id14ba6338">Bio2Rdf</a> knowledgebase AMI.</p> <h3>What is Bio2Rdf?</h3> <p>A community developed knowledgebase comprised of Bio Informatics <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> from across <a href="http://www.freebase.com/view/user/bio2rdf/public/sparql" id="link-id1468fb90">30 or so public data sources</a>. The standard deployment of Bio2Rdf includes a a federation of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id111962a8">SPARQL</a> endpoints provided by project members and collaborators.</p> <h3>What is the Bio2Rdf EC2 AMI?</h3> <p> An Amazon EC2 hosted variant of the Bio2Rdf knowledgebase. In addition to providing a SPARQL endpoint, the data exposed by the Amazon AMI is published in compliance with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1560ac50">Linked Data</a> publishing best practices espoused by the <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id153aff30">Linking Open Data community</a> (<a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id1390d968">LOD</a>).</p> <h3>Benefits?</h3> <p>The ability to instantiate a personal or service-specific variant of this powerful knowledgebase via the Amazon EC2 Cloud. Instead of a 22+ hour error prone odyssey - you simply get down to the task of data analysis and integration within 1.5 hrs (when setting up you AMI for the first time).</p> <h3>How do I get going?</h3> Just follow the instructions in the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtEC2AMIBio2rdfInstall" id="link-id114fc4a8">Bio2Rdf EC2 AMI installation guide</a>. <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://bio2rdf.wiki.sourceforge.net/" id="link-id19109ed8">Bio2Rdf Wiki</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://bio2rdf.wiki.sourceforge.net/Demo+queries" id="link-id1134c988">Sample Bio2Rdf Queries Collection</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VirtuosoEC2AMI" id="link-id11c28e08">Virtuoso's Amazon Machine Image (AMI) for EC2 Home Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdBd14rjcs0" id="link-id14b4a390">Cloud Computing Explanation Video</a> </li> </ul>
Virtuoso+Neurocommons EC2 AMI released! (Update - 1)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-12-08#1491
2008-12-08T21:13:04Z
2008-12-10T22:48:49-05:00
<h3>What is Neurocommons?</h3> <p>Excerpted from the <a href="http://neurocommons.org/" id="link-id142131b8">project home page</a>:</p> <blockquote> <cite>The NeuroCommons project seeks to make all scientific research materials - research articles, annotations, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a>, physical materials - as available and as useable as they can be. We do this by both fostering practices that render <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id112f8418">information</a> in a form that promotes uniform access by computational agents - sometimes called "interoperability". We want <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id1195f9b0">knowledge</a> sources to combine meaningfully, enabling semantically precise queries that span multiple information sources.</cite> </blockquote> <p>In a nutshell, a great project that makes practical use of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1e945010">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id115de818">Web</a> technology in the areas of computational biology and neuroscience.</p> <h3>What is <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0xa1eda880">Virtuoso</a> and Neurocommons AMI for EC2?</h3> <p>A pre-installed and fully tuned edition of Virtuoso that includes a fully configured Neurocommons Knowledgebase (in RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id114d8c88">Linked Data</a> form) on Amazon's EC2 Cloud platform.</p> <h3>Benefits?</h3> <p>Generally, it provides a no-hassles mechanism for instantiating personal-, organization-, or service-specific instances of a very powerful research knowledgebase within approximately 1.15 hours compared to a lengthy rebuild from RDF source data alternative that takes 14 hours or more, depending on machine hardware configuration and host operating system resources.</p> <h3>Features:</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/sparql.neurocommons.org" id="link-id154c5710">Neurocommons public instance</a> functionality replica (re. RDF and (X)HTML resource description representations & <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1188e5f0">SPARQL</a> endpoint)</li> <li> Local <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id117092a8">URI</a> de-referencing (so no contention with public endpoint) as part of the RDF Linked Data Deployment</li> <li> Fully tuned Virtuoso instance for neurocommons knowledgebase. </li> </ol> <h3>Installation Guide</h3> Simply read the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtEC2AMINeuroCommonsInstall" id="link-id15267570">Virtuoso+NeuroCommons EC2 AMI installation guide</a>. <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://sciencecommons.org/about/science-commons-dylan-video/" id="link-id14cb22f0">Science Commons Video</a> </li> </ul>
Virtuoso+DBpedia AMI for EC2 now Live!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-12-01#1490
2008-12-01T16:04:28Z
2008-12-12T11:22:27-05:00
<h3>What is <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id11015c60">Virtuoso</a>+<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id1140b6f0">DBpedia</a> AMI for EC2?</h3> <p>A pre-installed and fully tuned edition of Virtuoso that includes a fully configured DBpedia instance on Amazon's EC2 Cloud platform.</p> <h3>Benefits?</h3> <p>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 <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> that takes between 8 - 22 hours depending on machine hardware configuration and host operating system resources.</p> <p>From a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Entrepreneur perspective it offers all of the generic benefits of a <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/ODSInstallationEC2" id="link-id1148ac90">Virtuoso EC2 AMI</a> plus the following:</p> <ol> <li> Instant bootstrap of a dense Lookup Hub for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14c94590">Linked Data Web</a> oriented solutions</li> <li> No exposure to any of the complexities and nuances associated with deployment of dereferencable URIs (you have a DBpedia replica)</li> <li> Predictable performance and scalability due localization of query processing (you aren't sharing the public DBpedia server with the rest of the world). </li> </ol> <h3>Features:</h3> <ol> <li> DBpedia public instance functionality replica (re. RDF and (X)HTML resource description representations & <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1188e5f0">SPARQL</a> endpoint)</li> <li> Local <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id117092a8">URI</a> de-referencing (so no contention with public endpoint) as part of the Linked Data Deployment</li> <li> Fully tuned Virtuoso instance for DBpedia data set hosting. </li> </ol> <h3>How Do I Get Started?</h3> Simply read the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtEC2AMIDBpediaInstall" id="link-id15836e90">Virtuoso-DBpedia EC2 AMI installation guide</a>. <p>Here are a few live examples of DBpedia resource URIs deployed and de-referencable via one of my EC2 based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id14930ab0">personal data spaces</a>:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://kingsley.idehen.name/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1104a740">Linked Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://kingsley.idehen.name/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id11200f48">Entity-Attribute-Value</a> (aka. Triples) Model</li> <li> <a href="http://kingsley.idehen.name/resource/Hyperdata" id="link-id11235ef0">Hyperdata</a> Linking (aka. <a href="http://kingsley.idehen.name/resource/Object_hyperlinking" id="link-id15493b90">Object Hyperlinking</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://kingsley.idehen.name/resource/Barack_Obama" id="link-id15497580">Barack Obama</a> </li> </ul>
Introducing Virtuoso Universal Server (Cloud Edition) for Amazon EC2
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-11-28#1489
2008-11-28T19:27:12Z
2008-11-28T16:06:02.000006-05:00
<h3>What is it?</h3> <p>A pre-installed edition of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14bea838">Virtuoso</a> for Amazon's EC2 Cloud platform.</p> <h3>What does it offer?</h3> From a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Entrepreneur perspective it offers: <ol> <li> Low cost entry point to a game-changing Web 3.0+ (and beyond) platform that combines <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id11309b38">SQL</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id135f7988">RDF</a>, XML, and Web Services functionality</li> <li> Flexible variable cost model (courtesy of <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/devpay/" id="link-id17941018">EC2 DevPay</a>) tightly bound to revenue generated by your services</li> <li> Delivers federated and/or centralized model flexibility for you SaaS based solutions</li> <li> Simple entry point for developing and deploying sophisticated database driven applications (SQL or RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14ea6b10">Linked Data Web</a> oriented)</li> <li> Complete framework for exploiting OpenID, OAuth (including Role enhancements) that simplifies exploitation of these vital Identity and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Access technologies</li> <li>Easily implement RDF Linked Data based Mail, Blogging, Wikis, Bookmarks, Calendaring, Discussion Forums, Tagging, Social-Networking as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id11519928">Data Space</a> (data containers) features of your application or service offering</li> <li>Instant alleviation of challenges (e.g. service costs and agility) associated with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DataPortability" id="link-id111cb610">Data Portability</a> and Open Data Access across Web 2.0 data silos</li> <li> LDAP integration for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Intranet" id="link-id114a8270">Intranet</a> / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Extranet" id="link-id10fe4f08">Extranet</a> style applications.</li> </ol> <p>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:</p> <ol> <li> RDF Database (a Quad Store with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id11911bf8">SPARQL</a> & SPARUL Language & Protocol support)</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id110544c8">SQL</a> Database (with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id1524c7d0">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id14cfb658">JDBC</a>, OLE-DB, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id110ec6c8">ADO</a>.NET, and XMLA driver access)</li> <li>XML Database (XML Schema, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XQuery" id="link-id10ebf218">XQuery</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XPath" id="link-id142a7898">Xpath</a>, XSLT, Full Text Indexing)</li> <li>Full Text Indexing.</li> </ol> <p>From a Middleware perspective it provides:</p> <ol> <li> RDF Views (Wrappers / Semantic Covers) over SQL, XML, and other data sources accessible via SOAP or REST style Web Services</li> <li> Sponger Service for converting non RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id11931c60">information</a> resources into RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id118f7168">Linked Data</a> "on the fly" via a large collection of pre-installed RDFizer Cartridges.</li> </ol> <p>From the Web Server Platform perspective it provides an alternative to LAMP stack components such as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MySQL" id="link-id10f7b780">MySQL</a> and Apace by offering</p> <ol> <li> HTTP Web Server</li> <li> WebDAV Server</li> <li> Web <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Application_server" id="link-id1268daa8">Application Server</a> (includes <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id1585d238">PHP</a> runtime hosting)</li> <li> SOAP or REST style Web Services Deployment</li> <li> RDF Linked Data Deployment</li> <li> SPARQL (SPARQL Query Language) and SPARUL (SPARQL Update Language) endpoints</li> <li>Virtuoso Hosted PHP packages for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MediaWiki" id="link-id15568818">MediaWiki</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Drupal" id="link-id110bd7a8">Drupal</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id10f66918">Wordpress</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PhpBB" id="link-id13fda4d0">phpBB3</a> (just install the relevant Virtuoso Distro. Package). </li> </ol> <p>From the general System Administrator's perspective it provides:</p> <ol> <li> Online Backups (Backup Set dispatched to S3 buckets, FTP, or HTTP/WebDAV server locations)</li> <li>Synchronized Incremental Backups to Backup Set locations</li> <li>Backup Restore from Backup Set location (without exiting to EC2 shell).</li> </ol> <p>Higher level user oriented offerings include:</p> <ol> <li>OpenLink Data Explorer front-end for exploring the burgeoning Linked Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id11646dc8">Web</a> </li> <li> Ajax based SPARQL Query Builder (iSPARQL) that enables SPARQL Query construction by Example</li> <li>Ajax based SQL Query Builder (QBE) that enables SQL Query construction by Example.</li> </ol> <p>For Web 2.0 / 3.0 users, developers, and entrepreneurs it offers it includes Distributed Collaboration Tools & Social Media realm functionality courtesy of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id11009930">ODS</a> that includes:</p> <ol> <li> Point of presence on the Linked Data Web that meshes your Identity and your Data via URIs</li> <li> System generated Social Network Profile & Contact Data via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id1185a1c0">FOAF</a>?</li> <li> System generated <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SIOC" id="link-id14791890">SIOC</a> (Semantically Interconnected Online Community) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id1577cad8">Data Space</a> (that includes a Social Graph) exposing all your Web data in RDF Linked Data form</li> <li> System generated OpenID and automatic integration with FOAF</li> <li> 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</li> <li> In-built support for SyncML which enables data synchronization with Mobile Phones.</li> </ol> <h3>How Do I Get Going with It?</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/ODSInstallationEC2" id="link-id114e1600">Standard Installation Guide</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtEC2AMIDBpediaInstall" id="link-id110a98e8">Personal or Service Specific DBpedia Installation Guide</a> </li> </ul>
Your Personal Edition of DBpedia in the Clouds
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-11-25#1486
2008-11-25T23:23:26Z
2008-11-25T18:55:55-05:00
<p>We are just about done with an end-to-end workflow pattern that enables reconstitution of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id112a4aa0">DBpedia</a> 3.2 instances in the Clouds courtesy of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id11969f70">Virtuoso</a> and EC2.</p> <p>Basically this is how it works.</p> <ol> <li>Instantiate a Virtuoso EC2 AMI (paid variety)</li> <li>Install the special EC2 extensions (ec2ext_dav.vad) VAD via the Conductor UI or iSQL</li> <li>Restore the Virtuoso+DBpedia backup from our S3 bucket</li> <li>After approx. 1 hr, you will have a complete DBpedia replica in your own <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id1169c358">data space</a> on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10fd39a8">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id141d0c80">Web</a>.</li> </ol> <p>DBpedia replica implies:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id116dfd78">SPARQL</a> Endpoint</li> <li>Linked Data Viewer Pages (as you see in the public DBpedia instance)</li> <li>All requisite re-write rules for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id114ab148">URI</a> de-referencing and attribution (i.e., low cost triples that links back to main DBpedia using terms from our little Attribution Ontology) </li> <li>All the inference rules for <a href="http://umbel.org/about/" id="link-id112d4860">UMBEL</a>, YAGO, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cyc" id="link-id14612e80">OpenCYC</a>, and DBpedia-OWL data dictionaries </li> <li>All Full Text Indexes</li> <li>All Bitmap Indexes.</li> </ol> <p>Tomorrow is the official go live day (due to last minute price changes), but you can instantiate a paid <a href="https://aws-portal.amazon.com/gp/aws/user/subscription/index.html?ie=UTF8&offeringCode=6CB89F71" id="link-id115da1a8">Virtuoso AMI</a> starting now :-)</p> <p>To be continued...</p>
YODA & the Data FORCE
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-11-03#1474
2008-11-03T17:32:49Z
2010-07-20T13:53:06-04:00
<p> The original <a href="http://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html" id="link-id13b25ba8">design document</a> (by <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id181e4c70">TimBL</a>) that lead to the WWW (*an important read*) was very clear about the need to create an "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id10f23918">information</a> space" that connects heterogeneous <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> sources. Unfortunately, in trying to create a moniker to distinguish one aspect of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> (the Linked Document Web) from the part that was overlooked (the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11096818">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id1b9c6b98">Web</a>), we ended up with a project code name that's fundamentally a misnomer in the form of: "The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id10ffe228">Semantic Web</a>".</p> <p> If we could just take "The Semantic Web" moniker for what it was -- a code name for an aspect of the Web -- and move on, things will get much clearer, fast!</p> <p> Basically, what is/was the "Semantic Web" should really have been code named: ("You" Oriented Data Access) as a play on: Yoda's appreciation of the FORCE (Fact ORiented Connected Entities) -- the power of inter galactic, interlinked, structured data, fashioned by the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id191b22e0">World Wide Web</a> courtesy of the HTTP protocol.</p> <div> <img src="http://motivationalspeaker1.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/yoda.jpg" /> </div> <p> As stated in a earlier post, the next phase of the Web is all about the magic of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1a7395f0">entity</a> "You". The single most important item of reference to every Web user would be the Person Entity <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Identity_%28object-oriented_programming%29" id="link-id16ab9308">ID</a> (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id1d403c88">URI</a>). Just by remembering your Entity ID, you will have intelligent pathways across, and into, the FORCE that the Linked Data Web delivers. The quality of the pathways and increased density of the FORCE are the keys to high <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1442" id="link-id1c549b28">SDQ</a> (tomorrows SEO). Thus, the SDQ of URIs will ultimately be the unit determinant of value to Web Users, along the following personal lines, hence the critical platform questions:</p> <ul> <li> Does your platform give <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id175afe00">me</a> Identity (a URI) with high SDQ?</li> <li> Do the Data Source Names (URIs) in your Data Spaces deliver high SDQ?</li> </ul> <p> While most industry commentators continue to ponder and pontificate about what "The Semantic Web" is (unfortunately), the real thing (the "FORCE") is already here, and self-enhancing rapidly.</p> <p> Assuming we now accept the FORCE is simply an RDF based Linked Data moniker, and that RDF Linked Data is all about the Web as a structured database, we should start to move our attention over to practical exploitation of this burgeoning global database, and in doing so we should not discard <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id19e2c6e0">knowledge</a> from the past such as the many great examples available gratis from the Relational Database realm. For instance, we should start paying attention to the discovery, development, and deployment of high level tools such as query builders, report writers, and intelligence oriented analytic tools, none of which should -- at first point of interaction -- expose raw RDF or the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id117921f0">SPARQL</a> query language. Along similar lines of thinking, we also need development environments and frameworks that are counterparts to Visual Studio, ACCESS, File Maker, and the like.</p> <h3> Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1458" id="link-id1cec1a40">Numerati & The Magic of You!</a> </li> </ul>
Where Are All the RDF-based Semantic Web Applications?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-10-01#1447
2008-10-01T23:09:00Z
2008-10-02T15:27:41-04:00
<p> In response to the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id15971040">Semantic Web</a> Technology" application classification scheme espoused by <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com" id="link-id16391540">ReadWriteWeb</a> (RWW), emphasized in the post titled: <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/rdf_semantic_web_apps.php" id="link-id1157eaa0">Where are all the RDF-based Semantic Web Apps?</a>, here is my attempt to clarify and reintroduce what <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id15a43758">OpenLink Software</a> offers (today) in relation to Semantic Web technology. </p> <p> From the RWW Top-Down category, which I interpret as: technologies that produce RDF from non RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> sources. Our product portfolio is comprised of the following; <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14f05818">Virtuoso Universal Server</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id162c8630">OpenLink Data Spaces</a>, <a href="http://oat.openlinksw.com" id="link-id134e1a00">OpenLink Ajax Toolkit</a>, and <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com" id="link-id160b3bf8">OpenLink Data Explorer</a> (which includes ubiquity commands).</p> <h3>Virtuoso Universal Server functionality summary:</h3> <ol> <li>Generation of RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id161d5f50">Linked Data</a> Views of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id161d5978">SQL</a>, XML, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Services in general </li> <li>Deployment of RDF Linked Data </li> <li>"On the Fly" generation of RDF Linked Data from Document Web <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/webarch/" id="link-id178bbc08">information resources</a> (i.e. distillation of entities from their containers e.g. Web pages) via Cartridges / Drivers</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id162c2118">SPARQL</a> query language support </li> <li>SPARQL extensions that bring SPARQL closer to SQL e.g Aggregates, Update, Insert, Delete Named Graph support (i.e. use of logical names to partition RDF data within Virtuoso's multi-model dbms engine) </li> <li>Inference Engine (currently in use re. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id14f563c0">DBpedia</a> via Yago and <a href="http://umbel.org/about/" id="link-id113273b8">UMBEL</a>)</li> <li>Host and exposes data from <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Drupal" id="link-id123d3bd8">Drupal</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id141adf40">Wordpress</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MediaWiki" id="link-id1604b450">MediaWiki</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PhpBB" id="link-id141013a8">phpBB3</a> as RDF Linked Data via in-built support for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id14661e58">PHP</a> runtime</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/ODSInstallationEC2" id="link-id146c84d0">Available as an EC2 AMI</a> </li> <li>etc..</li> </ol> <h3>OpenLink Data Spaces functionality summary:</h3> <ol> <li>Simple mechanism for Linked Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id15473770">Web</a> enabling yourself by giving you an <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/GetAPersonalURIIn5MinutesOrLess" id="link-id15f6d278">HTTP based User ID</a> (a de-referencable <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id15aaeb68">URI</a>) that is linked to a <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen" id="link-id15a7a840">FOAF based Profile page</a> and OpenID</li> <li>Binds all your data sources (blogs, wikis, bookmarks, photos, calendar items etc. ) to your URI so can "Find" things by only remembering your URI</li> <li>Makes your profile page and personal URI the focal point of Linked Data Web presence</li> <li>Delivers Data Portability (using data access by value or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Reference_(computer_science)" id="link-id16212838">data access by reference</a>) across data silos (e.g. Web 2.0 style social networks)</li> <li>Allows you make annotations about anything in your own <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id14668010">Data Space</a>(s) on the Web without exposure to RDF markup</li> <li>A Briefcase feature that provides a WebDAV driven RDF Linked Data variant of functionality seen in Mac OS X Spotlight and WinFS with the addition of SPARQL compliance</li> <li>Automatically generates <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id14691440">RDFa</a> in its (X)HTML pages</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id14fae7b8">Blog</a>, Wiki, WebDAV File Server, Shared Bookmarks, Calendar, and other applications that look and feel like Web 2.0 counterparts but emitt RDF Linked Data amongst a plethora of data exchange formats</li> <li>Available as an EC2 AMI</li> <li>etc..</li> </ol> <h3>OpenLink Ajax Toolkit functionality summary:</h3> <ol> <li>Provides binding to SQL, RDF, XML, and Web Services via Ajax Database Connectivity Layer (you only need an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id11550548">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id13ae5f68">JDBC</a>, OLE-DB, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id162803e8">ADO</a>.NET, XMLA Driver, or Web Service on the backend for dynamic data access from Javascript)</li> <li>All controls are Ajax Database Connectivity bound (widgets get their data from Ajax Database Connectivity data sources)</li> <li>Bundled with Virtuoso and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id161dfe90">ODS</a> installations.</li> <li>etc.</li> </ol> <h3>OpenLink Data Explorer functionality summary</h3> <ol> <li>Distills entities associated with information resource style containers (e.g. Web Pages or files) as RDF Linked Data</li> <li>Exposes the RDF based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id12a42ed8">Linked Data graph</a> associated with information resources (see the Linked Data behind Web pages)</li> <li>Ubiquity commands for invoking the above</li> <li>Available as a <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/ode" id="link-id15a0d2b0">Hosted Service</a> or <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com" id="link-id138b9fa8">Firefox Extension</a> </li> <li>Bundled with Virtuoso and ODS installations</li> <li>etc.</li> </ol> <h3>Note:</h3> <p>Of course you could have simply looked up <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink" id="link-id14ef2c10">OpenLink Software's FOAF based Profile page</a> (*note the Linked Data Explorer tab*), or simply passed the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id14cbf5c8">FOAF</a> profile page <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id16453e28">URL</a> to a Linked Data aware client application such as: <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/ode" id="link-id15a80500">OpenLink Data Explorer</a>, <a href="http://zitgist.com/about/" id="link-id1586a360">Zitgist</a> <a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com" id="link-id16249f60">Data Viewer</a>, <a href="http://beckr.org/marbles" id="link-id15993fb0">Marbles</a>, and <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2005/ajar/release/tabulator/0.8/tab.html" id="link-id14d63048">Tabulator</a>, and obtained information. Remember, <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id138ba838">OpenLink Software</a> is an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1173e120">Entity</a> of Type: <a href="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/Organization" id="link-id138b87b8">foaf:Organization</a>, on the burgeoning Linked Data Web :-)</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2_TimBL_v3.html" id="link-id163a0c88">Linked Data Planet Keynote</a> (RDFa based remix edition)</li> <li> <a href="http://semanticbusiness.blogspot.com/2008/09/report-on-cusp-global-review-of.html" id="link-id11471a40">On The Cusp: A Global Review of the Semantic Web Industry.</a> </li> </ul>
Business Value of Linked Data (Enterprise Angle)?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-09-11#1437
2008-09-11T18:59:24Z
2008-09-11T15:52:48.000050-04:00
<p>All enterprises run IS/MIS/EIS systems that are supposed to enable optimized exploitation of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id1408bee8">information</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id14c429a8">knowledge</a>. Unfortunately, applications, services (SOAP or REST), database engines, middleware, operating systems, programming languages, development frameworks, network protocols, network topologies, or some other piece of infrastructure, eventually lay claim (possessively) to the data.</p> <p>Courtesy of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10f98db8">Linked Data</a>, we are now able to extend the "document to document" linking mechanism of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> (Hypertext Linking) to more granular "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id14410810">entity</a> to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id10dbb420">entity</a>" level linking. And in doing so, we have a layer of abstraction that in one swoop alleviates all of the infrastructure oriented data access impediments of yore. I know this sounds simplistic, but be rest assured, imbibing <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14b6af20">Linked Data</a>'s value proposition is really just that simple, once you engage solutions (e.g. <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14ce6a20">Virtuoso</a>) that enable you to deploy <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1151c718">Linked Data</a> across your enterprise.</p> <h3>Example: </h3> <p>Microsoft ACCESS, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id14ef3b08">SQL</a> Server, and <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10d865b8">Virtuoso</a> all use the Northwind <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id10b04250">SQL</a> DB Schema as the basis of the demonstration database shipped with each DBMS product. This schema is comprised of common IS/MIS entities that include: Customers, Contacts, Orders, Products, Employees etc.</p> <p>What we all really want to do as data, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id110dd7a0">information</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id11484408">knowledge</a> consumers and/or dispatchers, is be no more than a single "mouse click" away from relevant data/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id10c755c8">information</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id1464ac88">knowledge</a> data access and/or exploration. Even better (but not always so obvious), we also want anyone in our network (company, division, department, cube-cluster) to inherit these data access efficiencies.</p> <p>In this example, the <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI" id="link-id14ab8ed0">Web Page about the Customer "ALKI"</a> provides <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id14bdb360">me</a> with a myriad of exploration and data access paths e.g., when I click on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id10c388e0">foaf</a>:primarytopic property value link.</p> <p>This simple example, via a single Web Page, should put to rest any doubts about the utility of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0xb042fd8">Linked Data</a>. Of course this is <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=alfki&type=text&output=html" id="link-id10ccccf0">an old demo</a>, but this time around the UI is minimalist as my prior attempts skipped a few steps i.e., starting from within a <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10f8a530">Linked Data explorer/browser</a>.</p> <p>Important note: I haven't exported <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id0x16dfc2a0">SQL</a> into an RDF data warehouse, I am converting the SQL into RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> on the fly which has two fundamental benefits:</p> <ol> <li>No vulnerability to changes in the source DBMS</li> <li>Superior performance over the RDF warehouse since the source schema is SQL based and I can leverage the optimization of the underlying SQL engine when translating between <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0xd9a4030">SPARQL</a> and SQL.</li> </ol> <p>Enjoy!</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/oerling/weblog/Orri%20Erling%27s%20Blog/1434" id="link-id11338a48">Requirements for Relational to RDF Mapping</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/oerling/weblog/Orri%20Erling%27s%20Blog/1433" id="link-id10d84278">Handling Graph Transitivity in a SQL/RDF Hybrid Engine</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/oerling/weblog/Orri%20Erling%27s%20Blog/1431" id="link-id10c762e8">How Virtuoso handles the Web Aspects of Linked Data Queries</a>.</li> </ol>
Crunchbase & Semantic Web Interview (Remix - Update 1)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-27#1424
2008-08-27T18:16:37Z
2008-08-27T20:35:15-04:00
<p>After reading <a href="http://blog.crunchbase.com/2008/08/26/building-a-semantic-web-interview-with-benjamin-nowack/" id="link-id16b8e0e0">Bengee's interview with CrunchBase</a>, I decided to knock up a quick interview remix as part of my usual attempt to add to the developing discourse.</p> <blockquote> <cite><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/" id="link-id17c8e7b8">CrunchBase</a>: When we released the <a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/help/api" id="link-id16681f68">CrunchBase API</a>, you were one of the first developers to step up and quickly released a <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com's%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1395" id="link-id1016d5f0">CrunchBase Sponger Cartridge</a>. Can you explain what a CrunchBase Sponger Cartridge is?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id13243300">Me</a>: A Sponger Cartridge is a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> access driver for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Resources that plugs into our <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id17042f08">Virtuoso</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id1399b588">Universal Server</a> (DBMS and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id137fd188">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id100b23d8">Web</a> Server combo amongst other things). It uses the internal structure of a resource and/or a web service associated with a resource, to materialize an RDF based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id10418750">Linked Data graph</a> that essentially describes the resource via its properties (Attributes & Relationships). </blockquote> <br /> <img src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/images/ldp4.png" /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: And what inspired you to create it?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id12fa60c0">Me</a>: Bengee built a new space with your data, and we've built a space on the fly from your data which still resides in your domain. Either solution extols the virtues of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id101a8d28">Linked Data</a> i.e. the ability to explore relationships across data items with high degrees of serendipity (also colloquially known as: following-your-nose pattern in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id14a3ff30">Semantic Web</a> circles).</blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://cb.semsol.org/" id="link-id182a0170">Bengee</a> posted a notice to the <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData" id="link-id131e8d10">Linking Open Data Community</a>'s public <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-lod/2008Jul/0110.html" id="link-id11dd0720">mailing list announcing his effort</a>. Bearing in mind the fact that we've been using <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1144" id="link-id117cf6e8">middleware to mesh the realms of Web 2.0 and the Linked Data Web</a> for a while, it was a no-brainer to knock something up based on the conceptual similarities between <a href="http://wikicompany.org/wiki/Main_Page" id="link-id13b87a68">Wikicompany</a> and CrunchBase. In a sense, a quadrant of orthogonality is what immediately came to mind re. Wikicompany, CrunchBase, Bengee's RDFization efforts, and ours.</blockquote> <blockquote>Bengee created an RDF based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id133c8fc8">Linked Data</a> warehouse based on the data exposed by your API, which is exposed via the <a href="http://cb.semsol.org/" id="link-id1826f928">Semantic CrunchBase</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id102d8890">data space</a>. In our case we've taken the "RDFization on the fly" approach which produces a transient <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id16a0b8d0">Linked Data</a> View of the CrunchBase data exposed by your APIs. Our approach is in line with our world view: all resources on the Web are data sources, and the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1668e6c8">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id188e7da0">Web</a> is about incorporating HTTP into the naming scheme of these data sources so that the conventional <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id13490710">URL</a> based hyperlinking mechanism can be used to access a structured description of a resource, which is then transmitted using a range negotiable representation formats. In addition, based on the fact that we house and publish a lot of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id169aa568">Linked Data</a> on the Web (e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id10af10e8">DBpedia</a>, <a href="http://www.pingthesemanticweb.com/about/" id="link-id10a2b710">PingTheSemanticWeb</a>, and others), we've also automatically meshed Crunchbase data with related data in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id1403cd40">DBpedia</a> and Wikicompany data.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: Do you know of any apps that are using CrunchBase Cartridge to enhance their functionality?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id177d24c8">Me</a>: Yes, the <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10725ca0">OpenLink Data Explorer</a> which provides CrunchBase site visitors with the option to explore the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id17dedea8">Linked Data</a> in the CrunchBase <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id13f02a00">data space</a>. It also allows them to "Mesh" (rather than "Mash") CrunchBase data with other <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11fb3ba0">Linked Data</a> sources on the Web without writing a single line of code. </blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: You have been immersed in the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id12e18a00">Semantic Web</a> movement for a while now. How did you first get interested in the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id15132110">Semantic Web</a>?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id0xddaa9c8">Me</a>: We saw the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id188b3330">Semantic Web</a> as a vehicle for standardizing conceptual views of heterogeneous data sources via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id10350978">context</a> lenses (URIs). In 1998 as part of our strategy to expand our business beyond the development and deployment of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id171d6798">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id138120a0">JDBC</a>, and OLE-DB data providers, we decided to build a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtual_Database" id="link-id13ea6618">Virtual Database</a> Engine (see: <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VOSHistory" id="link-id11a4fa30">Virtuoso History</a>), and in doing so we sought a standards based mechanism for the conceptual output of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Federated_database_system" id="link-id101a1248">data virtualization</a> effort. As of the time of the <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Semantic.html" id="link-id18882cf8">seminal unveiling of the Semantic Web in 1998</a> we were clear about two things, in relation to the effects of the Web and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id12fa2c58">Internet</a> data management infrastructure inflections: 1) Existing DBMS technology had reached it limits 2) Web Servers would ultimately hit their functional limits. These fundamental realities compelled us to develop <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id102b09a0">Virtuoso</a> with an eye to leveraging the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id11984d98">Semantic Web</a> as a vehicle from completing its technical roadmap.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: Can you put into laymanâs terms exactly what RDF and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1066dcf0">SPARQL</a> are and why they are important? Do they only matter for developers or will they extend past developers at some point and be used by website visitors as well?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>Me: RDF (Resource Description Framework) is a Graph based Data Model that facilitates resource description using the <a href="http://www.eslincanada.com/englishlesson2.html" id="link-id178b94a8">Subject, Predicate, and Object principle</a>. Associated with the core data model, as part of the overall framework, are a number of markup languages for expressing your descriptions (just as you express presentation markup semantics in HTML or document structure semantics in XML) that include: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id188db0a8">RDFa</a> (simple extension of HTML markup for embedding descriptions of things in a page), N3 (a human friendly markup for describing resources), RDF/XML (a machine friendly markup for describing resources).</blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id188c2030">SPARQL</a> is the query language associated with the RDF Data Model, just as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id13f0ffe0">SQL</a> is a query language associated with the Relational Database Model. Thus, when you have RDF based structured and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id166874d0">linked data</a> on the Web, you can query against Web using <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1016cc98">SPARQL</a> just as you would against an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Oracle_Database" id="link-id101c9708">Oracle</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id11cb0b18">SQL</a> Server/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IBM_DB2" id="link-id10760ec0">DB2</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IBM_Informix" id="link-id1066c8c0">Informix</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ingres" id="link-id18894f40">Ingres</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MySQL" id="link-iddc9ebb0">MySQL</a>/etc.. DBMS using <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id1030d120">SQL</a>. That's it in a nutshell.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: On your website you wrote that âRDF and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id168e9ad0">SPARQL</a> as productivity boosters in everyday web developmentâ. Can you elaborate on why you believe that to be true?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>Me: I think the ability to discern a formal description of anything via its discrete properties is of immense value re. productivity, especially when the capability in question results in a graph of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x179f6328">Linked Data</a> that isn't confined to a specific host operating system, database engine, application or service, programming language, or development framework. RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> is about infrastructure for the true materialization of the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id13e475b8">Information</a> at Your Fingertips" vision of yore. Even though it's taken the emergence of RDF Linked Data to make the aforementioned vision tractable, the comprehension of the vision's intrinsic value have been clear for a very long time. Most organizations and/or individuals are quite familiar with the adage: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id13e38a30">Knowledge</a> is Power, well there isn't any <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id188b7348">knowledge</a> without accessible <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id140415d0">Information</a>, and there isn't any accessible <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id11a976e8">Information</a> without accessible Data. The Web has always be grounded in accessibility to data (albeit via compound container documents called Web Pages).</blockquote> <blockquote>Bottom line, RDF based Linked Data is about Open <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Reference_(computer_science)" id="link-id1206bfb8">Data access by reference</a> using URIs (HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-idfaa6ce0">Entity</a> IDs / Data Object IDs / Data Source Names), and as I said earlier, the intrinsic value is pretty obvious bearing in mind the costs associated with integrating disparate and heterogeneous data sources -- across intranets, extranets, and the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id188ecc68">Internet</a>.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: In his definition of Web 3.0, Nova Spivack proposes that the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id12e2d968">Semantic Web</a>, or Semanti<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C_(programming_language)" id="link-id105744c0">c</a> Web technologies, will be force behind much of the innovation that will occur during Web 3.0. Do you agree with Nova Spivack? What role, if any, do you feel the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id13fa4218">Semantic Web</a> will play in Web 3.0?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>Me: I agree with Nova. But I see Web 3.0 as a phase within the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id188c9000">Semantic Web</a> innovation continuum. Web 3.0 exists because Web 2.0 exists. Both of these Web versions express usage and technology focus patterns. Web 2.0 is about the use of Open Source technologies to fashion Web Services that are ultimately used to drive proprietary Software as Service (SaaS) style solutions. Web 3.0 is about the use of "Smart Data Access" to fashion a new generation of Linked Data aware Web Services and solutions that exploit the federated nature of the Web to maximum effect; proprietary branding will simply be conveyed via quality of data (cleanliness, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id188d2ef8">context</a> fidelity, and comprehension of privacy) exposed by URIs.</blockquote> <p>Here are some examples of the CrunchBase Linked Data <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id122756f8">Space</a>, as projected via our CruncBase Sponger Cartridge:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser2/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchbase.com%2Fcompany%2Famazon" id="link-id13e0fd18">Amazon.com</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser2/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchbase.com%2Fcompany%2Fmicrosoft" id="link-id13eef9e0">Microsoft</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser2/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchbase.com%2Fcompany%2Fgoogle" id="link-id13fe47a0">Google</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser2/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchbase.com%2Fcompany%2Fapple" id="link-id170c73b8">Apple</a> </li> </ol>
DBpedia Architecture
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-22#1416
2008-08-22T02:50:07Z
2008-08-21T22:50:09.000001-04:00
<p>Here is a pictorial of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia">DBpedia</a>'s <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> Deployment & Data Management architecture:</p> <p> <br /> <img style="max-width: 800px;" src="http://wiki.dbpedia.org/files/virtuoso_linked_data_deployment.png" /> </p> <p>Key points:</p> <p> <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com:80/virtuoso/rdfapiandsql.html" id="link-id13dcfb98">SPASQL</a> (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL">SPARQL</a> extension for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL">SQL</a>) enables the intelligent resource representation request handling and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier">URI</a> dereferencing, that underlies "Linked Data" (i.e., <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Hyperdata</a> Linking) to occur in-process.<br /> </p>
The Future of the Desktop
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-21#1415
2008-08-21T15:26:18Z
2008-08-21T15:59:25.000001-04:00
<p> <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/" id="link-id13ba6d90">Jason Kolb</a> (who <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2008/08/the-future-of-t.html" id="link-id1524e210">initially</a> nudged me to chime in), and then <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/future_of_the_desktop.php" id="link-id13a182c0">ReadWriteWeb</a>, and of course <a href="http://www.twine.com/item/11bshgkbr-1k5/the-future-of-the-desktop" id="link-id13f1e1f0">Nova's Twine about the topic</a>, have collectively started an interesting discussion about <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a>.vNext (3.0 and beyond) under the heading: The Future of the Desktop.</p> <p>My contribution to the developing discourse takes the form of a Q&A session. I've taken the questions posed and provided answers that express my particular points of view: </p> <blockquote> <cite>Q: Is the desktop of the future going to just be a web-hosted version of the same old-fashioned desktop metaphors we have today?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: No, it's going to be a more <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/webarch/" id="link-id1524d4a0">Web Architecture</a> aware and compliant variant exposed by appropriate metaphors.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The desktop of the future is going to be a hosted web service</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: A vessel for exploiting the virtues of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10827ad0">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id155bc698">Web</a>.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The Browser is Going to Swallow Up the Desktop</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: Literally, of course not! Metaphorically, of course! And then the Browser metaphor will decomposes into function specific bits of Web interaction amenable to orchestration by its users.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The focus of the desktop will shift from <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id1667e2e0">information</a> to attention</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: No! <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id104bb9c8">Knowledge</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id1524dd48">Information</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> sharing courtesy of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10723640">Hyperdata</a> & Hypertext Linking.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: Users are going to shift from acting as librarians to acting as daytraders</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: They were Librarians at Web 1.0, Journalist at Web 2.0, and Analysts in Web 3.0 (i.e, analyze structured and interlinked data), and CEOs in Web 4.0 (i.e. get Agents to do stuff intelligently en route to making decisions).</blockquote> <blockquote> <br /> <cite>Q: The Webtop will be more social and will leverage and integrate collective intelligence</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13a01ed0">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id106343a8">Web</a> vessel will only require you to fill in your profile (once) and then serendipitous discovery and meshing of relevant data will simply happen (the serendipity quotient will grow in line with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10560050">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id100f4940">Web</a> density).</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The desktop of the future is going to have powerful semantic search and social search capabilities built-in</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: It is going to be able to "Find" rather than "Search" for stuff courtesy of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10a18a70">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10a976f0">Web</a>.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite> Q: Interactive shared spaces will replace folders</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: Data Spaces and their URIs (Data Source Names) replace everything. You simply choose the exploration metaphor that best suits you space interaction needs.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The Portable Desktop</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: Ubiquitous Desktop i.e. do the same thing (all answers above) on any device connected to the Web.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The Smart Desktop</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: Vessels with access to Smart Data (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1666e4e8">Linked Data</a> + Action driven <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id171d1ff0">Context</a> sprinklings).</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: Federated, open policies and permissions</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: More federation for sure, XMPP will become a lot more important, and OAuth will enable resurgence of the federated aspects of the Web and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id100a66a8">Internet</a>.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The personal cloud</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id104ba580">Personal Data Spaces</a> plugged into Clouds (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Intranet" id="link-id15bbb970">Intranet</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Extranet" id="link-id1026d6b0">Extranet</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id140508c8">Internet</a>).</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The WebOS</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: An operating system endowed with traditional Database and Host Operating system functionality such as: RDF Data Model, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-idd86f48">SPARQL</a> Query Language, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id13f47268">URI</a> based <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointer" id="link-id1055bc78">Pointer mechanism</a>, and HTTP based message Bus.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: Who is most likely to own the future desktop?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: You! And all you need is a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id106b79e8">URI</a> (an ID or Data Source Name for "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id133c88a0">Entity</a> You") and a Profile Page (a place where "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id15fa8060">Entity</a> You" is Describe by You).</blockquote> <h3>One Last Thing</h3> <p>You can get a feel for the future desktop by <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com/#Download" id="link-id165ec048">downloading</a> and then installing the <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com/" id="link-id13baba38">OpenLink Data Explorer</a> plugin for Firefox, which allows you to switch viewing modes between Web Page and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13f12410">Linked Data</a> behind the page. :-)</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id12496e48">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/GetAPersonalURIIn5MinutesOrLess" id="link-id1027f060">Get Yourself a URI in 5 Minutes or Less</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/DataPortability_and_DataSpaces/DataPortability_and_DataSpaces.html" id="link-id10890f70">Linked Data Spaces & Data Portability</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2_TimBL_v3.html" id="link-id137efdf8">Linked Data Conference Keynote</a> (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id1239d300">RDFa</a> based remix edition that includes vital bits from <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id1317a048">TimBL</a>'s <a href="http://www.linkeddataplanet.com/" id="link-id165f57c8">Linked Data Planet presentation</a>).</li> </ul>
Response to: Whole Data Post (Update 3)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-15#1413
2008-08-15T13:06:12Z
2008-08-15T18:31:48-04:00
<p>This post is in response to <a href="http://www.furia.com" id="link-id107907b8">Glenn McDonald</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://www.furia.com/page.cgi?type=log&id=308" id="link-id13dcf2d0">Whole Data</a>, where he highlights a number of issues relating to "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id1016c1f0">Semantic Web</a>" marketing communications and overall messaging, from his perspective.</p> <p> By coincidence, Glenn and I presented at this month's Cambridge <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-idd526f48">Semantic Web</a> Gathering.</p> <p>I've provided a dump of Glenn's issues and my responses below:</p> <h3>Issue - RDF</h3> <ul> <li>Ingenious <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> decomposition idea, but: </li> <li>too low-level; the assembly language of data, where we need Java or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ruby_programming_language" id="link-id103f3dd0">Ruby</a> </li> <li>"resource" is not the issue; there's no such thing as "metadata", it's all data; "meta" is a perspective </li> <li>lists need to be effortless, not painful and obscure </li> <li>nodes need to be represented, not just implied; they need types and literals in a more pervasive, integrated way. </li> </ul> <h4>Response:</h4> <p>RDF is a Graph based Data Model it stands for Resource Description Framework. The Metadata data angle comes from it's <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Meta_Content_Framework" id="link-id1690df60">Meta Content Framework (MCF)</a> origins. You can express and serialize data based on the RDF Data Model using: Turtle, N3, TriX, N-Triples, and RDF/XML.</p> <h3>Issue - <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id10234b38">SPARQL</a> (and Freebase's MQL)</h3> <p>These are just appeasement: <br />- old query paradigm: fishing in dark water with superstitiously tied lures; only works well in carefully stocked lakes <br />- we don't ask questions by defining answer shapes and then hoping they're dredged up whole.</p> <h4>Response:</h4> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id16e45e50">SPARQL</a>, <a href="http://www.freebase.com/view/freebase/api" id="link-id13e7d468">MQL</a>, and <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb387145.aspx" id="link-id1516fbd8">Entity-SQL</a> are Graph Model oriented Query Languages. Query Languages always accompany Database Engines. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id13f8c100">SQL</a> is the Relational Model equivalent. </p> <h3>Issue - <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id171dee68">Linked Data</a> </h3> <p>Noble attempt to ground the abstract, but: <br />- <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id1576d5f8">URI</a> dereferencing/namespace/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_world_assumption" id="link-id15f50180">open-world</a> issues focus too much technical attention on cross-source cases where the human issues dwarf the technical ones anyway <br />- <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id105df458">FOAF</a> query over the people in this room? forget it. <br />- link asymmetry doesn't scale <br />- identity doesn't scale <br />- generating RDF from non-graph sources: more appeasement, right where the win from actually converting could be biggest! </p> <h4>Response:</h4> <p>Innovative use of HTTP to deliver "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Reference_%28computer_science%29" id="link-id13eeab20">Data Access by Reference</a>" to the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13492610">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id105dfc10">Web</a>.</p> <p>When you have a Data Model, Database Engine, and Query Language, the next thing you need is a Data Access mechanism that provides "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Reference_(computer_science)" id="link-id100ef2c0">Data Access by Reference</a>". <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id16692e88">ODBC</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id1699b970">JDBC</a> (amongst others) provide "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Reference_(computer_science)" id="link-id16034b48">Data Access by Reference</a>" via Data Source Names. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id16690118">Linked Data</a> is about the same thing (URIs are Data Source Names) with the following differences:</p> <ul> <li>Naming is scoped to the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1195dc48">entity</a> level rather than container level</li> <li>HTTP's use within the data source naming scheme expands the referencability of the Named <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id10485760">Entity</a> Descriptions beyond traditional confines such as applications, operating systems, and database engines. </li> </ul> <h3> Issue - <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id104684d0">Giant Global Graph</a> </h3> <p>Hugely motivating and powerful idea, worthy of a superhero (Graphius!), but: <br />- giant and global parts are too hard, and starting global makes every problem harder <br />- local projects become unmanageable in global <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id12497088">context</a> (Cyc, Freebase data-modeling lists...). And my thus my plea, again. Forget "semantic" and "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">web</a>", let's fix the database tech first: <br />- node/arc data-model, path-based exploratory query-model <br />- data-graph applications built easily on top of this common model; building them has to be easy, because if it's hard, they'll be bad <br />- given good database tech, good web data-publishing tech will be trivial! <br />- given good tools for graphs, the problems of uniting them will be only as hard as they have to be.</p> <h4>Response:</h4> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id144466d8">Giant Global Graph</a> is just another moniker for a "Web of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id15c2c738">Linked Data</a>" or "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14e73520">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10aef200">Web</a>".</p> <p>Multi-Model Database technology that meshes the best of the Graph & Relational Models exist. In a nutshell, this is what <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13492e10">Virtuoso</a> is all about and it's existed for a very long time :-)</p> <p> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id105a4f58">Virtuoso</a> is also a Virtual DBMS engine (so you can see Heterogeneous Relational Data via Graph Model <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id15845110">Context</a> Lenses). Naturally, it is also a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id109e2c78">Linked Data</a> Deployment platform (or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1086d650">Linked Data</a> Sever). </p> <p>The issue isn't the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id107f1ba8">Semantic Web</a>" moniker per se., it's about how <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0xba72818">Linked Data</a> (foundation layer of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id101dbf50">Semantic Web</a>) gets introduced to users. As I said during the MIT Gathering: "The Web is experienced via Web Browsers primarily, so any enhancement to the Web must be exposed via traditional Web Browsers", which is why we've opted to simply add "View <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> Sources" to the existing set of common Browser options that includes:</p> <ol> <li>View page in rendered form (default)</li> <li>View page source (i.e., how you see the markup behind the page)</li> </ol> <p>By exposing the Linked Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id15a04b70">Web</a> option as described above, you enable the Web user to knowingly transition from the traditional Rendered (X)HTML page view to the Linked Data View (i.e., structured data behind the page). This simple "User Interaction" tweak makes the notion of exploiting a Structured Web becomes somewhat clearer.</p> <p>The Linked Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10a187d0">Web</a> isn't a panacea. It's just an addition to the existing Web that enrichens the things you can do with the Web. It's predominance, like any application feature, will be subject to the degrees to which it delivers tangible value or matrializes internal and external opportunity costs.</p> <p>Note: The Web isn't ubiquitous today becuase all it's users groked HTML Markup. It's ubquitity is a function of opportunity costs: there simply came a point in the Web boostrap when nobody could afford the opportunity costs associated with being off the Web. The same thing will play out with Linked Data and the broader <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id10a97330">Semantic Web</a> vision.</p> <b>Links:</b> <ol> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2_TimBL_v3.html(15)" id="link-id137fc560">Linked Data Journey part of my Linked Data Planet Presentation Remix</a>(from slides 15 to 22 - which include bits from <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id1048a968">TimBL</a>'s presentation)</li> <li> <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com" id="link-id1667df98">OpenLink Data Explorer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com/example.html" id="link-id137ee860">OpenLink Data Explorer Screenshots and examples</a>.</li> </ol>
.NET, LINQ, and RDF based Linked Data (Update 2)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-03#1408
2008-08-03T16:07:09Z
2008-08-08T08:54:01.000002-04:00
<p>At OpenLink, we've been investigating <a href="http://code.google.com/p/linqtordf/" id="link-id1296eb18">LinqToRdf</a>, an exciting project from <a href="http://aabs.wordpress.com/" id="link-id13e860a8">Andrew Matthews</a> that seeks to expose the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id105d84f8">Semantic Web</a> technology space to the large community of .NET developers. </p> <p>The LinqToRdf project is about binding LINQ to RDF. It sits atop <a href="http://razor.occams.info/" id="link-id102e3b10">Joshua Tauberer</a>'s <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C_(programming_language)" id="link-id1471b0d0">C</a># based <a href="http://razor.occams.info/code/semweb/" id="link-id14cb9030">Semantic Web/RDF library</a> which has been out there for a while and works across Microsoft .NET and it's open source variant "Mono".</p> <p>Historically, the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id13ee9f40">Semantic Web</a> realm has been dominated by RDF frameworks such as <a href="http://www.openrdf.org/" id="link-id109f8a68">Sesame</a>, <a href="http://jena.sourceforge.net/" id="link-id144c3210">Jena</a> and <a href="http://librdf.org/" id="link-id10600228">Redland</a>; which by their Open Source orientation, predominantly favor non-Windows platforms (Java and Linux). Conversely, Microsoft's .NET frameworks have sought to offer Conceptualization technology for heterogeneous Logical <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Sources via .NET's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADO.NET_Entity_Framework" id="link-id10726628">Entity Frameworks</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id13e7edd8">ADO.NET</a>, but without any actual bindings to RDF. </p> <p>Interestingly, believe it or not, .NET already has a data query language that shares a number of similarities with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1042f480">SPARQL</a>, called <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id105a46b0">Entity</a>-<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id1041d2e8">SQL</a>, and a very innovative programming language called LINQ; that offers a blend of constructs for natural data access and manipulation across relational (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id139f5848">SQL</a>), hierarchical (XML), and graph (Object) models without the traditional object language->database impedance tensions of the past.</p> <p>With regards to all of the above, we've just released a mini white paper that covers the exploitation of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/linqtordf/linqtordf1.htm" id="link-id14b2f138">RDF-based Linked Data using .NET via LINQ</a>. The paper offers a an overview of LinqToRdf, plus enhancements we've contributed to the project (available in <a href="http://aabs.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/announcing-linqtordf-v08/" id="link-id101defa8">LinqToRdf v0.8</a>.). The paper includes real-world examples that tap into a MusicBrainz powered <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id101ffd18">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id105cb858">Space</a>, the Music Ontology, the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13f55860">Virtuoso</a> RDF Quad Store, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id12826718">Virtuoso</a> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id1030cb60">Sponger</a> Middleware, and our RDfization Cartridges for Musicbrainz. </p> Enjoy!
WUPnP Cheatsheet
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-07-28#1397
2008-07-29T03:37:55Z
2008-07-29T13:06:40-04:00
<p> <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2008/07/28/wupnp-cheatsheet/#comments" id="link-id133b9048">WUPnP Cheatsheet</a>: "</p> <p>The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x1ccdfc68">Web</a> Universal Plug and Play (<acronym title="Web Universal Plug and Play">WUPnP</acronym>) Cheatsheet:</p> <p> <img src="http://vanirsystems.com/images/wupnparch.png" alt="Web Universal Plug and Play (WUPnP) Cheatsheet" width="50%" /> </p> <p>Essentially, if you build an application and use the technologies suggested in the ‘glue section’ then your <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x1d626818">web</a> application/service (whether it’s front-end or back-end) will fit into many many other <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">web</a> applications/services… and therefore also more manageable for the future! This is WUPnP.</p> <p>Key technologies for making your services/applications as sticky as possible:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dereferenceable_Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id1016cbd8">Dereferenceable URI’s</a> (which indicate <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id101d7790">HTTP</a> networking)</li> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenID" id="link-id12ea5e68">OpenID</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OAuth" id="link-id12e1acf0">OAuth</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARQL" id="link-id133d34e0">SPARQL</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linked_Data" id="link-id106a7040">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id1072d890">RDF</a> (or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RDFa" id="link-id14040c38">RDFa</a>) and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Ontology_Language" id="link-id1044dda8">OWL</a> </li> </ul> <p>Web-based plug and play fun!</p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog" id="link-id10a15838">Daniel Lewis</a>.)</p>
Reasoning Matters Contd
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-06-06#1373
2008-06-06T18:29:02Z
2008-06-06T14:38:54-04:00
<p>I just stumbled across a post titled: <a href="http://clarkparsia.com/weblog/2008/06/06/why-reasoning-matters-consistency-checking/" id="link-id11003f00">Why Reasoning Matters: Consistency Checking</a> from <a href="http://clarkparsia.com/about" id="link-id137e8bc0">Clark and Parsia</a> </p> <p>As you can see from my recent post about how we've started the process of <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1372" id="link-id100b7d20">inoculating DBpedia against the potential dangers of "contextual incoherence"</a>, we are entering a newer era in the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id106c35e0">Semantic Web</a>'s evolution. My post and the one from Clark & Parsia both touch different aspects of the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Dictionary" for the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0x9d80080">Semantic Web</a> issue.</p> <p>Note: in my universe of discourse, a Data Dictionary manifests when the constraints and class hierarchies defined in an ontology (e.g. a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">web</a> accessible shared ontology) are functionally bound to a data manager. Interestingly the binding can take the following forms:</p> <ul> <li>Engine Hosted - which is what you get with <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com:80/virtuoso/rdfsparqlrule.html#rdfsparqlruleintro" id="link-id105c4408">Virtuoso's in-built Inference Engine</a> </li> <li>External - which is what you get when the Inference Engine is a distinct component from the data manager (example: <a href="http://pellet.owldl.org/owlgres" id="link-id13fa37f8">Owlgres</a> which can sit in front of 3rd party <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id107127e8">SPARQL</a> endpoints via ARQ)</li> </ul> <p>The classification terminology I use above is very much off-the-cuff, its sole purpose is architectural distinction.</p> <p>Anyway, it's really nice to see that we are entering an era re. the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web">Semantic Web</a> vision, where the virtues of reasoning are getting simpler to demonstrate and articulate.</p> <p>In a nutshell, the point-point data integration era is coming to an end! The era of intelligent ontology based enterprise data integration is nigh!</p> <p>Of course, there is much more to come on the practical utility front, so stay tuned as we work our way through the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id10424078">DBpedia</a> inoculation program.</p>
DBpedia receives shot #1 of CLASSiness vaccine
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-06-05#1372
2008-06-05T17:11:34Z
2010-07-13T10:45:40-04:00
<p> The current live instance of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id107c7b60">DBpedia</a> has just received dose #1 of a series of planned "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id10d3ec78">Context</a>" oriented booster shots. These shots seek to to protect <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id143648f0">DBpedia</a> from contextual incoherence as it grows in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> set expanse and popularity. Dose #1 (vaccine label: <a href="http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/~suchanek/downloads/yago/" id="link-id16d497d0">Yago</a>) equips <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id13f90120">DBpedia</a> with a functional (albeit non exclusive) Data Dictionary component courtesy of the <a href="http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/~suchanek/downloads/yago/" id="link-id10509a08">Yago</a> Class Hierarchy .</p> <p> When the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id10a1b378">DBpedia</a> & <a href="http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/~suchanek/downloads/yago/" id="link-id10934068">Yago</a> integration took place last year (around WWW2007, Banff) there was a little, but costly omission that occurred: nobody sought to load the <a href="http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/~suchanek/downloads/yago/" id="link-id106e47f0">Yago</a> Class Hierarchy into the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13f90890">Virtuoso</a>'s Inference Engine :-(</p> <p> Anyway, the Class Hierarchy has now been loaded into the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id100004f8">Virtuoso</a>'s inference engine (as <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id139900e8">Virtuoso</a> Inference Rules) and the following queries are now feasible using the live <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id109b02c8">Virtuoso</a> based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id143624d8">DBpedia</a> instance hosted by <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id12f918c0">OpenLink Software</a>:</p> <p> -- Find all Fiction Books associated with a property "dbpedia:name" that has literal value: Â "The Lord of the Rings" .</p> <p> <span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none; ">Â </span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">DEFINE input:inference "http://dbpedia.org/resource/inference/rules/yago#"<br /> </span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span">PREFIX rdf: &lt;http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#&gt;</span> </span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">PREFIX dbpedia: &lt;http://dbpedia.org/property&gt;</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">PREFIX yago: &lt;http://dbpedia.org/class/yago&gt;&nbsp;</span></span> </p> <div> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"><br /> </span></span> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">SELECT DISTINCT Â ?s</span></span> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">FROM < xmlns="http" dbpedia.org="dbpedia.org">//dbpedia.org></span></span> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">WHERE {</span></span> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">?s a yago:Fiction106367107 .</span></span> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">?s dbpedia:name "The Lord of the Rings"@en .</span></span> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">}</span></span> </div> <p> -- Variant of query with <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10870920">Virtuoso</a>'s Full Text Index extension via the bif:contains function/magic predicate</p> <p> <span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">DEFINE input:inference "http://dbpedia.org/resource/inference/rules/yago#"</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">PREFIX rdf: &lt;http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#&gt;</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">PREFIX dbpedia: &lt;http://dbpedia.org/property&gt;</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">PREFIX yago: &lt;http://dbpedia.org/class/yago&gt;&nbsp;</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">SELECT DISTINCT ?s ?n</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">FROM < xmlns="http" dbpedia.org="dbpedia.org">//dbpedia.org></span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">WHERE {</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">?s a yago:Fiction106367107 .</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">?s dbpedia:name ?n .</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">?n bif:contains 'Lord and Rings'</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">}</span></span> </p> <p> -- Retrieve all individuals instances of Fiction Class which should include all Books.</p> <p> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size:16px;">DEFINE input:inference "http://dbpedia.org/resource/inference/rules/yago#"<br /> </span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span">PREFIX rdf: &lt;http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#&gt;</span> </span></span> </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size:16px;">PREFIX dbpedia: &lt;http://dbpedia.org/property&gt;<br /> </span></span> </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"><br /> </span> </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size:16px;">PREFIX yago: &lt;http://dbpedia.org/class/yago&gt;&nbsp;</span></span> </p> <div> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"><br /> </span> </div> <div> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">SELECT DISTINCT ?s</span> </div> <div> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">FROM < xmlns="http" dbpedia.org="dbpedia.org">//dbpedia.org></span> </div> <div> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">WHERE {</span> </div> <div> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">?s a yago:Fiction106367107 .</span> </div> <div> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">} LIMIT 50</span> </div> <p> Note: you can also move the inference pragmas to the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13dd0d20">Virtuoso</a> 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 <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id10dddd08">SPARQL</a> queries.</p> <h3> Related</h3> <ul> <li> Mike's <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=431" id="link-id13f2f318">UMBEL: Making Linked Data Classy</a>post</li> <li> Fred's announcement about the <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php/2007/12/20/second-version-of-yago-more-facts-and-entities/" id="link-id10a1b178">Yago revamp en route to UMBEL</a> </li> <li> <uo> <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php/2008/04/20/exploding-the-domain-umbel-web-services-by-zitgist/" id="link-id14363358">Expanding Data Object Domains via UMBEL</a> </uo> </li> <li> My <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=umbel&type=text&output=html" id="link-id1101ca98">Prior posts about UMBEL</a> </li> </ul>
Comments about recent Semantic Gang Podcast
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-05-02#1357
2008-05-02T21:44:31Z
2008-05-05T20:06:42.000004-04:00
<p>After listening to the <a href="http://semanticgang.talis.com/2008/05/02/april-2008-the-semantic-web-gang-discuss-a-wikipedia-for-data/" id="link-id1089e218">latest Semantic Web Gang podcast</a>, I found myself agreeing with some of the points made by <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/iskold" id="link-id10b91e58">Alex Iskold</a>, specifically: </p> <ul>-- <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id106e24e0">Linked Data</a> does not implicitly imply making all your <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id17ab3d48">data</a> public</ul> <ul>-- <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11fdcef0">Linked Data</a> principles benefit <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Intranet" id="link-id109756e8">Intranet</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Extranet" id="link-id1099cfd8">Extranet</a> style <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id10cd25b0">data</a> integration (trumps alternative <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/federated_database_system" id="link-id14f29940">distributed database</a> integration approaches any day)</ul> <ul>-- Business exploitation of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0xca51940">Linked Data</a> on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> will certainly be driven by the correlation of opportunity costs (which is more than likely what Alex meant by "use cases") associated with the lack of URIs originating from the domain of a given business (Tom Heath: also effectively alluded to this via his <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/BBC" id="link-id16f33348">BBC</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id10decf38">URI</a> land grab anecdotes; same applies Georgi's examples)</ul> <ul>-- History is a great tutor, answers to many of today's problems always lie somewhere in plain sight of the past.</ul> <p>Of course, I also believe that <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> serves Web <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0x1afebd58">Data</a> Integration across the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id10aa5668">Internet</a> very well too, and the fact that it will be beneficial to businesses in a big way. No individual or organization is an island, I think the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id0xb25fbd0">Internet</a> and Web have done a good job of demonstrating that thus far :-) We're all <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> nodes in a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id5d8a3a8">Giant Global Graph</a>.</p> <p> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/danieljohnlewis#this" id="link-id17cac8a0">Daniel lewis</a> did shed light on the read-write aspects of the Linked Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10be8590">Web</a>, which is actually very close to the callout for a Wikipedia for Data. <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id10a810c0">TimBL</a> has been working on this via <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2005/ajar/release/tabulator/0.8/tab.html" id="link-id184b7108">Tabulator</a> (see <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2007/tab/tutorial/editing.mov" id="link-id1416f1e8">Tabulator Editing Screencast</a>), <a href="http://bnode.org/about" id="link-id17e33750">Bengamin Nowack</a> also added <a href="http://arc.semsol.org/download/plugins/data_wiki" id="link-id1688cc40">similar functionality to ARC</a>, and of course we support the same <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id10bff7c8">SPARQL</a> UPDATE into an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id168ace08">RDF</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id10641878">information</a> resource via the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id0xddb5240">RDF</a> Sink feature of our WebDAV and <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/OdsBriefcase" id="link-id0x11199310">ODS</a>-Briefcase implementations.</p>
Linked Data Illustrated and a Virtuoso Functionality Reminder
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-04-28#1342
2008-04-28T17:32:47Z
2008-04-28T14:47:06.000001-04:00
<a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/danieljohnlewis#this" id="link-id156ceb30">Daniel Lewis</a> has put together a nice <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2008/04/27/linked-data-the-role-of-the-data-server/" id="link-id10456040">collection of Linked Data related posts</a> that illustrate the fundamentals of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1033f6f0">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id106fa168">Web</a> and the vital role that <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10141c20">Virtuoso</a> plays as a deployment platform. Remember, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10301e38">Virtuoso</a> was architected in 1998 (see <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSHistory" id="link-id10c44088">Virtuoso History</a>) in anticipation of the eventual <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id1383a1e8">Internet</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Intranet" id="link-id1028e770">Intranet</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Extranet" id="link-id14b07b40">Extranet</a> level requirements for a different kind of Server. At the time of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14ad24a8">Virtuoso</a>'s inception, many thought our desire to build a multi-protocol, multi-model, and multi-purpose, virtual and native <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id108dac48">data</a> server was sheer craziness, but we pressed on (courtesy of our vision and technical capabilities). Today, we have a very sophisticated <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id14a65d48">Universal Server</a> Platform (in Open Source and Commercial forms) that is naturally equipped to do the following via very simple interfaces: <ul> - Produce <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id11fb1170">RDF</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10871da8">Linked Data</a> from non <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id156ec3d0">RDF</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id10f0ca38">Data</a> Sources (Heterogeneous <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id15133078">SQL</a>, XML, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Services)</ul> <ul> - Provide highly scalable <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id10585940">RDF</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id15151e10">Data</a> Management via a Quad Store (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id1530d640">DBpedia</a> is an example of a live demonstration)</ul> <ul> - Sophisticated Deployment of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10141c80">Linked Data</a> that exploits the power of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1064fa18">SPARQL</a> </ul> <ul> - Powerful WebDAV innovations that simplify read-write mode interaction with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1396ff68">Linked Data</a> </ul> <ul> - Use Web <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Federated_database_system" id="link-id108256e8">Data Virtualization</a> to address the pain and frustration associated with Web <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id147e65f8">Data</a> Silos (e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-idffaf078">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> layer stop <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14ae8fe8">Virtuoso</a> that delivers <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id0xa0fb5e40">Personal Data Spaces</a> / Unified Storage in the Clouds) </ul> <ul> - Deliver a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10869700">Linked Data</a> development and deployment platform to .<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/.NET_Framework" id="link-id1514cac0">NET</a> (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Visual_Basic" id="link-id10c107a8">VB</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C_(programming_language)" id="link-id101f3c68">C</a>#) , Java, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id106e4710">PHP</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ruby_programming_language" id="link-id10277448">Ruby</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Perl" id="link-id10a75748">Perl</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Python_programming_language" id="link-id12fdb118">Python</a>, '<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C_(programming_language)" id="link-id10c9d9e0">C</a>', <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C%2B%2B" id="link-id10392400">C++</a>, and other developers </ul> <ul>- More...</ul>
Explaining the Granular Social Network
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-04-15#1341
2008-04-15T21:03:54Z
2008-04-15T17:22:42-04:00
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://www.vimeo.com/user321809/l:embed_898144" id="link-id10c725a8">Thomas Vander Wal</a>'s interesting <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id142dfb90">blog</a> post titled: Explaining the Granular Social Network, I found a nice video that highlights the Who + What you know aspect of Social Networking ad the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id1054bc58">GGG</a> in general. </p> <p>As I can't quite remix Videos on the spur of the moment (yet), I would encourage you to watch the video and then click on the link to <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen" id="link-id130b7410">my FOAF Profile</a>, then follow the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id18485a48">Linked Data</a>" tab to see how <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14070380">Linked Data</a> oriented platforms (in my case <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id10a30f60">OpenLink Data Spaces</a>) that exist today actually deliver what's explained in the video. </p> <p>"What You Know" (<a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2008/03/users-as-data-c.html" id="link-id140f4e28">Data & Friend Networks</a>) ultimately trumps "Who You Know" (Friend only Networks). The exploitation power of this reality is enhanced exponentially via the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0xdcf0460">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0xa008f990">Web</a> once the implications of beaming <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-idfdfa2f0">SPARQL</a> queries down specific URIs (entry points to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id15ce0dc0">Linked Data</a> graphs) become clearer :-)</p>
Linked Data enabling PHP Applications
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-04-10#1334
2008-04-10T18:09:49Z
2008-04-10T14:12:47-04:00
<p> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/danieljohnlewis#this" id="link-id10820610">Daniel lewis</a> has penned a variation of post about <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2008/04/10/simplified-adding-wordpress-blogs-into-the-linked-data-web-using-virtuoso/" id="link-id10827948">Linked Data enabling PHP applications</a> such as: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id10426278">Wordpress</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PhpBB" id="link-id13f431c0">phpBB3</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MediaWiki" id="link-id10dd8760">MediaWiki</a> etc.</p> <p>Daniel simplifies my post by using diagrams to depict the different paths for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id10adcc08">PHP</a> based applications exposing <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id107b4e60">Linked Data</a> - especially those that already provide a significant amount of the content that drives <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id13b0ab48">Web</a> 2.0.</p> <p>If all the content in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x1d499470">Web</a> 2.0 <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id12bd3b10">information</a> resources are distillable into discrete <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id10962060">data</a> objects endowed with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id176a30e8">HTTP</a> based IDs (URIs), with zero "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=rdf%20tax&type=text&output=html" id="link-id1098bcd8">RDF handcrafting Tax</a>", what do we end up with? A <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id1372ce88">Giant Global Graph</a> of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0xa29f0658">Linked Data</a>; the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> as a Database.</p> <p>So, what used to apply exclusively, within enterprise settings re. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Oracle_Database" id="link-id12d91448">Oracle</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IBM_DB2" id="link-id13dd27d8">DB2</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IBM_Informix" id="link-id108e6b98">Informix</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ingres" id="link-id13383708">Ingres</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Sybase" id="link-idfed8aa8">Sybase</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Microsoft_SQL_Server" id="link-id10b8b190">Microsoft SQL Server</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MySQL" id="link-id13066ea8">MySQL</a>, PostrgeSQL, Progress Open Edge, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Firebird_database_server" id="link-id104f0a78">Firebird</a>, and others, now applies to the Web. The Web becomes the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/federated_database_system" id="link-id105a5340">Distributed Database</a> Bus" that connects database records across disparate databases (or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0xc706c68">Data</a> Spaces). These databases manage and expose records that are remotely accessible "by reference" via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id0x1c8f7fe0">HTTP</a>.</p> <p>As I've stated at every opportunity in the past, Web 2.0 is the greatest thing that every happened to the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id13d65278">Semantic Web</a> vision :-) Without the "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=Web%202.0%20%20conundrum&type=text&output=html" id="link-id100d16d0">Web 2.0 Data Silo Conundrum</a>" we wouldn't have the cry for "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Portability" that brings a lot of clarity to some fundamental Web 2.0 limitations that end-users ultimately find unacceptable.</p> <p> In the late '80s, the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-idff4f0d0">SQL</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL_Access_Group" id="link-id138fbd40">Access Group</a> (now part of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/X/Open" id="link-id104ee010">X</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/X/Open" id="link-id0xac9eab8">Open</a>) addressed a similar problem with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id106d2008">RDBMS</a> silos within the enterprise that lead to the SAG <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Call_Level_Interface" id="link-id105d45d0">CLI</a> which is exists today as Open Database Connectivity.</p> <p>In a sense we now have WODBC (Web Open Database Connectivity), comprised of Web Services based CLIs and/or traditional back-end DBMS CLIs (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id13f58708">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id10aa81e0">JDBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id5fddb68">ADO</a>.<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id0x9f085a10">NET</a>, OLE-DB, or Native), Query Language (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id10adb5c8">SPARQL</a> Query Language), and a Wire Protocol (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol">HTTP</a> based <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-protocol/" id="link-id126fa068">SPARQL Protocol</a>) delivering Web infrastructure equivalents of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id0x1d0a5fc8">SQL</a> and RDA, but much better, and with much broader scope for delivering profound value due to the Web's inherent openness. Today's <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id0xc88ed68">PHP</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Python_programming_language" id="link-id10a70530">Python</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ruby_programming_language" id="link-id13d9da18">Ruby</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tcl" id="link-id10a3c2a8">Tcl</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Perl" id="link-id13e1b6f0">Perl</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ASP.NET" id="link-id10810388">ASP</a>.<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ASP.NET" id="link-id0xa22ce378">NET</a> developer is the enterprise <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/4GL" id="link-id1396a500">4GL</a> developer of yore, without enterprise confinement. We could even be talking about <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/5GL" id="link-id1077f250">5GL</a> development once the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> interaction is meshed with dynamic languages (delivering higher levels of abstraction at the language and data interaction levels). Even the underlying schemas and basic design will evolve from <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Closed_world_assumption" id="link-id10b280c8">Closed World</a> (solely) to a mesh of Closed & <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_world_assumption" id="link-id104b9978">Open World</a> view schemas.</p>
Adding Wordpress Blogs into the Linked Data Web using Virtuoso
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-04-09#1333
2008-04-09T21:27:34Z
2008-04-10T12:33:05.000003-04:00
<p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id101103b0">Wordpress</a> is a Weblog platform comprised of the following: </p> <ol> <li>User Interface - <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id107ba368">PHP</a> </li> <li>Application Logic - <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id107066b8">PHP</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id13968340">Data</a> Storage (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id104c5350">SQL</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id1076d790">RDBMS</a>) - <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MySQL" id="link-id109c4ea0">MySQL</a> via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id133af570">PHP</a>-<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MySQL" id="link-idf0b03b0">MySQL</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Application_server" id="link-id13217630">Application Server</a> - <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Apache" id="link-id108219d8">Apache</a> </li> </ol> <p>In the form above (the norm), <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id105c6d88">Wordpress</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id104938f8">data</a> can be injected into the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id107a5f18">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id177329c0">Web</a> via RDFization middleware such as the<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id10531b50">Virtuoso Sponger</a> (built into all <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10d7e710">Virtuoso</a> instances) and <a href="http://triplr.org/" id="link-id107dcab8">Triplr</a>. The downside of this approach is that the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id1055ab68">blog</a> owner doesn't necessary possess full control over their contributions to the emerging <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-idfed0358">Giant Global Graph</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10d70668">Linked Data</a>.</p> <p>Another route to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id104c7f68">Linked Data</a> exposure is via <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0xa255fb50">Virtuoso</a>'s Metaschema Language for producing <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id10968388">RDF</a> Views over <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id13f594c8">ODBC</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id138f69a8">JDBC</a> accessible <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id1393c068">Data</a> Sources, that enables the following setup:</p> <ol> <li>User Interface - <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id0x9fb9c478">PHP</a> </li> <li>Application Logic - PHP </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0xc605960">Data</a> Storage (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id0xc2be608">SQL</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id0xc7a28a8">RDBMS</a>) - <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MySQL" id="link-id0xc7228f0">MySQL</a> via the PHP-MySQL <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> access interface </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtual_Database" id="link-id134b1ee8">Virtual Database</a> linkage of MySQL Tables into Virtuoso </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-idfe31548">RDF</a> View generated over the Virtual SQL Tables </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Application_server" id="link-id0xb8dfa68">Application Server</a> - Virtuoso which provides <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0xc149518">Linked Data</a> Deployment such that <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id10ad9ca0">RDF</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> is exposed when requested by <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-idfd352e0">Web</a> User Agents.</li> </ol> <p>Alternatively, you can also exploit Virtuoso as the SQL DBMS, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id0x9ec4f440">RDF</a> DBMS, Application Server, and Linked Data Deployment platform:</p> <ol> <li>User Interface - PHP </li> <li> Application Logic - PHP </li> <li>Data Storage (SQL RDBMS) - Virtuoso via PHP-<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id14197218">ODBC</a> data access interface (* <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id103d1a80">ODBC</a> is Virtuoso's native SQL CLI/API *) </li> <li><a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework">RDF</a> View generated over the Native SQL Tables </li> <li>Application Server - Virtuoso which provides Linked Data Deployment such that RDF Linked Data is exposed when requested by <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id13918d68">Web</a> User Agents (e.g. <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser" id="link-idff835f0">OpenLink RDF Browser</a>, <a href="http://zitgist.com/about/" id="link-id1372e510">Zitgist</a> <a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com" id="link-id109c3048">Data Viewer</a>, <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/rdf_browser" id="link-id105d97f0">DISCO Hyperdata Browser</a>, and <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2005/ajar/release/tabulator/0.8/tab.html" id="link-id10cc20d8">Tabulator</a>). </li> </ol> <h2 align="left">Benefits?</h2> <ul> <li>Each user account gets a proper Linked Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id108c92b0">URI</a> (ID) that can me meshed/smushed with other IDs (so you add data from this new <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-idfd39648">blog</a> space to other linked data sources associated with you other URIs/IDs) </li> <li>Each post gets a proper <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id10add540">URI</a> All data is now query-able via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id101b98f0">SPARQL</a> Discoverability increases exponentially (without drop in relevance in either direction i.e. discovering or being discovered)</li> </ul> <p>How Do I map the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id12e448c0">WordPress</a> SQL Schema to RDF using Virtuoso? </p> <ul> <li>Determine the RDF Schema or Ontologies that define the Classes for which you will be producing instance data (e.g. SIOC and FOAF) </li> <li>Declare <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-idfaf5c80">URI</a>/IRI generator functions (*special Virtuoso functions*) </li> <li>Use <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id100436b8">SPARQL</a> Graph patterns to apply <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0x9de74950">URI</a>/IRI generator functions to Tables, Views, Table Values mode Stored Procedures, Query Resultsets as part of RDBMS to RDF mapping </li> </ul> <p> Read the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VOSSQL2RDF" id="link-idfaf5d58">Meta Schema Language guide</a> or simply apply our "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id0x9ef73c78">WordPress</a> SQL Schema to RDF" script to your Virtuoso hosted instance. Of course, there are other mappings that cover other PHP applications deployed via Virtuoso:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PhpBB" id="link-id179f4870">phpBB3</a> SQL Schema to RDF </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Drupal" id="link-id10b263d8">Drupal</a> SQL Schema to RDF </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MediaWiki" id="link-id10263a40">MediaWiki</a> SQL Schema to RDF </li> </ul> <h2>Live Demos?</h2> <ul> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/phpBB3" id="link-id17761e88">Virtuoso Hosting phpBB3</a> (<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/phpBB3/user/demo#this" id="link-id10087e68">example User URI</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/drupal" id="link-id1091f1d8">Virtuoso Hosting Drupal</a> (<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/drupal/user/demo#this" id="link-id13e3d468">example User URI</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/mediawiki" id="link-id10531be0">Virtuoso Hosting MediaWiki</a> (<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/mediawiki/user/KingsleyIdehen#this" id="link-id109c5d40">example User URI</a>)</li> </ul>
The Cost of doing the Right Thing
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-03-27#1330
2008-03-27T18:41:43Z
2008-03-29T00:50:07.000002-04:00
<p>One of the biggest impediments to the adoption of technology is the cost burden typically associated with doing the right thing. For instance, requirements for making the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph">GGG</a>) buzz would include the following (paraphrasing <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i">TimBL</a>'s original <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html">Linked Data meme</a>): </p> <ul>-- identifying the things you observe, or stumble upon, using URIs (aka <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity">Entity</a> IDs)</ul> <ul>-- construct URIs using <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol">HTTP</a> so that the Web provides a channel for referencing things elsewhere (remote object referencing)</ul> <ul>-- Expose things in your <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces">Space</a>(s) that are potentially useful to other Web users via URIs</ul> <ul>-- Link to other Web accessible things using their URIs.</ul> <p>The list is nice, but actual execution can be challenging. For instance, when writing a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog">blog</a> post, or constructing a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WikiWord">WikiWord</a>, would you have enough disposable time to go searching for these URIs? Or would you compromise and continue to inject "Literal" values into the Web, leaving it to the reasoning endowed human reader to connect the dots?</p> <p>Anyway, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> is now equipped with a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Glossary">Glossary</a> system that allows me to manage terms, meaning of terms, and hyper-linking of phrases and words matching associated with my terms. The great thing about all of this is that everything I do is scoped to <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen">my Data Space</a> (my universe of discourse), I don't break or impede the other meanings of these terms outside my Data Space. The Glossary system can be shared with anyone I choose to share it with, and even better, it makes my upstreaming (rules based replication) style of blogging even more productive :-) </p> <p>Remember, on the Linked Data Web, who you know doesn't matter as much as what your are connected to, directly or indirectly. <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/">Jason Kolb</a> covers this issue in his post: <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2008/03/users-as-data-c.html" id="link-id1586a468">People as Data Connectors</a>, and so doesFrederick Giasson via a recent post titled: <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php/2008/03/11/networks-are-everywhere/" id="link-id108b9010">Networks are everywhere</a>. For instance, this blog post (or the entire Blog) is a bona fide <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework">RDF</a> Linked Data Source, you can use it as the Data Source of a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL">SPARQL</a> Query to find things that aren't even mentioned in this post, since all you are doing is beaming a query through my Data Space (a container of Linked Data Graphs). On that note, let's re-watch <a href="http://blog.jonudell.net/">Jon Udell</a>'s <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/gems/queryingBlogs.html" id="link-id108c0908">"On-Demand-Blogosphere" screencast from 2006</a> :-)</p>
So, What Does "HREF" Stand For, Anyway
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-03-12#1323
2008-03-12T16:08:46Z
2008-04-10T16:13:50-04:00
<p>As per usual I am writing this post with the aim of killing a number of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Meme" id="link-id0x1caa10d8">meme</a>-birds with a single post in relation to the emerging <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id156867c8">Linked Data Web</a>.</p> <p>*On* the ubiquitous <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x1e5a1a08">Web</a> of "Linked Documents", HREF means (by definition and usage): <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext" id="link-id16078f10">Hypertext</a> Reference to an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id0x9e840368">HTTP</a> accessible <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0x9e570ce8">Data</a> Object of Type: "Document" (an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id0xccc6ee8">information</a> resource). Of course we don't make the formal connection of Object Type when dealing with the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> on a daily basis, but whenever you encounter the "resource not found" condition notice the message: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/HTTP_404" id="link-id153b4d98">HTTP/1.0 404</a> Object Not Found, from the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol">HTTP</a> Server tasked with retrieving and returning the resource. </p> <p>*In* the Web of "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x9ed9fb78">Linked Data</a>", a complimentary addition to the current Web of "Linked Documents", HREF is used to reference <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Objects that are of a variety of "Types", not just "Documents". And the way this is achieved, is by using <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Surrogate_key" id="link-id153d4438">Data Object Identifiers</a> (URIs / IRIs that are generated by the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> deployment platform) in the strict sense i.e. Data Identity (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0xc9ef280">URI</a>) is separated from Data Address (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x1cb62390">URL</a>). Thus, you can reference a Person Data Object (aka an instance of a Person Class) in your HREF and the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id1554e458">HTTP</a> Server returns a Description of the Data Object via a Document (again, an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information">information</a> resource). A document containing the Description of a Data Object typically contains HREFs to other Data Objects that expose the Attributes and Relationships of the initial Person Data Object, and it this collection of Data Objects that is technically called a "Graph" -- which is what <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id0xc67a780">RDF</a> models.</p> <blockquote>What I describe above is basic stuff for anyone that's familiar with Object Database or Distributed Objects technology and concepts.</blockquote> <h2><a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier">URI</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator">URL</a> confusion</h2> <p>The Linked Document Web is a collection of physical resources that traverse the Web Information Bus in palatable format i.e documents. Thus, Document Object Identity and Document Object Data Address can be the same thing i.e. a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id1525d028">URL</a> can serve as the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id16e50b50">ID/URI</a> of a Document Data Object.</p> <p>The Linked Data Web on the other hand, is a Distributed Object Database, and each Data Object must be uniquely defined, otherwise we introduce ambiguity that ultimately taints the Database itself (making incomprehensible to reasoning challenged machines). Thus we must have unique Object IDs (URIs / IRIs) for People, Places, Events, and other things that aren't Documents. Once we follow the time tested rules of Identity, People can then be associated with the things they create (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id0xc7c3ce0">blog</a> posts, web pages, bookmarks, wikiwords etc). <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework">RDF</a> is about expressing these graph model relationships while RDF serialization formats enables the information resources to transport these data object link ladden information resources to requesting User Agents.</p> <p>Put in more succinct terms, all documents on the Web are compound documents in reality (e.g. mast contain a least an image these days). The Linked Data Web is about a Web where Data Object IDs (URIs) enable us to distill source data from the information contained in a compound document.</p> <h2>Examples:</h2> <ol> <li><http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2#this> - the ID (URI minted from URL via addition of #this) of a Data Object of Type Person that Identifies me. The Person definition I use comes from the FOAF vocabulary/schema/ontology/data dictionary</li> <li><http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2> - the URI (also a URL) of a FOAF file that contains a description of the Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Identity_%28object-oriented_programming%29" id="link-id0xca491e0">Object ID</a>: <http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2#this> (me)</li> <li>As an information resource <http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2> can be dispatched from an HTTP server to a User Agent in (X)HTML, RDF/XML, N3/Turtle representations via HTTP Content Negotiation (<strong>note:</strong> Look at the "Linked Data" tab to see one example of what Data Links facilitate re. Data Discovery and Exploration)</li> <li>If I choose an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Identity_%28object-oriented_programming%29">Object ID</a> of <http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2/this> instead of <http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2#this> then the HTTP Server should not return an information resource (i.e provide 200 OK response) when a User Agent requests a resource via HTTP using the URI: <http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2/this>, because a Data Object ID (URI) and the Data Object Address (URL) cannot be the same when my Data Object isn't of Type Document; the sever has to use response code 303 to redirect the user agent to the URL of an information resource that matches the Content-type designated in the HTTP Request or determine representation based on it's own quality of service rules for the information resource associated with the Object ID (URI).</li> </ol> <p>The degree of unobtrusiveness of new technology, concepts, or new applications of existing technology, is what ultimately determines eventual uptake and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Meme">meme</a> virulence (network effects). For a while, the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0xc86cda0">Semantic Web</a> meme was mired in confusion and general misunderstanding due to a shortage of practical use case scenario demos. </p> <p>The emergence of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0xc614158">SPARQL</a> Query Language has provided critical infrastructure for a number of products, projects, and demos, that now make the utility of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web">Semantic Web</a> vision mush clearly via the simplicity of Linked Data, as exemplified by the following:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id0xc7c19f0">Linking Open Data Community</a> - collection of People and Linked Data Spaces (across a variety of domains)</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id0xcb1c398">DBpedia</a> - Ground zero for experiencing and comprehending Linked Data</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id0xc16e458">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> - a simple solution for creating Linked Data Web presence via from existing Web Data Sources (Blogs, Wikis, Shared Bookmarks, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id0xc340200">Tag</a> Spaces, Web Sites, Social Networking Services, Web Services, Discussion Forums etc..)</li> <li>OpenLink <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0xca83470">Virtuoso</a> - a Universal Server for generating, managing, and deploying RDF Linked Data from <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id0xcce3870">SQL</a>, XML, Web Services based data sources</li> </ol> Why Is This Post a Linked Data Demo, Again? Place the permalink of this post in a Linked Data aware user agent (<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser" id="link-id17b79488">OpenLink RDF Browser1</a>, <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser2" id="link-id15957150">OpenLink RDF Browser2</a>, <a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com/" id="link-id15550cf8">Zitgist</a>, <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/rdf_browser" id="link-id1565a680">DISCO</a>, <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2005/ajar/release/tabulator/0.8/tab.html" id="link-id15700350">Tabulator</a>), and the you can see the universal of interlinked data exposed by this post. The Title of this post should not be the sole mechanism for determining that it is Linked to other posts about the same topic. <h2>Related</h2> <ul> <a href="http://tomayko.com" id="link-id15c56720">Ryan Tomayko</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://tomayko.com/writings/wtf-is-an-href-anyway" id="link-id1514a328">So, What Does "HREF" Stand For, Anyway</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://torrez.us/who#elias" id="link-id14eec928">Elias Torre</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://torrez.us/archives/2008/03/10/563/" id="link-id15722c08">The Web FTW</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/cooluris/" id="link-id1576c118">Cool URIs for the Semantic Web.</a> </ul>
Driving Lanes on the Web based Information Super Highway
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-03-04#1318
2008-03-04T23:16:32Z
2008-03-04T18:17:56-05:00
<p>Post absorption of<a href="http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/2008/03/web_3g.php" id="link-id19156118"> Web 3G commentary</a> emanating from the <a href="http://blogs.talis.com/nodalitie" id="link-id1c37b868">Talis blog</a> space. <a href="http://iandavis.com/id/me" id="link-id1a6b3360">Ian Davis</a> appears to be expending energy on the definition of, and timeframes for, the next Web Frontier (which is actually here btw) :-)</p> <p> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/danieljohnlewis#this" id="link-id1907f9f8">Daniel Lewis</a> also penned an <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2008/03/04/web-3g/" id="link-id18f8f740">interesting post in response to Ian's</a>, that actually triggered this post.</p> <p>I think definition time has long expired re. the Web's many <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web%20dimensions&type=text&output=html" id="link-id1a41b078">interaction dimensions, evolutionary stages, and versions</a>.</p> <p>On my watch it's simply demo / dog-food time. Or as <a href="http://danbri.org" id="link-id17847778">Dan Brickley</a> states: <a href="http://danbri.org/words/2008/03/04/288" id="link-idb4a34a8">Just Show It</a>.</p> <p>Below, I've created a tabulated view of the various lanes on the Web's <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information_superhighway" id="link-id17cff4c8">Information Super Highway</a>. Of course, this is a Linked Data demo should you be interested in the universe of data exposed via the links embedded in this post :-)</p> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <caption> The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id167bd1a8">Web</a>'s Information Super Highway Lanes </caption> <tr> <td width="97" valign="top"></td> <td width="194" valign="top"></td> <td width="302" valign="top"></td> <td width="330" valign="top"></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="97" valign="top"><div align="center"></div></td> <td width="194" valign="top"> <p align="center"> <strong>1.0</strong> </p></td> <td width="302" valign="top"> <p align="center"> <strong>2.0</strong> </p></td> <td width="330" valign="top"> <p align="center"> <strong>3.0</strong> </p></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="97" valign="top"> <p> <strong>Desire</strong> </p></td> <td width="194" valign="top"><p align="left"> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id16c0b9a0">Information</a> Creation & Retrieval </p></td> <td width="302" valign="top"><p align="left">Information Creation, Retrieval, and Extraction </p></td> <td width="330" valign="top"><p align="left">Distillation of Data from Information </p></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="97" valign="top"> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Idea_virus" id="link-id17003280">Meme</a> </p></td> <td width="194" valign="top"><p align="left">Information Linkage (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext" id="link-id1b939870">Hypertext</a>) </p></td> <td width="302" valign="top"><p align="left">Information Mashing (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Mashup_%28web_application_hybrid%29" id="link-id18baf9e0">Mash-ups</a>)</p></td> <td width="330" valign="top"><p align="left"> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id18f01838">Linked Data</a> Meshing (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hyperdata" id="link-id18a1de38">Hyperdata</a>)</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="97" valign="top"> <p> <strong>Enabling Protocol</strong> </p></td> <td width="194" valign="top"> <p align="left"> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id190ed430">HTTP</a> </p></td> <td width="302" valign="top"><p align="left">HTTP</p></td> <td width="330" valign="top"><p align="left">HTTP</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="97" valign="top"> <p> <strong>Markup </strong> </p></td> <td width="194" valign="top"> <p align="left"> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/HTML" id="link-id1a41b438">HTML</a> </p></td> <td width="302" valign="top"><p align="left"> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XHTML" id="link-id18d4a340">(X)HTML</a>& various <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XML" id="link-id17faf780">XML</a> based formats (RSS, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Atom_%28standard%29" id="link-id17928df0">ATOM</a>, others) </p></td> <td width="330" valign="top"><p align="left"> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Turtle_(syntax)" id="link-id17b22478">Turtle</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Notation_3" id="link-id1c871a58">N3</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDF/XML" id="link-id1c508bf8">RDF/XML</a>, others</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top"><strong>Basic Data Unit </strong></td> <td valign="top"><div align="left">Resource (Data Object) of type "Document" </div></td> <td valign="top"><div align="left">Resource (Data Object) of type "Document" </div></td> <td valign="top"><div align="left">Resource (Data Object) that may be one of a variety of Types: Person, Place, Event, Music etc.</div></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="97" height="148" valign="top"> <p> <strong>Basic Data Unit Identity </strong> </p></td> <td width="194" valign="top"><p align="left">Resource <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id1bd05908">URL</a> (Web Data Object Address) </p> <p align="left">Â </p> </td> <td width="302" valign="top"><p align="left">Resource URL (Web Data Object Address)</p> <p align="left">Â </p> </td> <td width="330" valign="top"><p align="left">Unique Identifier (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id174404d8">URI</a>) that is indepenent of actual Resource (Web Data Object) Address. </p> <p align="left">Note: An Identifier by itself has no utility beyond Identifying a place around which actual data may be clustered. </p> <p align="left">Â </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="97" valign="top"> <p> <strong>Query or Search</strong> </p></td> <td width="194" valign="top"><p align="left"> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Full_text_search" id="link-id18d3d020">Full Text Search</a> patterns</p></td> <td width="302" valign="top"><p align="left">Full Text Search patterns</p></td> <td width="330" valign="top"> <p align="left">Structured Querying via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id175ebd30">SPARQL</a> </p></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="97" valign="top"> <p> <strong>Deployment</strong> </p></td> <td width="194" valign="top"><p align="left"> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_server" id="link-id1a6b0b28">Web Server</a> (Document Server)</p></td> <td width="302" valign="top"><p align="left">Web Server + Web Services Deployment modules</p></td> <td width="330" valign="top"><p align="left">Web Server + Linked Data Deployment modules (Data Server)</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="97" valign="top"> <p> <strong>Auto-discovery </strong> </p></td> <td width="194" valign="top"><div align="left"><link rel="alternate"..></div></td> <td width="302" valign="top"><p align="left"><link rel="alternate"..></p></td> <td width="330" valign="top"><p align="left"><link rel="alternate" | "meta"..>, basic and/or transparent content negotiation</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top"><strong>Target User </strong></td> <td valign="top"><div align="left">Humans </div></td> <td valign="top"><div align="left">Humans & Text extraction and manipulation oriented agents (Scrappers) </div></td> <td valign="top"><div align="left">Agents with varying degrees of data processing intelligence and capacity </div></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top">Serendipitous Discovery Quotient (SDQ)</td> <td valign="top">Low</td> <td valign="top">Low</td> <td valign="top">High </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="97" valign="top"> <p> <strong>Pain</strong> </p></td> <td width="194" valign="top"><p align="left">Information Opacity</p></td> <td width="302" valign="top"><p align="left">Information Silos</p></td> <td width="330" valign="top"><p align="left">Data Graph Navigability (Quality)</p></td> </tr> </table>
Linked Data Solution for Exposing OpenLink Product Portfolio
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-02-16#1317
2008-02-16T21:08:17Z
2008-02-25T15:08:04-05:00
<p>At <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14a37688">OpenLink Software</a>, we've had an immense problem explaining the depth and breadth of our product porfolio via traditional Document Web pages. Thanks to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id101bc330">SPARQL</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id105d2d28">Linked Data</a>, we are now able to use <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Identity_%2528object-oriented_programming%2529" id="link-id1341fbd0">Web Data Object IDs</a> (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-idf101908">HTTP</a> based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id135cd8a0">URI</a>s) to produce super SKUs for every item in our product portfolio. Even better, we are able to handle the additional challenge of exposing features and benefits which by their very nature are mercurial across an array of fronts (products releases, product formats, and supported platforms etc). </p> <p> Now I can simply state the following using Linked Data (hyperdata) links:</p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Software" id="link-idfafc070">OpenLink Software</a>'s product porfolio is comprised of the following product families: <ol> <li> <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product_family/uda#this" id="link-idf856aa8">Universal Data Access Drivers Suite (UDA)</a> for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-idfc5f498">ODBC</a>, JDBC, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-idfc20120">ADO.NET</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OLE_DB" id="link-id11579a08">OLE-DB</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XML_for_Analysis" id="link-id1067d098">XMLA</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product_family/dca#this" id="link-id1318b3f8">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product_family/virtuoso#this" id="link-idf8d7ea0">Virtuoso</a> </li> </ol> <p> We no longer have to explain (repeatedly) why our drivers exist in <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product_format/express#this" id="link-idf76e1f0">Express</a>, <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product_format/st#this" id="link-idf861be8">Lite</a>, and <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product_format/mt#this" id="link-id128da1e0">Multi-Tier</a> Edition formats, or why you ultimately need Multi-Tier Drivers over Single Tier Drivers (Express or Lite Editions) since you ultimately heed <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product_format_feature/RulesEngineBasedSecurity#this" id="link-idf8d70b0">high-performance, data encryption, and policy based security</a> across each of the data access driver formats.</p>
Additional OpenLink Data Spaces Features
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-02-09#1315
2008-02-09T17:54:35Z
2008-02-11T11:38:03.000006-05:00
<p> <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog" id="link-id13df7aa0">Daniel Lewis</a> has published another post about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id170b4ce8">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> (ODS) functionality titled:<a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2008/02/09/a-few-new-features-in-openlink-data-spaces/#comments" id="link-idf6ad9e8">A few new features in OpenLink Data Spaces</a>, that exposes additional features (some hot out the oven).</p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Space" id="link-id16f42c90">OpenLink Data Spaces (<acronym title="OpenLink Data Spaces">ODS</acronym>)</a> now officially supports:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://apml.pbwiki.com/" id="link-id15baf3e0">Attention Profiling Markup Language (<acronym title="Attention Profiling Markup Language">APML</acronym>)</a>.</li> <li> <a href="http://moat-project.org/" id="link-iddd45db0">Meaning of a Tag (<acronym title="Meaning of a Tag">MOAT</acronym>)</a> in conjunction with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SKOS" id="link-id14b97300">Simple Knowledge Organisation System (SKOS)</a> and <a href="http://scot-project.org/" id="link-id16e84910">Social-Semantic Cloud of Tags (<acronym title="Social-Semantic Cloud of Tags">SCOT</acronym>)</a>.</li> <li> <a href="http://oauth.net/" id="link-id13e5ae50">OAuth - an Open Authentication Protocol</a> </li> </ul> <p>Which means that OpenLink Data Spaces support all of the main standards being discussed in the DataPortability Interest Group!</p> <p> <strong><em>APML Example:</em> </strong> </p> <p>All users of ODS automatically get a dynamically created APML file, for example: <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen/apml.xml" id="link-id14b59220">APML profile</a> for <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen#this" id="link-id13dbb298">Kingsley Idehen</a> </p> <p>The URI for an APML profile is: http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/<ods-username>/apml.xml</p> <p> <em><strong>Meaning of a Tag Example:</strong> </em> </p> <p>All users of ODS automatically have tag cloud information embedded inside their <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SIOC" id="link-idf7182c8"><acronym title="Semantically Interlinked Online Communities">SIOC</acronym></a> file, for example: SIOC for Kingsley Idehen on the Myopenlink.net installation of ODS.</p> <p>But even better, MOAT has been implemented in the ODS Tagging System. This has been demonstrated in a recent test blog post by my colleague Mitko Iliev, the blog post comes up on the tag search: <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/imitko/weblog/Mitko%27s%20Weblog/tag/paris" id="link-idfc14cf0">http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/imitko/weblog/Mitko%27s%20Weblog/tag/paris</a> </p> <p>Which can be put through the <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser/" id="link-id14954fc8">OpenLink Data Browser</a>:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fdataspace%2Fimitko%2Fweblog%2FMitko%2527s%2520Weblog%2Ftag%2Fparis" id="link-id164edd88">OpenLink Data Browser with Mitko Ilievâs Paris Blog Tag</a> </li> </ul> <p> <strong><em>OAuth Example:</em> </strong> </p> <p>OAuth Tokens and Secrets can be created for any ODS application. To do this:</p> <ol> <li> you can log in to <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/ods/index.html" id="link-id167224c0">MyOpenlink.net</a> beta service, the <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/ods/index.html" id="link-id169733d8">Live Demo ODS installation</a>, an <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1261" id="link-id14b2d380">EC2 instance</a>, or your local installation</li> <li>then go to âSettingsâ</li> <li>and then you will see âOAuth Keysâ</li> <li>you will then be able to choose the applications that you have instantiated and generate the token and secret for that <abbr title="application">app</abbr>.</li> </ol> <p> <strong>Related Document (Human) Links</strong> </p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/Ods" id="link-id16d1c2d8">OpenLink Data Spaces Official Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/" id="link-id16d8c500">OpenLink Software Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-idf6b05f0">OpenLink Data Spaces Wikipedia Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.apml.org/" id="link-id12d8bbd0">Attention Profiling Markup Language Project Website</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://moat-project.org/" id="link-id137e7108">Meaning of a Tag Project Website</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/" id="link-id110f1028">Simple Knowledge Organisation Systems Project Website</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://scot-project.org/" id="link-id14b8d1e0">Social-Semantic Cloud of Tags Project Website</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://oauth.net/" id="link-id12da2dd0">OAuth Protocol Website</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.dataportability.org/" id="link-id13f52e08">DataPortability.org Website</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.sioc-project.org/" id="link-id15ebb6a0">Semantically Interlinked Online Communities Project Website<br /> </a> </li> </ul> </blockquote> <p>Remember (as per my <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1314" id="link-id16ea8bb8">most recent post about ODS</a>), ODS is about unobtrusive fusion of Web 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0+ usage and interaction patterns. Thanks to a lot of recent standardization in the Semantic Web realm (e.g SPARQL), we are now employ the MOAT, SKOS, and SCOT ontologies as vehicles for Structured Tagging.</p> <h2>Structured Tagging?</h2> <p>This is how we take a key <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_2.0" id="link-id1884ac58">Web 2.0 </a>feature (think 2D in a sense), bend it over, to create a Linked Data Web (Web 3.0) experience unobtrusively (see <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web%20dimensions&type=text&output=html" id="link-id14b3d8a0">earlier posts re. Dimensions of Web</a>). Thus, nobody has to change how they tag or where they tag, just expose ODS to the URLs of your Web 2.0 tagged content and it will produce URIs (Structured Data Object Identifiers) and a lnked data graph for your Tags Data Space (nee. Tag Cloud). ODS will construct a graph which exposes tag subject association, tag concept alignment / intended meaning, and tag frequencies, that ultimately deliver "relative disambiguation" of intended Tag Meaning (i.e. you can easily discern the taggers meaning via the Tags actual Data Space which is associated with the tagger). In a nutshell, the dynamics of relevance matching, ranking, and the like, change immensely without futile timeless debates about matters such as: </p> <ul>What's the Linked Data value proposition?</ul> <ul>What's the Linked Data business model?</ul> <ul> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XML" id="link-id105abcb0">XML</a> vs <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id14b27b28">RDF</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XQuery" id="link-id10572dd0">XQuery</a> vs <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1326d4c8">SPARQL</a> </ul> <ul>What's the Semantic Web Killer application?</ul> <p>We can just get on with demonstrating Linked Data value using what exists on the Web today. This is the approach we are deliberately taking with ODS.</p> <h2>Related Items</h2> <ul> <a href="http://www.betaversion.org/~stefano" id="link-id170849b0">Stefano Mazzocch</a>'s <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/linotype/news/85/" id="link-idfde2e08"> response to Clay Shirky's 2005 talk</a> titled: <a href="http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/et2005/view/e_sess/6117" id="link-id13f45030">Ontology is Overrated: Links, Tags and Post-hoc Metadata</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://tomgruber.org" id="link-id16c745b8"> Tom Gruber</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://tomgruber.org/writing/ontology-of-folksonomy.htm" id="link-id13cbe7b0">Ontology of Folksonomy: A Mash-up of Apples and Oranges</a> </ul>. <p> <strong>Tip:</strong> This post is best viewed via an RDF aware User Agent (e.g. a <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser" id="link-id14b325b8">Browser</a> or <a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com" id="link-id164bfab0">Data Viewer</a>). I say this because the permalink of this post is a URI in a Linked Data Space (My Blog) comprised of more data than meets the eye (i.e. what you see when you read this post via a Document Web Browser) :-)</p>
10 Reasons to use OpenLink Data Spaces (ODS)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-02-08#1314
2008-02-08T17:33:45Z
2008-02-08T17:08:43-05:00
<p>Via post by <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog" id="link-id1480d7c0">Daniel Lewis</a>, titled:<a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2008/02/08/10-reasons-to-use-openlink-data-spaces/#comments" id="link-id1320a618">10 Reasons to use OpenLink Data Spaces</a> </p> <blockquote> <p>There are quite a few reasons to use <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLink_Data_Space" id="link-id103eb060">OpenLink Data Spaces (ODS)</a>. Here are 10 of the reasons why I use ODS:</p> <ol> <li>Its native support of DataPortability Recommendations such as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RSS" id="link-id18957e88">RSS</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Atom_%28standard%29" id="link-id1410a9c0">Atom</a>, <a href="http://www.apml.org/" id="link-idfde4b90">APML</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Yadis" id="link-id1328c260">Yadis</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OPML" id="link-id10133f70">OPML</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Microformat" id="link-id16e19be0">Microformats</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id12deef98">FOAF</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SIOC" id="link-id15fb99b0">SIOC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenID" id="link-id1390ae10">OpenID</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OAuth" id="link-id14dcce70">OAuth</a>.</li> <li>Its native support of Semantic Web Technologies such as: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id15fc75a0">RDF</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id14255238">SPARQL</a>/<a href="http://jena.hpl.hp.com/~afs/SPARQL-Update.html" id="link-id15fe2e40">SPARUL</a> for querying.</li> <li>Everything in ODS is an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Object_%28computer_science%29" id="link-id11c204a0">Object</a> with its own <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id14812560">URI</a>, this is due to the underlying <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Object-relational_database" id="link-idf663e08">Object-Relational</a> Architecture provided by <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id1484e4c8">Virtuoso</a>.</li> <li>It has all the social media components that you could need, including: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id10120b58">blogs</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Wiki" id="link-id14d9a608">wikis</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Social_network_service" id="link-idf0b3a30">social networks</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Aggregator" id="link-id188d7c78">feed readers</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Customer_relationship_management" id="link-id134a2c48">CRM</a> and a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Calendar" id="link-idf66af80">calendar</a>.</li> <li>It is expandable by installing pre-configured components (called VADs), or by re-configuring a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/LAMP_%28software_bundle%29" id="link-id102e8008">LAMP</a> application to use <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id13fe2b68">Virtuoso</a>. Some examples of current VADs include: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MediaWiki" id="link-id1011d9f0">MediaWiki</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id13624060">Wordpress</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Drupal" id="link-id100c4510">Drupal</a>.</li> <li>It works with external webservices such as: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Facebook" id="link-id131fe6d0">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Del.icio.us" id="link-idfdd1580">del.icio.us</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Flickr" id="link-id1496aff0">Flickr.</a> </li> <li>Everything within OpenLink Data Spaces is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id17114c00">Linked Data</a>, which provides more meaningful information than just plain structural information. This meaningful information could be used for complex inferencing systems, as ODS can be seen as a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Expert_system" id="link-id15ea4108">Knowledge Base</a>.</li> <li>ODS builds bridges between the existing static-document based web (aka â<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_1.0" id="link-idf08b338">Web 1.0</a>â), the more dynamic, services-oriented, social and/or user-orientated webs (aka â<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_2.0" id="link-idfde26e0">Web 2.0</a>â) and the web which we are just going into, which is more data-orientated (aka â<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_3.0" id="link-idf9b7328">Web 3.0</a>â or âLinked Data Webâ).</li> <li>It is fully supportive of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cloud_computing" id="link-id189480d0">Cloud Computing</a>, and can be installed on <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Amazon_Elastic_Compute_Cloud" id="link-id10026778">Amazon EC2</a>.</li> <li>Its released free under the GNU <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/GNU_General_Public_License" id="link-id16002fb0">General Public License (GPL)</a>. [note]However, it is technically dual licensed as it lays on top of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id132d4238">Virtuoso Universal Server</a> which has both Commercial and GPL licensing[/note]</li> </ol> </blockquote> <p>The features above collectively provide users with a Linked Data Junction Box that may reside with corporate intranets or "out in the clouds" (Internet). You can consume, share, and publish data in a myriad of formats using a plethora of protocols, without any programming. ODS is simply about exposing the data from your Web 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 application interactions in structured from, with Linking, Sharing, and ultimately Meshing (not Mashing) in mind.</p> <p> <strong>Note:</strong> Although ODS is equipped with a broad array of Web 2.0 style Applications, you do not need to use native ODS apps in order to exploit it's power. It binds to anything that supports the relevant protocols and data formats.</p>
Virtuoso Universal Server 5.0.4 Release Details
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-02-04#1310
2008-02-04T14:25:22Z
2008-02-04T20:30:43.000001-05:00
<p>We've just released version 5.0.4 of the Virtuoso Universal Server platform for SQL, XML, and RDF. The new release includes the following enhancements:</p> <h2>Web Server:</h2> <ul>- HTTP 1.1 compliant Transparent content-negotiation in URL-rewrite rules for Linked Data Deployment.</ul> <h2>RDF Data Management:</h2> <ul>- New providers for the Jena, Sesame and Redland frameworks</ul> <ul>- support for SPARQL INSERT and UPDATE via HTTP POST</ul> <ul>- New SPARQL-BI extenstions that make Business Intelligence feasible via SPARQL</ul> <ul>- new "rdf_sink" folder for handling HTTP PUTs into WebDAV that automatically sync with Quad Store.</ul> <ul>- There are new Sponger (RDFizer) cartridges that map Amazon book-search results to the Biliographic Ontology, supports production of Linked Data from OAI, XBRL, and Yahoo finance data sources.</ul> <ul>- HTTPS protocol support added to Sponger</ul> <ul>- performance optimizations for SPARQL `DESCRIBE' and `CONSTRUCT', alongside general performance enhancements for RDF data set loading.</ul> <h2>Core DBMS Engine:</h2> <ul>- PHP hosting a module re-implemented as a Virtuoso plugin inline with otherlanguage hosting modules</ul> <ul>- improved deadlock condtion management</ul> <ul>- enhanced POP and FTP server side protocol implementations that allow larger data transfers.</ul> <h2>Additional Information</h2> <ul>- <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id1099c740">DBpedia URI</a> </ul> <ul>- <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10ae8590">Product Home Page</a> </ul> <ul>- <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id107ece60">Wikipedia Page</a> </ul> <ul>- <a href="http://sev.prnewswire.com/computer-electronics/20080131/NETH04931012008-1.html" id="link-id135fec60">Virtuoso 5.0.4 Press Release</a> </ul>
FOAF-ing Linked Data is quite SIOC-ing
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-01-31#1306
2008-01-31T02:40:12Z
2008-02-01T18:20:34-05:00
<p>The title of this post is a "Tongue in cheek" expression of euphoria now that I have <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-idfa63488">FOAF</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SIOC" id="link-idfa976f0">SIOC</a> (pronounced SHOCK) based data spaces exposed via <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen" id="link-idfde41f8">my FOAF</a> and <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen" id="link-idfdca6c8">my SIOC</a> information resource (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id16d0b0d8">RDF</a> files) <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-idfa97070">URI</a>s.</p> <p>If you want to explore who I know, what I read, and what I've tagged (amongst other things), all you have to do is:</p> <ol> <li>Beam a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-idfdca878">SPARQL</a> query down my data space URIs which expose FOAF or SIOC based interconnected <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-idfa954e8">Linked Data</a> graphs.</li> <li> Walkthrough using an RDF Browser until you reach a beachhead and then beam your SPARQL from there (remember you only need the URI of the RDF Data Source, and while in my Data Space every data item has a proper URI).</li> </ol> <p>Some Tools that help you comprehend what I am saying:</p> <h2>Browsers</h2> <ul> Zitgist Data Viewer (<a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com/?uri=http%3A//myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen" id="link-id16d410c0">SIOC</a> and <a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com/?uri=http%3A//myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen" id="link-idfa489e8">FOAF</a> data spaces)</ul> <ul>OpenLink RDF Browser (<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fdataspace%2Fkidehen" id="link-idfa8b0d8">SIOC</a> and <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fdataspace%2Fperson%2Fkidehen" id="link-idfa974a8">FOAF</a> data spaces)</ul> <ul>DISCO (<a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/rdf_browser/?browse_uri=http%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fdataspace%2Fkidehen%2Fspace%23this" id="link-idfa62288">SIOC</a> and <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-idf940338">FOAF</a> data spaces)</ul> <ul> <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2005/ajar/release/tabulator/0.8/tab.html" id="link-id16d6a4b8">Tabulator</a> </ul> <h2>Query Tools</h2> <ul> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/sparql_demo" id="link-idfdd43b8">SPARQL Demo</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/isparql" id="link-idfa96bd0">iSPARQL QBE</a> </ul>
SPARQL based RDF Store Benchmarks via DBpedia
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-01-17#1298
2008-01-18T01:10:00Z
2008-05-05T08:06:45-04:00
<p> <a href="http://christianhbecker.com/contact/" id="link-id1436ad98">Christian Becker</a> has delivered the final cut of an initial iteration of his <a href="http://dbpedia.org" id="link-id143223c8">DBpedia</a> based <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/benchmarks-200801/" id="link-id1729ebc8">RDF Data Stores benchmark</a>. This particular exercise brought some very interesting things to our attention re. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id17178108">Virtuoso</a>'s default mode of operation:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1c519718">Virtuoso</a> is a Quad Store in a Triple Store world -- it supports <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id0x1cce9730">RDF</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0x1934f0b8">data</a> set storage partitioning via <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/#namedGraphs" id="link-id13f6c948">Named Graphs</a> and it requires the use of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x1eeb1b28">SPARQL</a> FROM clause to scope query patterns to appropriate <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> sets. Otherwise, it looks across all hosted data sets for matching patterns</li> <li>We should be able to use our server side configuration settings to make the Quad Store behave like a Triple Store (meaning we set the list of applicable named graphs as part of the session configuration)</li> <li>Provide hints to users about missing POGS, PSOG, and SOPG bitmap indexes when <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL">SPARQL</a> query patterns received by the server are deemed suboptimal (we do know the execution costs of each query)</li> </ol> <p>How Do I create the missing Bitmap Indexes?</p> <p>Go to the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/HTML" id="link-id1733e248">HTML</a> based Virtuoso Conductor, iSQL command line interface, or an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ODBC" id="link-id1427f338">ODBC</a> / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/JDBC" id="link-id16edfa08">JDBC</a> / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id1716af90">ADO.NET</a> / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OLE_DB" id="link-id1725e5e0">OLE DB</a> client and execute:</p> <b><pre>CREATE BITMAP index <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework">RDF</a>_QUAD_POGS on DB.DBA.RDF_QUAD (P,O,G,S); <br />CREATE BITMAP index RDF_QUAD_PSOG on DB.DBA.RDF_QUAD (P,S,O,G); <br />CREATE BITMAP index RDF_QUAD_SOPG on DB.DBA.RDF_QUAD (S,O,P,G); </pre></b> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/RdfStoreBenchmarking" id="link-id14de2630">RDF Store Benchamrking Wiki</a> </ul>
W3C's SPARQLing Data Access Ingenuity
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-01-15#1295
2008-01-15T22:58:53Z
2008-01-17T15:41:04.000006-05:00
<p>The W3C officially unveiled the SPARQL Query Language today via a press release titled: <a href="http://www.w3.org/2007/12/sparql-pressrelease" id="link-id10074ca8">W3C Opens Data on the Web with SPARQL</a>.</p> <h2>What is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id10183f60">SPARQL</a>?</h2> <p>A query language for the burgeoning Structured & <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10426b18">Linked Data</a> Web (aka <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-idffde090">Semantic Web</a> / <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id103e3688">Giant Global Graph</a>). Like <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id103365f8">SQL</a>, for the Relational Data Model, it provides a query language for the Graph based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDF" id="link-id103e33e8">RDF</a> Data Model.</p> <p>It's also a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Representational_State_Transfer" id="link-id1036a3d0">REST</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SOAP" id="link-id103b36d8">SOAP</a> based Web Service that exposes SPARQL access to RDF Data via an endpoint. </p> <p>In addition, it's also a Query Results Serialization format that includes <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XML" id="link-id1023bc60">XML</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/JSON" id="link-id102c3f88">JSON</a> support.</p> <h2>Why is it Important?</h2> <p>It brings important clarity to the notion of the "Web as a Database" by transforming existing Web Sites, Portals, and Web Services into bona fide corpus of Mesh-able (rather than Mash-able) Data Sources. For instance, you can perform queries that join one or more of the aforementioned data sources in exactly the same manner (albeit different syntax) as you would one or more SQL Tables. </p> <h3>Example:</h3> <p>-- SPARQL equivalent of SQL SELECT * against my personal data space hosted FOAF file</p> <b><pre> SELECT DISTINCT ?s ?p ?o FROM <http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen> WHERE {?s ?p ?o}</pre></b> <p>-- SPARQL against my social network -- Note: My SPARQL will be beamed across all of contacts in the social networks of my contacts as long as they are all HTTP URI based within each data space</p> <b><pre>PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> SELECT DISTINCT ?Person FROM <http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen> WHERE {?s a foaf:Person; foaf:knows ?Person}</pre></b> <p>Note: you can use the basic <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/sparql" id="link-id1007d9b8">SPARQL Endpoint</a>, <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/isparql" id="link-id102c3e08">SPARQL Query By Example</a>, or <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/sparql_demo" id="link-id10201f98">SPARQL Query Builder Demo tool</a> to experiment with the demonstration queries above.</p> <h2>How Do I use It?</h2> <p>SPARQL is implemented by RDF Data Management Systems (Triple or Quad Stores) just as SQL is implemented by Relational Database Management Systems. The aforementioned data management systems will typically expose SPARQL access via a SPARQL endpoint.</p> <h2>Where are it's implementations?</h2> <p>A SPARQL implementors Testimonial page accompanies the SPARQL press release. In addition the is a growing collection of implementations on the<a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SparqlImplementations" id="link-id10066ca8"> ESW Wiki Page for SPARQL compliant RDF Triple & Quad Stores</a>.</p> <h2>Is this really a big deal?</h2> <p>Yes! SPARQL facilitates an<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Virtuoso_Sponger_1/Virtuoso_Sponger_1.html" id="link-id101ee5b0"> unobtrusive manifestation of a Linked Data Web</a> by way of natural extension of the existing Document Web i.e these Web enclaves co-exist in symbiotic fashion. </p> <p>As <a href="http://dbpedia.org" id="link-id1037edc0">DBpedia</a> very clearly demonstrates, Linked Data makes the Semantic Web demonstrable and much easier to comprehend. Without SPARQL there would be no mechanism for <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Virtuoso_Deploying_Linked_Data/Virtuoso_Deploying_Linked_Data.html" id="link-id10455da8">Linked Data deployment</a>, and without Linked Data there is no mechanism for Beaming Queries (directly or indirectly) across the Giant Global Graph of data hosted by Social Networks, Shard Bookmarks Services, Weblogs, Wikis, RSS/Atom/OPML feeds, Photo Galleries and other Web accessible Data Sources (Data Spaces).</p> <h2>Related items</h2> <ul> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/cooluris/" id="link-id102021d8">Cool URIs</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/pub/LinkedDataTutorial/" id="link-id1020d5c0">Publishing Linked Data Tutorial</a> </ul> <ul a="a" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef"> Detailed SPARQL Query Examples using SIOC Data Spaces</ul> <ul> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSFOAFRef" id="link-id102c4608">Detailed SPARQL Query Examples using FOAF Data Spaces</a> </ul>
2008, Facebook Data Portability, and the Giant Global Graph of Linked Data
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-01-05#1289
2008-01-05T17:11:55Z
2008-01-07T11:44:42.000007-05:00
<p>As 2007 came to a close I repeatedly mulled over the idea of putting together a usual "year in review" and a set of predictions for the coming year etc. Anyway, the more I pondered, the smaller the list became. While pondering (as 2008 rolled around), the <a href="http://www.techmeme.com/080103/p154#a080103p154" id="link-id113db9a0">Blogosphere was set ablaze with the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Robert_Scoble" id="link-idfe12a58">Robert Scoble</a>'s announcement of his account suspension by Facebook</a>. Of course, many chimed in expressing views either side of the ensuing debate: <a href="http://www.scripting.com/stories/2008/01/03/scobleAndHisFacebookData.html" id="link-id161e7c48">Who is right -- Scoble or Facebook</a>. The more I assimilated the views expressed about this event, the more ironic I found the general discourse, for the following reasons:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_2.0" id="link-id16f6f3e0">Web 2.0</a> is fundamentally about <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_service" id="link-id1770f3c0">Web Services</a> as the prime vehicle for interactions across "points of Web presence"</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Facebook" id="link-id162f3f60">Facebook</a> is a Web 2.0 hosted service for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Social_Networking" id="link-id16e1dfc8">social networking</a> that provides Web Services APIs for accessing data in the Facebook data space. You have to do so "on the fly" within clearly defined constraints i.e you can interact with data across your social network via Facebook APIs, but you cannot cache the data (perform an export style dump of the data)</li> <li> Facebook is a main driver of the term: "social graph", but their underlying data model is relational and the Web Services response (data you get back) doesn't return a data graph, instead it returns an tree (i.e XML)</li> <li> <a href="http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&q=scoble+semantic+web&btnG=Search+Blogs" id="link-id16680d08">Scoble's had a number of close encounters with Linked Data Web | Semantic Data Web | Web 3.0 aficionados</a> in various forms throughout 2007, but still doesn't quite make the connection between Web Services APIs as part of a processing pipeline that includes structured data extraction from XML data en route to producing Data Graphs comprised of Data Objects (Entities) endowed with: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Identity_%28object-oriented_programming%29" id="link-id16af1f98">Unique Identifiers</a>, Classification or Categorization schemes, Attributes, and Relationships prescribed by one or more shared Data Dictionaries/Schemas/Ontologies</li> <li> A global information bus that exposes a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id16ce7c68">Linked Data</a> mesh comprised of Data Objects, Object Attributes, and Object Relationships across "points of Web presence" is what <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id1aa304e0">TimBL</a> described in 1998 (<a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Semantic.html" id="link-id1a822db0">Semantic Web Roadmap</a>) and more recently in 2007 (<a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/215" id="link-id181e5998">Giant Global Graph</a>)</li> <li> The Linked Data mesh (i.e Linked Data Web or GGG) is anchored by the use of HTTP to mint Location, Structure, and Value independent Object Identifiers called <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id16eae370">URI</a>s or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IRI" id="link-idffe16b8">IRI</a>s. In addition, the Linked Data Web is also equipped with a query language, protocol, and results serialization format for XML and JSON called: SPARQL. </li> </ol> <p>So, unlike Scoble, I am able to make my Facebook Data portable without violating Facebook rules (no data caching outside Facebook realm) by doing the following:</p> <ol> <li> Use an RDFizer for Facebook to convert XML response data from Facebook Web Services into RDF "on the fly" Ensure that my RDF is comprised of Object Identifiers that are HTTP based and thereby dereferencable (i.e. I can use SPARQL to unravel the Linked Data Graph in my Facebook data space)</li> <li> The act of data dereferencing enables me to expose my Facebook Data as Linked Data associated with my <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id16b3e9d0">Personal URI</a> </li> <li> This interaction only occurs via my data space and in all cases the interactions with data work via my <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1172" id="link-id16c628b8">RDFizer middleware</a> (e.g the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Virtuoso_Sponger_1/Virtuoso_Sponger_1.html" id="link-id1572fb28">Virtuoso Sponger</a>) that talks directly to Facebook Web Services. </li> </ol> <p>In a nutshell, my Linked Data Space enables you to reference data in my data space via Object Identifiers (URIs), and some cases the Object IDs and Graphs are constructed on the fly via RDFization middleware.</p> <p>Here are my URIs that provide different paths to my Facebook Data Space:</p> <ul> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id16f817a8"> Personal URI</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/proxy?url=http%3A//www.facebook.com/people/Kingsley_Idehen/605980750&force=rdf&login=kidehen" id="link-id1a8e5950">My Facebook Data Space</a> (best viewed via a <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fpeople%2FKingsley_Idehen%2F605980750%26force%3Drdf%26login%3Dkidehen" id="link-id15476588">Linked Data Browser/Viewer</a> session) </ul> <ul> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/proxy?url=http%3A//www.facebook.com/album.php%3Faid%3D14768%26id%3D605980750&force=rdf&login=kidehen" id="link-id16e3bcf0">My Facebook Photo Gallery -- WWW2007 Photo Collection</a> (also best viewed via a <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Falbum.php%253Faid%253D14768%2526id%253D605980750%26force%3Drdf%26login%3Dkidehen" id="link-id16e10270">Linked Data Browser/Viewer</a> session) </ul> <p>To conclude, 2008 is clearly the inflection year during which we will final unshackle Data and Identity from the confines of "Web Data Silos" by leveraging the HTTP, SPARQL, and RDF induced virtues of Linked Data. </p> <p>Related Posts:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/2008_the_rise_of_linked" id="link-id156baac0">2008 and the Rise of Linked Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/data_portability_scoble_explains" id="link-id16291310">Scoble Right, Wrong, and Beyond</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://scobleizer.com/2007/11/30/talking-with-tim-berners-lee-inventor-of-the-web/" id="link-id163c9c38">Scoble interviewing TimBL</a> (note to Scoble: re-watch your interview since he made some specific points about Linked Data and URIs that you need to grasp)</li> <li>Prior Blog posts my this Blog Data Space that include the literal patterns: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=scoble%20semantic%20web&type=text&output=html" id="link-id163e6cd0">Scoble Semantic Web</a> </li> </ol>
OpenOffice.org, SPARQL, and the Linked Data Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-01-04#1288
2008-01-05T02:50:00Z
2008-02-04T20:42:50.000004-05:00
<p>Question posed by Dan Brickley via a blog post: SQL, OpenOffice: <a href="http://danbri.org/words/2008/01/04/245" id="link-id1689abd8">would a JDBC driver for SPARQL protocol make sense?</a> </p> <p>Writing a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/JDBC_driver" id="link-id16a96580">JDBC Driver</a> for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1a908a70">SPARQL</a> is a little overkill. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenOffice.org" id="link-id16ae69a8">OpenOffice.org</a> simply needs to make <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XML" id="link-id168d3880">XML</a> or Web Data (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/HTML" id="link-id1a7f1f50">HTML</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XHTML" id="link-id16c1ae60">XHTML</a>, and XML) bonafide data sources within its "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Pivot_table" id="link-id16665398">Pivot Table</a>" functionality realm. Then all that would then be required is a <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/#select" id="link-id168bcbe8">SPARQL SELECT Query</a> transported via the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-protocol/" id="link-id16c1bbc0">SPARQL Protocol</a> with results sent back using the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-XMLres/" id="link-id1aa61118">SPARQL XML results serialization</a> format (all part of a single SPARQL Protocol URL).</p> <p>Excel successfully consumes the following information resource URI: http://tinyurl.com/yvoccj (a tiny url for a SPARQL SELECT against my<a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen" id="link-id16702ba8"> FOAF file</a>).</p> <p>Alternatively, and currently achievable, you could simply use <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SPASQL" id="link-id1a1b6b78">SPASQL</a> (SPARQL within SQL) using a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBMS" id="link-id1661f240">DBMS</a> engine that supports SQL, SPARQL, and SPARQL e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id168bba60">Virtuoso</a>. </p> <p> <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/rdfapiandsql.html" id="link-id167d9508">Virtuoso SPASQL support</a> is exposed via it's <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id16c62160">ODBC</a> and/or JDBC Drivers. Thus you can do things such as: </p> <ol> <li>Use a SPARQL Query in the FROM CLAUSE of a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id1657a3a8">SQL</a> statement</li> <li>Execute SPARQL via SQL processor by prepending SPARQL query text with the literals "sparql" </li> </ol> <p>BTW - My News Years Resolution: get my act together and shrink the ever increasing list of "simple & practical Virtuoso use case demos" on my todo which now spans all the way back to 2006 :-(</p>
Reminder: Why We Need Linked Data!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-11-02#1267
2007-11-02T22:50:00Z
2007-11-02T18:52:34-04:00
<blockquote> <p>"The phrase Open Social implies portability of personal and social data. That would be exciting but there are entirely different protocols underway to deal with those ideas. As some people have told me tonight, it may have been more accurate to call this "OpenWidget" - though the press wouldn't have been as good. We've been waiting for data and identity portability - is this all we get?" <br /> [Source: <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/[Excerpted from: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/178622741/opensocial_three_big_concerns.php]" id="link-id1143a428">Read/Write Web's Commentary & Analysis of Google's OpenSocial API</a>]</p> </blockquote> <blockquote> <p>..Perhaps the world will read the terms of use of the API, and realize this is not an open API; this is a free API, owned and controlled by one company only: Google. Hopefully, the world will remember another time when Google offered a free API and then pulled it. Maybe the world will also take a deeper look and realize that the functionality is dependent on Google hosted technology, which has its own terms of service (including adding ads at the discretion of Google), and that building an OpenSocial application ties Google into your application, and Google into every social networking site that buys into the Dream. Hopefully the world will remember. Unlikely, though, as such memories are typically filtered in the Great Noise....</p>[Source: <a href="http://burningbird.net/technology/terms/" id="link-id116f8c98">Poignant commentary excerpt from <a href="http://burningbird.net" id="link-id11216e98">Shelly Power's Blog</a></a> (as always)]</blockquote> <p>The "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id1102bc20">Semantic Data Web</a>" vision has always been about "Data & Identity" portability across the Web. Its been that and more from day one.</p> <p>In a nutshell, we continue to exhibit varying degrees of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cognitive_dissonance" id="link-id121bb728">Cognitive Dissonance</a> re the following realities:</p> <ol> <li>The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Network" id="link-id114567b0">Network</a> is the Computer (Internet/Intranet/Extranet depending on your TCP/IP usage scenarios)</li> <li>The Web is the OS (ditto) and it provides a communications subsystem (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s+BLOG+%5B127%5D/1231" id="link-id1212b390">Information BUS</a>) comprised of</li> <ul>- <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id11b1b760">HTTP</a> Protocol</ul> <ul>- <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id11043020">URI</a>s (pointer system for identifying, accessing, and manipulating data)</ul> <li>HTTP based Interprocess (i.e Web Apps are processes when you discard the HTML UI and interact with the application logic containers called "Web Services" behind the pages) ultimately hit data</li> <li>Web Data is best Modeled as a Graph (RDF, Containers/Items/Item Types, Property & Value Pairs associated with something, and other labels)</li> <li>Network are Graphs and vice versa</li> <li>Social Networks are graphs where nodes are connected via social connectors ( [x]--knows-->[y] ) </li> <li>The Web is a Graph that exposes a People and Data Network (to the degree we allude to humans not being data containers i.e. just nodes in a network, otherwise we are talking about a Data Network)</li> <li>Data access and manipulation depends inherently on canonical Data Access mechanisms such as Data Source Identifiers / Names (time-tested practice in various DBMS realms)</li> <li>Data is forever, it is the basis of Information, and it is increasing exponentially due to proliferation of Web Services induced user activities (User Generated Content)</li> <li>Survival, Vitality, Longevity, Efficiency, Productivity etc.. are all depend on our ability to process data effectively in a shrinking time continuum where Data and/or Information overload is the alternative.</li> </ol> <p> The Data Web is about Presence over Eyeballs due to the following realities:</p> <ol> <li>Eyeballs are input devices for a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DNA" id="link-id118b29a0">DNA</a> based processing system (Humans). The aforementioned processing system can reason very well, but simply cannot effectively process masses of data or information</li> <li>Widgets offer little value long term re. the imminent data and information overload dilemma, ditto Web pages (however pretty), and any other Eyeballs-only centric Web Apps</li> <li>Computers (machines) are equipped with inorganic (non DNA) based processing power, they are equipped to process huge volumes of data and/or information, but they cannot reason</li> <li>To be effective in the emerging frontier comprised of a Network Computer and a Web OS, we need an effective mechanism that makes best use of the capabilities possessed by humans and machines, by shifting the focus to creation and interaction with points of "Data Web Presence" that openly expose "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data_structure" id="link-id10e56458">Structured Linked Data</a>". </li> </ol> <p>This is why we need to inject a mesh of Linked Data into the existing Web. This is what the often misunderstood vision of the "Semantic Data Web" or "Web of Data" or "Web or Structured Data" is all about. </p> <p>As stated earlier (point 10 above), "Data is forever" and there is only more of it to come! Sociality and associated Social Networking oriented solutions are at best a spec in the Web's ocean of data once you comprehend this reality.</p> <p>Note: I am writing this post as an early implementor of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/GData" id="link-id11349808">GData</a> and an implementor of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id120f3a68">RDF Linked Data</a> technology and a "Web Purist". </p> <blockquote> <p>OpenSocial implementation and support across our relevant product families: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id1217bf20">Virtuoso</a> (i.e the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id12154258">Sponger Middleware</a> for RDF component), <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/Ods" id="link-id11369930">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> (Data Space Controller / Services), and the <a href="http://oat.openlinksw.com/" id="link-id113e4da0">OpenLink Ajaxt Toolkit</a> (i.e OAT Widgets and Libraries), is a triviality now that the OpenSocial APIs are public. </p> </blockquote> <p>The concern I have, and the problem that remains mangled in the vast realms of Web Architecture incomprehension, is the fact that GData and GData based APIs cannot deliver Structured Linked Data in line with the essence of the Web without introducing "lock-in" that ultimately compromises the "Open Purity" of the Web. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Facebook" id="link-id11073980">Facebook</a> and Google's <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial/docs/" id="link-id1215e020">OpenSocial</a> response to the Facebook juggernaut (i.e. open variant of the Facebook Activity Dashboard and Social Network functionality realms, primarily), are at best icebergs in the ocean we know as the "World Wide Web". The nice and predictable thing about icebergs is that they ultimately melt into the larger ocean :-)</p> On a related note, I had the pleasure of attending the <a href="http://www.w3.org/2007/03/RdfRDB/" id="link-id1106f678">W3C's RDF and DBMS Integration Workshop</a>, last week. The event was well attended by organizations with knowledge, experience, and a vested interested in addressing the issues associated with exposing none RDF data (e.g. SQL) as RDF, and the imminence of data and/or information overload covered in different ways via the following presentations: <ul>- <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/RDF_Mapping_Presentation_W3C_workshop3.ppt" id="link-id11053440">RDF Views of SQL Data</a> - <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling" id="link-id1218bf70">Orri Erling </a>on behalf of OpenLink Software</ul> <ul>- <a href="http://www.michaelbrodie.com/documents/Brodie%20VLDB%202007%20V3.zip" id="link-id11eda380">Computer Science 2.0</a> (covering User Generated Content Explosion) - Michael Brodie</ul> <ul>- <a href="http://www.w3.org/2007/03/RdfRDB/talks/Finding_our_way.ppt" id="link-id113b9620">Experiences re. solving SPARQL Access to Distributed Data Sources</a> - Phil Ashworth </ul> <ul>- <a href="http://www.w3.org/2007/03/RdfRDB/program" id="link-id11265180">Other presentations</a> </ul>.
Fourth Platform: Data Spaces in The Cloud (Update)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-09-22#1261
2007-09-22T23:43:00Z
2008-10-26T17:59:33-04:00
<p>I've written extensively on the subject of <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=data%20spaces&type=text&output=html" id="link-id134c2280">Data Spaces</a> in relation to the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=data%20web%0D%0A&type=text&output=html" id="link-id105aef90">Data Web</a> for while. I've also written sparingly about <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsIndex" id="link-id105bd100">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> (a Data Web Platform that build using Virtuoso). On the other hand, I haven't shed much light on installation and deployment of OpenLink Data Spaces.</p> <p> <a href="http://blog.jonudell.net" id="link-id14347f20">Jon Udell</a> recently penned a post titled: <a href="http://blog.jonudell.net/2007/09/21/the-fourth-platform/" id="link-id1439ed48">The Fourth Platform</a>. The post arrives at a spookily coincidental time (this happens quite often between Jon and I as demonstrated last year during our <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/gems/ju_idehen.mp3" id="link-id107d17a8">podcast</a>; the "Fourth" in his Innovators Podcast series).</p> <p>The platform that Jon describes is "Cloud Based" and comprised of Storage and Computation. I would like to add Data Access and Management (native and virtual) under the fourth platform banner with the end product called: "Cloud based Data Spaces". </p> <p>As I write, we are releasing a Virtuoso AMI (Amazon Image) labeled: virtuoso-dataspace-server. This edition of<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13543210"> Virtuoso</a> includes the OpenLink Data Spaces Layer and all of the OAT applications we've been developing for a while.</p> <h2>What Benefits Does this offer?</h2> <ol> <li>Personal Data Spaces in the Cloud - a place where you can control and consolidate data across your Blogs, Wikis, RSS/Atom Feed Subscriptions, Shared Bookmarks, Shared Calendars, Discussion Threads, Photo Galleries etc</li> <li>All the data in your Data <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces">Space</a> is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1149a4f8">SPARQL</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/GData" id="link-id107a9f28">GData</a> accessible.</li> <li>All of the data in your Personal Data Space is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> from the get go. Each Item of data is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier">URI</a> addressable</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SIOC" id="link-id104f4160">SIOC</a> support - your Blogs, Wikis, Bookmarks etc.. are based on the SIOC ontology for Semantically Interlinking Online Communities (think: Open social-graph++) </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id105beb78">FOAF</a> support - your FOAF Profile page provides a URI that is an in-road to all Data in your Data Space.</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenID" id="link-id1144e138">OpenID</a> support - your Personal Data Space ID is usable wherever OpenID is supported. OpenID and FOAF are integrated as per latest FOAF specs</li> <li>Two Integration with Facebook - You can access your Data Space from Facebook or access Facebook from your Data Space</li> <li>Unified Storage - The WebDAV based filesystem provides Cloud Storage that's integrated with Amazon S3; It also exposes all of your Data Space data via a traditional filesystem UI (think virtual Spotlight); You can also mount this drive to your local filesystem via your native operating system's WebDAV support</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SyncML" id="link-id11128f48">SyncML</a> - you can sync calendar and contact details with your Data Space in the cloud from your Mobile phone.</li> <li>A practical Semantic Data Web solution - based on Web Infrastructure and doesn't require you to do anything beyond exposing URIs for data in your Data Spaces.</li> </ol> <h2> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Amazon_Elastic_Compute_Cloud" id="link-id115d1920">EC2</a>-AMI Details:</h2> <ul>AMI ID: ami-e2ca2f8b</ul> <ul>Manifest file: virtuoso-images/virtuoso-dataspace-server.manifest.xml</ul> <h2>Installation Guide:</h2> <ol> <li>Get an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account</li> <li>Signup for S3 and EC2 services</li> <li>Install the EC2 plugin for Firefox</li> <li>Start the EC2 plugin</li> <li>Locate the row containing <b>ami-7c31d515  Manifest virtuoso-test/virtuoso-cloud-beta-9-i386.manifest.xml </b>(sort using the AMI ID or Manifest Columns or search on pattern: virtuoso, due to name flux)</li> <li>Start the Virtuoso Data Space Server AMI</li> <li>Wait 4-5 minutes (*take a few minutes to create the pre-configured Linux Image*)</li> <li>Connect to http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>http://your-ec2-instance-cname:8890/ Log in with user/password dba/dba</public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> <li>Go to the Admin UI (Virtuoso Conductor) and change the PWDs for the 'dba' and 'dav' accounts (*Important!*)</li> <li>Give the "SPARQL" user "SPARQL_UPDATE" privileges (required if you want to exploit the in-built Sponger Middleware)</li> <li>Click on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces">ODS</a> (OpenLink Data Spaces) link to start an Personal Editon of OpenLink Data Spaces (or go to: http://your-ec2-instance-cname/dataspace/ods/index.html)</li> <li>Log-in using the username and password credentials for the 'dav' account (or register a new user note: OpenID is an option here also) Create an Data Space Application Instance by clicking on a Data Space App. Tab</li> <li>Import data from your existing Web 2.0 style applications into OpenLink Data Spaces e.g. subscribe to a few RSS/Atom feeds via the "Feeds Manager" application or import some Bookmarks using the "Bookmarks" application</li> <li>Then look at the imported data in Linked Data form via your ODS generated URIs based on the patterns: http://your-ec2-instance-cname/dataspace/person/your-ods-id#this (URI for You the Person), http://your-ec2-instance-cname/dataspace/person/your-ods-id (FOAF File URI), http://your-ec2-instance-cname/dataspace/your-ods-id (SIOC File URI)<br /> </li> </ol> <h2> (OAT) from your Data Space instance</h2>Install the OAT VAD package via the Admin UI and then apply the URI patterns below within your browser:<br /> <ol> <li>http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>:8890/oatdemo - Entire OAT Demo Collection</public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> <li>http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>:8890/rdfbrowser - RDF Browser</public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> <li>http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>:8890/isparql - SPARQL Query Builder (iSPARQL)</public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> <li>http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>:8890/qbe - SQL Query Builder (iSQL)</public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> <li>http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>:8890/formdesigner - Forms Builder (for building Meshups based on RDF, SQL, or Web Servives Data Souces)</public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> <li>http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>:8890/dbdesigner - SQL DB Schema Designer (note a Visual SQL-RDF Mapper is also on it's way</public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> <li>http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>:8890/DAV/JS/ - To view the OAT Tree (there are some experimental demos that are missing from the main demo app etc..) </public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> </ol> <p>There's more to come!</p>
Semantic Web Value Proposition
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-09-20#1254
2007-09-21T02:23:00Z
2007-09-21T08:05:07.000009-04:00
<p>The motivation behind this post is a response to the <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com">Read/WriteWeb</a> post titled: <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/semantic_web_difficulties_with_classic_approach.php">Semantic Web: Difficulties with the Classic Approach</a>.</p> <p>First off, I am going to focus on the Semantic Data Web aspect of the overall Semantic Web vision (a continuum) as this is what we have now. I am also writing this post as a deliberate contribution to the discourse swirling around the real topic: Semantic Web Value Proposition.</p> <h2>Situation Analysis</h2> <p>We are in the early stages of the long anticipated<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge_economy"> Knowledge Economy</a>. That being the case, it would be safe to assume that information access, processing, and dissemination are of utmost importance to individuals and organizations alike. You don't produce knowledge in a vacum! Likewise, you can produce Information in a vacum, you need Data.</p> <h2>The Semantic Data Web's value to Individuals</h2> <b>Problem:</b> <p>Increasingly, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog">Blogs</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Wiki">Wikis</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Social_bookmarking">Shared Bookmarks</a>, Photo Galleries, Discussion Forums, Shared Calendars and the like, have become invaluable tools for individual and organizational participation in Web enabled global discourse (where a lot of knowledge is discovered). These tools, are typically associated with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_2">Web 2.0</a>, implying Read-Write access via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_service">Web Services</a>, centralized application hosting, and data lock-in (silos).</p> <p>The reality expressed above is a recipe for "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information_overload">Information Overload</a>" and complete annihilation of ones effective pursuit and exploitation of knowledge due "Time Scarcity" (note: disconnecting is not an option). Information abundance is inversely related to available processing time (for humans in particular). In my case for instance, I was actively subscribed to over 500+ RSS feeds in 2003. As of today, I've simply stopped counting, and that's just my Weblog Data Space. Then add to that, all of the Discussions I track across Blogs, wikis, message boards, mailing lists, traditional usnet discussion forumns, and the like, and I think you get the picture. </p> <p>Beyond information overload, Web 2.0 data is "Semi-Structured" by way of it's dominant data containers ((X)HTML, RSS, Atom documents and data streams etc.) lacking semantics that formally expose individual data items as distinct entities, endowed with unambiguous naming / identification, descriptive attributes (a type of property/predicate), and relationships (a type of property/predicate).</p> <b>Solution:</b> <p>Devise a standard for Structured Data Semantics that is compatible with the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1231">Web Information BUS</a>.</p> <p>Produce <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=153">structured data</a> (entities, entity types, entity relationships) from Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 resources that already exists on the Web such that individual entities, their attributes, and relationships are accessible and discernible to software agents (machines).</p> <p>Once the entities are individually exposed, the next requirement is a mechanism for selective access to these entities i.e. a query language. </p> <p> Semantic Data Web Technologies that facilitate the solution described above include:</p> <b>Structured Data Standards:</b> <ul> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDF">RDF</a> - Data Model for structured data</ul> <ul>RDF/XML - A serialization format for RDF based structured data</ul> <ul> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Notation_3">N3</a> / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Turtle_%28syntax%29">Turtle</a> - more human friendly serialization formats for RDF based structured data</ul> <b>Entity Exposure & Generation:</b> <ul> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/GRDDL">GRDDL</a> - enables association between XHTML pages and XSLT stylesheets that facilitates loosely coupled "on the fly" extraction of RDF from non RDF documents</ul> <ul> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa">RDFa</a> - enables document publishers or viewers (i.e those repurposing or annotating) to embed structured data into existing XHTML documents</ul> <ul> <a href="http://research.talis.com/2005/erdf/wiki/Main/RdfInHtml">eRDF</a> - another option for embedding structured RDF data within (X)HTML documents</ul> <ul> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/?id=1172">RDF Middleware</a> - typically incorporating GRDDL, RDFa, eRDF, and custom extraction and mapping as part of a structured data production pipeline</ul>. <b>Entity Naming & Identification:</b> <p>Use of URIs or IRIs for uniquely identifying physical (HTML Documents, Image Files, Multimedia Files etc..) and abstract (People, Places, Music, and other abstract things). </p> <b>Entity Access & Querying:</b> <ul> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL">SPARQL</a> Query Language - the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL">SQL</a> analog of the Semantic Data Web that enables query constructs that target named entities, entity attributes, and entity relationships</p> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-protocol/">SPARQL Protocol</a> - a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Representational_State_Transfer">REST</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SOAP">SOAP</a> style Web Service for transporting SPARQL Queries to Structured Data Sources.</ul> <ul> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-XMLres/">SPARQL Results Serialization Formats</a> - query results serialization formats that includes XML(sparql+xml) and JSON.</ul> <h2>The Semantic Data Web's value to Organizations</h2> <b>Problem:</b> <p>Organizations are rife with a plethora of business systems that are built atop a myriad of database engines, sourced from a variety of DBMS vendors. A typical organization would have a different database engine, from a specific DBMS vendor, underlying critical business applications such as: Human Resource Management (HR), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Accounting, Supply Chain Management etc. In a nutshell, you have DBMS Engines, and DBMS Schema heterogeneity permeating the IT infrastructure of organizations on a global scale, making Data & Information Integration the biggest headache across all IT driven organizations.</p> <b>Solution:</b> <p>Alleviation of the pain (costs) associated with Data & Information Integration. </p> <b>Semantic Data Web offerings:</b> <p>A dexterous data model (RDF) that enables the construction of conceptual views of disparate data sources across an organization based on existing web architecture components such as HTTP and URIs.</p> <p>Existing middleware solutions that facilitate the exposure of SQL DBMS data as RDF based Structured Data include:</p> <ul> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSSQLRDF">Virtuoso's Meta Schema Language for RDF Views of SQL Data</a> (also see the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/pdf/Virtuoso_SQL_to_RDF_Mapping.pdf">Virtuoso SQL-RDF Technical White Paper</a>)</ul> <ul> <a href="http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/D2RQ/">D2RQ</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://ccnt.zju.edu.cn/projects/dartgrid">DataGrid</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/RdfAndSql">Others</a> </ul> <p> BTW - There is an upcoming <a href="http://www.w3.org/2007/03/RdfRDB/">W3C Workshop covering the integration of SQL and RDF data</a>.</p> <h2>Conclusion</h2> <p>The Semantic Data Web is here, it's value delivery vehicle is the URI. The URI is a conduit to Interlinked Structured Data (RDF based Linked Data) derived from existing data sources on the World Wide Web alongside data continuously injected into the Web by organizations world wide. Ironically, the Semantic Data Web only platform that crystallizes the: Information at Your Fingertips vision, without development environment, operating system, application, or database lock-in. You simply click on a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data URI</a> and the serendipitous exploration and discovery of data commences.</p> <p>The unobtrusive emergence of the Semantic Data Web is a reflection of the soundness of the underlying Semantic Web vision.</p> <p>If you are excited about <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Mashup_%28web_application_hybrid%29">Mash-ups</a> then your are a Semantic Web enthusiast and benefactor in the making, because you only "Mash" (brute force data extraction and interlinking) because you can't "Mesh" (natural data extraction and interlinking). Likewise, if you are a social-networking, open social-graph, or portable social-network enthusiast, then you are also a Semantic Data Web benefactor and enthusiasts, because your "values" (yes, the values associated with the properties that define you e.g your interests etc) are the fundamental basis for portable, open, social-networking, which is what the Semantic Data Web hands to you on a platter without compromise (i.e. data lock-in or loss of data ownership).</p> <b>Some practical examples of Semantic Data Web prowess:</b> <ul> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.readwriteweb.com%2Farchives%2Fsemantic_web_difficulties_with_classic_approach.php">Read/WriteWeb via the OpenLink Data Web Browser</a> (click on the different viewing tabs to see what structured data exploitation in action)</ul> <ul> <a href="http://browser.zitgist.com/?uri=http%3A//www.readwriteweb.com/archives/semantic_web_difficulties_with_classic_approach.php">Read/WriteWeb via the Zitgist Data Web Browser</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http:/dbpedia.org">DBpedia</a> (*note: I deliberately use DBpedia URIs in my posts where I would otherwise have used a Wikipedia article URI*)</ul> <ul> <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/zitgist-browser-linker/">Zitgist zLinks</a> - <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=400">Mike Bergman's Blog Post also demonstrating zLinks</a> </ul>
Web of Linked Data & Hyperdata
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-09-19#1252
2007-09-19T18:46:08Z
2008-02-04T20:43:55.000003-05:00
<p>I've just read the extensive post by <a href="http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/">Nova Spivack</a> titled: <a href="http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/2007/09/a-bottle-that-p.html">The Semantic Web, Collective Intelligence and Hyperdata</a>, courtesy of a post by <a href="http://dannyayers.com/me">Danny Ayres</a> titled: <a href="http://dannyayers.com/2007/09/19/confused-about-the">Confused about the Semantic Web</a> , in response to a post by <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/tim">Tim O'Reilly</a> titled: <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/09/economist_confu.html">Economist Confused About the Semantic Web?</a> .</p> <p>My Comments:</p> <p>Hyperdata is short for HyperLinked Data :-) The same applies to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a>. Thus, we have two literal labels for the same core Concept. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP">HTTP</a> is the enabling protocol for "Hyper-linking" Documents and associated Structured Data via the World Wide Web (Web for short). Data Links associated with Structured Data contained in, or hosted by, Documents on the Web.</p> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa">RDFa</a>, eRDF, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/GRDDL">GRDDL</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL">SPARQL</a> Query Language, SPARQL Protocol (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SOAP">SOAP</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Representational_State_Transfer">REST</a> service), SPARQL Results Serializations (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XML">XML</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/JSON">JSON</a>) collectively provide a myriad of unobtrusive routes to structured data embedded within, or associated with, existing Web Documents.</p> <p>As Danny already states, ontologies are not prerequisites for producing structured data using the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework">RDF</a> Data Model. They simply aid the ability to express one's self clearly (i.e. no repetition or ambiguity) across a broad audience of machines (directly) and their human masters (indirectly).</p> <p>Using the crux of this post as the anecdote: The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web">Semantic Data Web</a> would simplify the process of claiming and/or proving that Linked Data and Hyperdata describe the same concept. It achieves this by using Triples (Subject, Predicate, Object) expressed in various forms (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Notation_3">N3</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Turtle_(syntax)">Turtle</a>, RDF/XML etc.) to formalize claims in a form palatable to electronic agents (machines) operating on behalf of Humans. In a nutshell, this increases human productive by completely obliterates the erstwhile exponential costs of discovering data, information, and knowledge.</p> <p>BTW - for full effect, view this post (i.e. cut and paste the Permalink URI of this post, below) into an RDF Browser such as:</p> <ul>- <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser/">OpenLink RDF Browser</a> </ul> <ul>- <a href="http://browser.zitgist.com/">Zitgist Browser</a> </ul> <ul>- <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/rdf_browser/">DISCO</a> </ul> <ul>- <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/ajar/tab">Tabulator</a> </ul>
Social-Networking & Semantic Web (update)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-08-11#1241
2007-08-11T13:15:39Z
2007-08-15T18:14:36.000003-04:00
<p>An update for RSS crawlers that don't have synchronization capability etc..</p> <p>"Reasonable Humans" continue to struggle with the congruency of social-networking and the Semantic Web. Funnily enough, our less capable counterparts (in the reasoning department) don't have such struggles. Here is my little interaction with an IRC Bot called "<a href="http://inamidst.com/phenny/">Phenny</a>" (possibly mother of the Agent Web or Web of Agents or Web 4.0):</p> <blockquote> <pre></pre><p> <b>kidehen:</b> .w web<br /> <br /> <b>phenny:</b> web n. 1: An intricate network suggesting something that was formed by weaving or interweaving<br /> <b>phenny:</b> web n. 2: An intricate trap that entangles or ensnares its victim<br /> <b>phenny:</b> web v. 1: Construct or form a web, as if by weaving.</p> <b><br />kidehen:</b> .w network<br /> <p> <b>phenny:</b> network n. 1: An interconnected system of things or people<br /> <b>phenny:</b> network n. 2: (broadcasting) a communication system consisting of a group of broadcasting stations that all transmit the same programs<br /> <b>phenny:</b> network v. 1: Communicate with and within a group.</p> <br /> <p> <br /> <b>kidehen:</b> .w social<br /> <br /> <b>phenny:</b> social n. 1: A party of people assembled to promote sociability and communal activity<br /> <b>phenny:</b> social a. 1: Relating to human society and its members<br /> <b>phenny:</b> social a. 2: Living together or enjoying life in communities or organized groups.</p> <p> <br /> <b>kidehen:</b> .w semantic<br /> <br /> <b>phenny:</b> semantic a. 1: Of or relating to meaning or the study of meaning.<br /> </p> <br /> <p> <b>kidehen:</b> .w graph<br /> <br /> <b>phenny:</b> graph n. 1: A visual representation of the relations between certain quantities plotted with reference to a set of axes<br /> <b>phenny:</b> graph v. 1: Represent by means of a graph<br /> <b>phenny:</b> graph v. 2: Plot upon a graph.</p> <p>Note: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_theory">Wikipedia's Graph definition</a> is the one the applies to RDF :-)</p> </blockquote> <p>To conclude, the whole <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web">Semantic Data Web</a> vision and Open <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Social_Networking">social-networking</a> go hand-in-hand. You can't attain "Open social-networking" without appreciating the underlying <a href="http://rdfabout.com/quickintro.xpd">core concepts</a> (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=structured%20data&type=text&output=html">Structured Data</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-concepts/#section-Concepts">Graphs, and Triples</a>). There is no way around the reality that all <a href="http://www.tei-c.org/P4X/GD.html">networks are graphs</a>. Of course, this doesn't imply that solution users (end-users) have to master <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Graph_theory">graph theory</a> en route to network participation and exploitation. It simply implies that solution developers need some graph data model appreciation, or a graph data model aware platform, when developing social-networking solutions that seek to leverage the Web.<br /> </p>Funnily enough, my session with the Phenny Bot was triggered by a prior session between <a href="http://metacognition.info/index.html">Chimezie Ogbuji</a> (who also trains a Bot called "<a href="http://metacognition.info/Emeka/index.html">Emeka</a>" that does SPARQL) and said Bot:<blockquote> <p></p> <pre></pre> <p> <br /> <b>chimezie:</b> .w tautology<br /> <br /> <b>phenny:</b> tautology n. 1: (logic) a statement that is necessarily true<br /> <b>phenny:</b> tautology n. 2: Useless repetition.<br /> </p> <p> <br /> <b>chimezie:</b> .ety tautology<br /> <br /> <b>phenny:</b> "1579, from L.L. tautologia 'representation of the same thing' (c.350), from Gk. tautologia, from tautologos 'repeating what has been said,' from tauto 'the same' + -logos 'saying,' related to legein 'to say' (see lecture)." - http://etymonline.com/?term=tautology</p> </blockquote> <p>That lead me to the following sequence (preceding the initial IRC session dump in this post):</p> <blockquote> <pre></pre> <p> <b>kidehen:</b> .w conflagration<br /> <br /> <b>phenny:</b> conflagration n. 1: A very intense and uncontrolled fire.<br /> <br /> </p> <b>kidehen:</b> .w imbroglio<br /> <p> <b>phenny:</b> imbroglio n. 1: An intricate and confusing interpersonal or political situation<br /> <br /> <b>phenny:</b> imbroglio n. 2: A very embarrassing misunderstanding.<br /> </p> <br /> <p> <b>kidehen:</b> .w buzzword<br /> <br /> <b>phenny:</b> buzzword n. 1: Stock phrases that have become nonsense through endless repetition.<br /> </p> </blockquote> <p>In sense, proposing the Semantic Data Web as a solution to open social-networiing challenges, more often than not results in your "No Semantic Web here" <b>imbroglio</b>. In a sense, the shortest path to a <b>buzzword</b> fueled <b>conflagration</b> :-) </p>
OpenLink Ajax Toolkit (OAT) 2.6 Released!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-08-01#1238
2007-08-01T18:34:07Z
2007-08-01T14:49:17-04:00
<p> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com">OpenLink Software</a> are pleased to announce release 2.6 of the <a href="http://oat.openlinksw.com">OpenLink AJAX Toolkit</a> (OAT).</p> <p> New Semantic Data Web related features and enhancements include:</p> <ul> * A Javascript-based <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/04/fresnel-info/">Fresnel</a> processor enabling declarative RDF-based display templates for RDF Data Sources</ul> <ul>* An XSLT template for generating HTML pages from the Fresnel processor's XML output</ul> <ul>* <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/isparql/index.html">Interactive Query Builder for SPARQL</a> (iSPARQL). This version of the iSPARQL application includes support for INSERTs and DELETEs</ul> <ul>* Enhanced Javascript-based N3/Turtle parser</ul> <ul>* New Navigator viewer panel for <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html">RDF Browser</a>.</ul> Related Items: <ul>*<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/oat">Project Home Page</a> </ul> <ul>*<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/oat/files">Source Code</a> </ul> <ul>*<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html">Live Features Demonstrations</a>.</ul>
Injecting Facebook Data into the Semantic Data Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-07-27#1237
2007-07-27T08:22:00Z
2009-02-11T07:40:11-05:00
<p>I now have the first cut of a Facebook application called: Dynamic Linked Data Pages. </p> <h3>What is a Dynamic Linked Data Page (DLD)?</h3> <p>A dynamically generated Web Page comprised of Semantic Data Web style data links (formally typed links) and traditional Document Web links (generic links lacking type specificity).</p> <p>Linked Data Pages will ultimately enable Facebook users to inject their public data into the Semantic Data Web as RDF based Linked Data. For instance, my Facebook Profile & Photo albums data is now available as RDF, without paying a cent of RDF handcrafting tax, thanks to the Virtuoso Sponger (middleware for producing RDF from non RDF data sources) which is now equipped with a new RDFizer Cartridger for the Facebook Query Language (FQL) and RESTful Web Service.</p> <p>Demo Notes:</p> <p>When you click on a link in DLD pages, you will be presented with a lookup that exposes the different interaction options associated with a given URI. Examples include:</p> <ol> <li> Explore - find attributes and relationships that apply to the clicked URI</li> <li>Dereference (get the attributes of the clicked URI)</li> <li>Bookmark - store the URI for subsequent use e.g meshing with other URIs from across the Web</li> <li>(X)HTML Page Open - traditional Document Web link (i.e. just opens another Web document as per usual)</li> </ol> <p>Remember, the facebook URLs (links to web pages) are being converted, on the fly, into RDF based Structured Data ( graph model database) i.e Entity Sets that possess formally defined characteristics (attributes) and associations (relationships).</p> <h3>Dynamic Linked Data Pages</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/DataWeb/Explore_Facebook_Profile.isparql">My facebook Profile</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/DataWeb/Explore_Facebook_Photo_Album.isparql">My facebook Photo Album</a> </li> </ol> <h3>Saved RDF Browser Sessions</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/DataWeb/Exploring_Facebook_Profile.wqx">My facebook Profile</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/DataWeb/Exploring_Facebook_Photo_Gallery.wqx">My facebook Photo Album</a> </li> </ol> <h3>Saved SPARQL Query Definitions</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/DataWeb/Explore_Facebook_Profile.rq">My facebook Profile Query</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/DataWeb/Exploring_Facebook_Photo_Album.rq">My facebook Photo Album Query</a> </li> </ol>
Linked Data & The Web Information BUS
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-07-20#1231
2007-07-20T07:50:00Z
2007-08-08T18:26:55-04:00
<p> <a href="http://www.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/ueber_uns/team/chris_bizer.htm">Chris Bizer</a>, <a href="http://richard.cyganiak.de/">Richard Cyganiak</a>, and <a href="http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/tom/html">Tom Heath</a> have just published a <a href="http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/pub/LinkedDataTutorial/">Linked Data Publishing Tutorial</a> that provides a guide to the mechanics of Linked Data injection into the Semantic Data Web.</p> <p> On different, but related, thread, <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com">Mike Bergman</a> recently penned a post titled: <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AI3_AdaptiveInformation/~3/134989485/">What is the Structured Web?</a>. Both of these public contributions shed light on the "Information BUS" essence of the World Wide Web by describing the evolving nature of the payload shuttled by the BUS. </p> <h3>What is an Information BUS? </h3> <p>Middleware infrastructure for shuttling "Information" between endpoints using a messaging protocol.</p> <p>The Web is the dominant Information BUS within the Network Computer we know as the "Internet". It uses HTTP to shuttle information payloads between "Data Sources" and "Information Consumers" - what happens when we interact with Web via User Agents / Clients (e.g Browsers). </p> <h3>What are Web Information Payloads?</h3> <p>HTTP transported streams of contextualized data. Hence the terms: "Information Resource" and "Non Information" when reading material related to <a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/httpRange-14/2007-05-31/HttpRange-14#iddiv2104118728">http-range-14 and Web Architecture</a>. For example, an (X)HTML document is a specific data context (representation) that enables us to perceive, or comprehend, a data stream originating from a Web Server as a Web Page. On the other hand, if the payload lacks contextualized data, a fundamental Web requirement, then the resource is referred to as a "Non Information" resource. Of course, there is really no such thing as a "Non Information" resource, but with regards to Web Architecture, it's the short way of saying: "the Web Transmits Information only". That said, I prefer to refer to these "Non Information" resources as "Data Sources", are term well understood in the world of Data Access Middleware (ODBC, JDBC, OLEDB, ADO.NET etc.) and Database Management Systems (Relational, Objec-Relational, Object etc).</p> <p>Examples of Information Resource and Data Source URIs:</p> <ul> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI">http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI</a> (Information Resource)</ul> <ul> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/sparql?query=CONSTRUCT+{+%3Chttp%3A//demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI%23this%3E+%3Fp+%3Fo+}+FROM+%3Chttp%3A//demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind%3E+WHERE+{+%3Chttp%3A//demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI%23this%3E+%3Fp+%3Fo+}&format=application/rdf%2Bxml">http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI#this</a> (Data Source)</ul> <p>Explanation: The Information Resource is a conduit to the Entity identified by Data Source (an entity in my RDF Data Space that is the Subject or Object of one of more Triple based Statements. The triples in question can that can be represented as an RDF resource when transmitted over the Web via an Information Resource that takes the form of a SPARQL REST Service URL or a Physical RDF based Information Resource URL). </p> <h3>What about Structured Data?</h3> <p>Prior to the emergence of the Semantic Data Web, the payloads shuttled across the Web Information BUS comprised primarily of the following:</p> <ol> <li>HTML - Web Resource with presentation focused structure (Web 1.0 dominant payload form)</li> <li>XML - Web Resource with structure that separates presentation and data (Web 2.0's dominant payload form).</li> </ol> <p>The Semantic Data Web simply adds <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/Resource_Description_Framework">RDF</a> to the payload formats that shuttle the Web Information BUS. RDF addresses formal data structure which XML doesn't cover since it is semi-structured (distinct data entities aren't formally discernible). In a nutshell, an RDF payload is basically a conceptual model database packaged as an Information Resource. It's comprised of granular data items called "Entities", that expose fine grained properties values, individual and/or group characteristics (attributes), and relationships (associations) with other Entities.</p> <h3>Where is this all headed? </h3> <p>The Web is in the final stages of the 3rd phase of it's evolution. A phase characterized by the shuttling of structured data payloads (RDF) alongside less data oriented payloads (HTML, XHTML, XML etc.). As you can see, <a href="http://linkeddata.org">Linked Data</a> and Structured Data are both terms used to describe the addition of more data centric payloads to the Web. Thus, you could view the process of creating a Structured Web of Linked Data as follows:</p> <ol> <li>Identify or Create Structured Data Sources</li> <li>Name these Data Sources using Data Source URIs</li> <li>Expose Structured Data Sources to the Web as Linked Data using Information Resource (conduit) URIs</li> </ol> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>The Semantic Data Web is an evolution of the current Web (an Information Space) that adds structured data payloads (RDF) to current, less data oriented, structured payloads (HTML, XHTML, XML, and others).</p> <p>The Semantic Data Web is increasingly seen as an inevitability because it's rapidly reaching the point of critical mass (i.e. network effect kick-in). As a result, Data Web emphasis is moving away from: "What is the Semantic Data Web?" To: "How will Semantic Data Web make our globally interconnected village an even better place?", relative to the contributions accrued from the Web thus far. Remember, the initial "Document Web" (Web 1.0) bootstrapped because of the benefits it delivered to blurb-style content publishing (remember the term electronic brochure-ware?). Likewise, in the case of the "Services Web" (Web 2.0), the bootstrap occurred because it delivered platform independence to Web Application Developers - enabling them to expose application logic behind Web Services. It is my expectation that the Data Integration prowess of the Data Web will create a value exchange realm for data architects and other practitioners from the database and data access realms.</p> <h3>Related Items</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=153">Mike Bergman's post about Semi-Structured Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=structured%20data&type=text&output=html">My Posts covering Structured and Un-Structured Containers</a> </li> </ol>
Exploring The Semantic Web & SPARQL FAQs, Linked Data Style!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-05-31#1205
2007-05-31T21:59:20Z
2007-05-31T17:43:47.000001-04:00
<p>The recently released <a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/SW-FAQ">Semantic Web FAQ</a> (authored by <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Ivan/">Ivan Herman</a>) has some neat Rich Internet and <a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/">Semantic Data Web</a> embellishments contributed by Ivan and <a href="http://thefigtrees.net/lee/blog/">Lee Feigenbaum</a>. As a result, we not only have a great Semantic Web FAQ document, we also inherit a coherent piece of "demo fodder" that aids the general (S)emantic (W)eb (E)ducation and (O)reach (<a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/sweo/">SWEO</a>) that is clearly in full swing.</p> <p>Of course, this also enables me to provide yet another Semantic Data Web demo in the form of additional viewing perspectives for the aforementioned FAQ (just click to see):</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/linked_data_pages/semantic_web_faq_overview.isparql">Semantic Web FAQ via Dynamic Data Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/browser_sessions/exploring_semantic_web_faq.wqx">Semantic Web FAQ via OpenLink Browser</a> </li> </ol> <p>Lee also embarked on a similar embellishment effort re. the<a href="http://thefigtrees.net/lee/sw/sparql-faq"> SPARQL Query Language FAQ</a> thereby enabling me to also offer alternative viewing perspectives along similar lines:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/linked_data_pages/sparql_faq_overview.isparql">SPARQL FAQ via Dynamic Data Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/browser_sessions/exploring_sparql_faq.wqx">SPARQL FAQ via OpenLink Browser</a> </li> </ol>
Exploring a Music Data Space via Linked Data
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-05-25#1204
2007-05-25T22:57:32Z
2008-02-04T23:20:47.000003-05:00
<p> <a href="http://fgiasson.com/">Frederick Giasson</a> has put out a number of interesting posts (via his <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/">blog</a>) about a conceptual <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php/2007/05/24/the-music-data-space">Music Data Space</a> (one of many Data Spaces that will ultimately permeate the Semantic Data Web). Anyway, While reading his initial post covering <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php/2007/05/22/browsing-musicbrainzs-dataset-via-uri-dereferencing">Music Domain URIs and Linked Data</a>, it occurred to me that by only exposing the raw RDF instance data (RDF/XML format in this case) via URIs for: Diana Ross, Paul McCartney, The Beatles, and Madonna, the essence of the post may not be revealed to all, so I've knocked up a few demos to illustrate the core message:</p> <p> <b>Note</b>: the enhanced hyperlink (typed data link) lookup presents options to perform an Explore (all data about subject across Domains in the data space i.e. data links to and from Subject), Dereference (specific data in the Subject's Domain i.e. data links originating from subject).</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/linked_data_pages/Diana_Ross.isparql">Diana Ross</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/linked_data_pages/Paul_McCartney.isparql">Paul McCartney</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/linked_data_pages/The_Beatles.isparql">The Beatles</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/linked_data_pages/Madonna.isparql">Madonna</a> </li> </ol> <p>I built these Linked Data Pages by simply doing the following:</p> <ol> <li>Open up our <a href="http://oat.openlinksw.com">OAT</a> based <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/isparql">iSPARQL (Interactive SPARQL Query By Example)</a> Tool</li> <li>Paste a URI of Interest into the Data Source URI input field</li> <li>Execute the Query (hitting the ">" button) </li> <li>Saving the Query to WebDAV as a Linked Data Page (or what I initial called Dynamic Data Web pages in my Hello Data Web series of posts).</li> <li>Share your Data, Information, Knowledge with others via URIs (as shown in the section above). </li> </ol>
Exploring FOAF Linked Data Style!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-05-25#1202
2007-05-25T15:41:35Z
2007-05-25T14:36:47-04:00
<p>Over the last few hours the FOAF project received a <a href="http://dannyayers.com/2007/05/25/foaf-0">wakeup call</a> via <a href="http://danbri.org/">Dan Brickley</a>'s <a href="http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec">FOAF 0.9</a> "touch" effort.</p> <p>Naturally, this triggered an obvious opportunity to demonstrate the prowess of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> on the Semantic Web. What follows is a quick dump of what I sent to the <a href="http://lists.foaf-project.org/mailman/listinfo/foaf-dev">foaf-dev</a> mailing list:</p> <p>Here are variety of FOAF Views built using:</p> <ul> - <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html">OpenLink RDF Browser</a> </ul> <ul> - <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/isparql">Interactive SPARQL QBE </a> </ul> <ul> - <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/sparql">Raw SPARQL Endpoint</a> </ul> <p>Enabling you to explore the following lines:</p> <ul> - <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/linked_data_pages/foaf_overview.isparql">FOAF Overview via a Linked Data Page</a> (same as Dynamic Data Page) </ul> <ul> - <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/linked_data_pages/foaf_overview_by_status.isparql">FOAF Overview by Term Status via Linked Data Page</a> </ul> <ul> - <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/queries/foaf_overview.rq">FOAF Overview SPARQL Query (.rq File)</a> </ul> <ul> - <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/queries/foaf_overview_by_status.rq">FOAF Overview by Term Status</a> </ul> <ul> - <a href="http://tinyurl.com/2hpeau">FOAF Overview via OpenLink RDF Browser</a> </ul>
Semantic Web Data Spaces
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-04-13#1185
2007-04-13T21:15:54Z
2007-04-13T18:19:29.000001-04:00
<b>Web Data Spaces</b> <p>Now that broader understanding of the Semantic Data Web is emerging, I would like to revisit the issue of "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q='data%20spaces'&type=text&output=html">Data Spaces</a>".</p> <p>A Data Space is a place where Data Resides. It isn't inherently bound to a specific Data Model (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_model">Concept Oriented</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_model">Relational</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchical_database">Hierarchical</a> etc..). Neither is it implicitly an access point to Data, Information, or Knowledge (the perception is purely determined through the experiences of the user agents interacting with the Data Space.</p> <p>A Web Data Space is a Web accessible Data Space.</p> <p>Real world example:</p> <p>Today we increasing perform one of more of the following tasks as part of our professional and personal interactions on the Web:</p> <ol> <li>Blog via many service providers or personally managed weblog platforms</li> <li>Create Event Calendars via <a href="http://upcoming.com">Upcoming.com</a> and <a href="http://eventful.com">Eventful</a> </li> <li>Maintain and participate in Social Networks (e.g. <a href="http://facebook.com">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://orkut.com">Orkut</a>, <a href="http://myspace.com">MySpace</a>)</li> <li>Create and Participate in Discussions (note: when you comment on blogs or wikis for instance, you are participating in, or creating, a conversation)</li> <li>Track news by subscribing to <a href="http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/">RSS 1.0</a>, <a href="http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html">RSS 2.0</a>, or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_(standard)">Atom</a> Feeds</li> <li>Share Bookmarks & Tags via <a href="http://del.icio.us">Del.icio.us</a> and other Services</li> <li>Share Photos via <a href="http://flickr.com">Flickr</a> </li> <li>Buy, Review, or Search for books via <a href="http://amazon.com">Amazon</a> </li> <li>Participates in auctions via <a href="http://ebay.com">eBay</a> </li> <li>Search for data via <a href="http://google.com">Google</a> (of course!)</li> </ol> <p> <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/">John Breslin</a> has nice a <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/wp-content/20051015a.gif">animation depicting the creation of Web Data Spaces</a> that drives home the point.</p> <b>Web Data Space Silos</b> <p> Unfortunately, what isn't as obvious to many netizens, is the fact that each of the activities above results in the creation of data that is put into some context by you the user. Even worse, you eventually realize that the service providers aren't particularly willing, or capable of, giving you unfettered access to your own data. Of course, this isn't always by design as the infrastructure behind the service can make this a nightmare from security and/or load balancing perspectives. Irrespective of cause, we end up creating our own "Data Spaces" all over the Web without a coherent mechanism for accessing and meshing these "Data Spaces".</p> <b>What are Semantic Web Data Spaces?</b> <p>Data Spaces on the Web that provide granular access to RDF Data.</p> <b>What's OpenLink Data Spaces (ODS) About?</b> <blockquote> <p>Short History</p> <p>In anticipation of this the "Web Data Silo" challenge (an issue that we tackled within internal enterprise networks for years) we commenced the development (circa. 2001) of a distributed collaborative application suite called OpenLink Data Spaces (ODS). The project was never released to the public since the problems associated with the deliberate or inadvertent creation of Web Data silos hadn't really materialized (silos only emerged in concreted form after the emergence of the Blogosphere and Web 2.0). In addition, there wasn't a clear standard Query Language for the RDF based Web Data Model (i.e. the SPARQL Query Language didn't exist).</p> </blockquote> <p> Today, ODS is delivered as a packaged solution (in Open Source and Commercial flavors) that alleviates the pain associated with Data Space Silos that exist on the Web and/or behind corporate firewalls. In either scenario, ODS simply allows you to create Open and Secure Data Spaces (via it's suite of applications) that expose data via SQL, RDF, XML oriented data access and data management technologies. Of course it also enables you to integrates transparently with existing 3rd party data space generators (Blogs, Wikis, Shared Bookmrks, Discussion etc. services) by supporting industry standards that cover:</p> <ol> <li> Content Publishing - Atom, <a href="http://www.sixapart.com/developers/product_documentation/movable_type/">Moveable Type</a>, <a href="http://www.xmlrpc.com/metaWeblogApi">MetaWeblog</a>, Blogger protocols </li> <li> Content Syndication Formats - RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, Atom, OPML etc. </li> <li> Data Management - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL">SQL</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/RDF/">RDF</a>, XML, Free Text </li> <li> Data Access - SQL, <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a>, GData, Web Services (SOAP or REST styles), WebDAV/HTTP </li> <li> Semantic Data Web Middleware - <a href="http://www.w3.org/2004/01/rdxh/spec">GRDDL</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt">XSLT</a>, SPARQL, XPath/XQuery, HTTP (Content Negotiation) for producing RDF from non RDF Data ((X)HTML, Microformats, XML, Web Services Response Data etc). </li> </ol> <p>Thus, by installing ODS on your Desktop, Workgroup, Enterprise, or public Web Server, you end up with a very powerful solution for creating Open Data access oriented presence on the "Semantic Data Web" without incurring any of the typically assumed "RDF Tax".</p> <p>Naturally, ODS is built atop <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com">Virtuoso</a> and of course it exploits Virtuoso's feature-set to the max. It's also beginning to exploit functionality offered by the OpenLink Ajax Toolkit (<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html">OAT</a>).</p>
Web 3.0: When Web Sites Become Web Services
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-03-19#1161
2007-03-20T01:44:00Z
2007-03-20T08:27:37-04:00
<blockquote> <cite><p>(Via <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/">Read/Write Web</a>.)</p> <p> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/102869973/web_30_when_web_sites_become_web_services.php">Web 3.0: When Web Sites Become Web Services</a>: "</p> ..... <h2>Conclusion</h2> <p>As more and more of the Web is becoming remixable, the entire system is turning into both a platform and the database. Yet, such transformations are never smooth. For one, scalability is a big issue. And of course legal aspects are never simple.'</p> <p>But it is not a question of <i>if</i> web sites become web services, but <i>when</i> and <i>how</i>. APIs are a more controlled, cleaner and altogether preferred way of becoming a web service. However, when APIs are not avaliable or sufficient, scraping is bound to continue and expand. As always, time will be best judge; but in the meanwhile we turn to you for feedback and stories about how <i>your</i> businesses are preparing for 'web 3.0'.</p> </cite> </blockquote> <p> We are hitting a little problem re. Web 3.0 and Web 2.0, naturally :-) Web 2.0 is one of several (present and future) <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1037">Dimensions of Web Interaction</a> that turns Web Sites into Web Services Endpoints; <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web+dimensions">a point I've made repeatedly</a> [<a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/points_of_prese.php">1</a>] [<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?date=2005-10-04">2</a>] [<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Web_2.0&oldid=11544998">3</a>] [<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Web_2.0&oldid=11679210">4</a>] across the blogosphere, in addition to my early futile attempts to make the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2">Wikipedia's Web 2.0 article</a> meaningful (circa 2005), as per the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Web_2.0/Archive_1">Wikipedia Web 2.0 Talk Page </a>excerpt below:</p> <blockquote> <cite><p>Web 2.0 is a web of executable endpoints and well formed content. The executable endpoints and well formed content are accessible via URIs. Put differently, Web 2.0 is a web defined by URIs for invoking Web Services and/or consuming or syndicating well formed content.</p> <p>Hopefully, someone with more time on their hands will expand on this ( I am kinda busy)</p>. <p>BTW - Web 2.0 being a platform doesn't distinguish it in anyway from Web 1.0. They are both platforms, the difference comes down to platform focus and mode of experience.</p> </cite> </blockquote> <p> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_3.0">Web 3.0</a> is about <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1030">Data Spaces</a>: Points of Semantic Web Presence that provide granular access to Data, Information, and Knowledge via <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_schema">Conceptual Data Model</a> oriented Query Languages and/or APIs.</p> <p>The common denominator across all the current and future Web Interaction Dimensions is HTTP. While their differences are as follows:</p> <ul> Web 1.0 - Browser (HTTP + (X)HTML) </ul> <ul> Web 2.0 - Presence (Web Service Endpoints for REST or SOAP over HTTP) </ul> <ul>Web 3.0 - Presence (Query Languages, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_model">Data Models</a>, and HTTP based Query Oriented Web Service Endpoints) </ul> <p>Examples of Web 3.0 Infrastructure:</p> <ol> <li>Query Languages: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a>, <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/base/query-lang-spec.html">Googlebase Query Language</a>, <a href="http://developers.facebook.com/documentation.php?v=1.0&doc=fql">Facebook Query Language</a> (FQL), and many others to come</li> <li>Query Language aligned Web Services (Query Services): <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-protocol/">SPARQL Protocol</a>, <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/gdata/overview.html#About">GData</a>, or REST style Web services such as<a href="http://developers.facebook.com/documentation.php?v=1.0&method=fql.query"> Facebook's service for FQ</a>L.</li> <li>Data Models: Concrete Conceptual Data Model (which RDF happens to deliver for Web Data)</li> </ol> <p>Web 3.0 is not purely about Web Sites becoming Web Services endpoints. It is about the "M" (Data Model) taking it's place in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-view-controller">MVC pattern</a> as applied to the Web Platform.</p> <p>I will repeat myself yet again: </p> <blockquote> <cite>The Devil is in the Details of the Data Model. Data Models make or break everything. You ignore data at your own peril. No amount of money in the bank will protect you from Data Ignorance! A bad Data Model will bring down any venture or enterprise, the only variable is time (where time is directly related to your increasing need to obtain, analyze, and then act on data, over repetitive operational cycles, that have ever decreasing intervals). </cite> </blockquote> <p>This applies to the Real-time enterprise of Information and/or knowledge workers and Real-time Web Users alike.</p> <p>BTW -<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/xHWTLA8WecI"> Data Makes Shifts Happen</a> (spotter: <a href="http://www.vecosys.com">Sam Sethi</a>). </p>
Exhibit & SPARQL
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-03-15#1158
2007-03-16T01:37:00Z
2008-03-20T00:14:10-04:00
<p>Here are some examples of using <a href="http://simile.mit.edu/exhibit/" id="link-id0xa014fae8">Exhibit</a> against <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id0xa257aae0">RDF</a> via <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARQL" id="link-id0xa0ab8fc8">SPARQL</a> on the fly:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/VAD/ajax-tools/exhibit-sparql/flickr_semweb_tags.html" id="link-id0xa2ad8550">Flickr photos tagged under rdf and semanticweb</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/VAD/ajax-tools/exhibit-sparql/del_icio_us_tags.html" id="link-id0x9e814cf8">Del.icio.us tags for semanticweb</a> </li> </ol> <p>The examples above combine <a href="http://oat.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x9ee07e88">OAT</a> and Exhibit. OAT handles the binding to SPARQL.</p> <p>Here is a pure OAT variation of the prior examples that includes an enhanced anchor (hyperlink) feature that enables a variety of traversal behaviors and actions against the same RDF Data:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/flickr_semanticweb_rdf_dataspace.isparql.xml" id="link-id0x9ee87f70">Dynamic Data Web Page for Flickr photos tagged under rdf and semanticweb</a> (click on a URI associated with a jpeg to see metadata for a given picture)</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/delicious_semantic_dataspace.isparql.xml" id="link-id0xa014e408">Del.icio.us tags for semanticweb</a>.</li> </ol> <p>Note: Use the "dereference option" (retrieve/get data associated with URI) for maximum effect. The "explore" is useful after you've dereferenced a few URIs. Also note that columns are resizable, like those in a spreadsheet, which also implies dynamic sorting capability.</p>
SPARQL and Full Text Indexing implementations are growing
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-03-09#1157
2007-03-09T23:50:29Z
2007-03-13T06:09:43-04:00
<p> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuoso_Universal_Server">Virtuoso</a> joins <a href="http://wingerz.com/blog/2007/02/06/text-indexing-and-query-in-boca/">Boca</a> and <a href="http://seaborne.blogspot.com/2006/11/larq-lucene-arq.html">ARC 2.0</a> as RDF Quad or Triple Stores with Full Text Index extensions to SPARQL. Here is our example applied to <a href="http://dbpedia.org">DBpedia</a>:</p> <pre><font size="2">PREFIX dbpedia: <http://dbpedia.org/> PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> PREFIX xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> SELECT ?name ?birth ?death FROM <http://dbpedia.org> WHERE { ?person dbpedia:birthplace <http://dbpedia.org/resource/Berlin> . ?person dbpedia:birth ?birth . ?person foaf:name ?name . ?person dbpedia:death ?death FILTER (?birth < "1900-01-01"^^xsd:date and bif:contains (?name, 'otto')) . } ORDER BY ?name </font></pre> <p> You can test further using our <a href="http://demo3.openlinksw.com:8890/sparql/">SPARQL Endpoint for DBpedia</a> or via the <a href="http://demo3.openlinksw.com:8890/isparql/">DBPedia bound Interactive SPARQL Query Builder</a> or just click *<a href="http://demo3.openlinksw.com:8890/sparql/?default-graph-uri=&query=PREFIX+dbpedia%3A+%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fdbpedia.org%2F%3E%0D%0APREFIX+foaf%3A+%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fxmlns.com%2Ffoaf%2F0.1%2F%3E%0D%0APREFIX+xsd%3A+%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2001%2FXMLSchema%23%3E%0D%0ASELECT+%3Fname+%3Fbirth+%3Fdeath%0D%0AFROM+%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fdbpedia.org%3E%0D%0AWHERE+%7B%0D%0A++++%3Fperson+dbpedia%3Abirthplace+%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fdbpedia.org%2Fresource%2FBerlin%3E+.%0D%0A++++%3Fperson+dbpedia%3Abirth+%3Fbirth+.%0D%0A++++%3Fperson+foaf%3Aname+%3Fname+.%0D%0A++++%3Fperson+dbpedia%3Adeath+%3Fdeath%0D%0A++++FILTER+%28%3Fbirth+%3C+%221900-01-01%22%5E%5Exsd%3Adate+and+bif%3Acontains+%28%3Fname%2C+%27otto%27%29%29+.%0D%0A%7D%0D%0AORDER+BY+%3Fname&format=text%2Fhtml">Here</a>* for results courtesy of the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-protocol/">SPARQL Protocol</a> (REST based Web Service). </p> <p>Note: This is in-built functionality as Virtuoso has possessed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_text_index">Full Text Indexing</a> since 1998-99. This capability applies to physical and virtual graphs managed by Virtuoso.</p> <p>A per usual, there is more to come as we now have a nice intersection point for SPARQL and XQuery/XPath since Triple Objects (the Literal variety) can take the form of XML Schema based Complex Types :-) A point I alluded too in my <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2006/04/28.html">podcast interview with Jon Udell </a>last year (*note: mechanical turk based transcript is bad*). The point I made went something like this: "...you use SPARQL to traverse the typed links and then use XPath/XQuery for further granular access to the data if well-formed..."</p> <p>Anyway, the podcast interview lead to this InfoWorld article titled: <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/05/03/77873_19OPstrategic_1.html">Unified Data Theory</a>.<br /> </p>
Personal URIs & Data Spaces
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-03-01#1148
2007-03-01T19:42:41Z
2007-03-02T09:14:02.000004-05:00
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/2007/03/01/linking-personal-posted-content-across-communities/#comments">Linking personal posted content across communities</a>: "</p> <p>With the help of Kingsley, Uldis and I have been looking at how <a href="http://sioc-project.org/">SIOC</a> can be used to link the content that a single person posts to a number of community sites. The picture below shows an example of stuff that Iâve created on Flickr, YouTube, etc. through my various user identities on those sites (these match some <a href="http://wiki.sioc-project.org/index.php/TypesModule">SIOC types</a> that we want to add to a separate module). We can also say that each Web 2.0 content item is a user-contributed post, with some attached or embedded content (e.g. a file or maybe just some metadata). This is part of a new discussion on the <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/sioc-dev">sioc-dev</a> mailing list, and weâd value your contributions.</p> <p> <img id="image1178" src="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/20070228a.png" alt="20070228a.png" /> </p> <p>Edit: The inner layer is a person (semantically described in FOAF), the next layer is their user accounts (described in FOAF, SIOC) and the outer layer is the posted content - text, files, associated metadata - on community sites (again described using SIOC). </p> No Tags" <p>(Via <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog">John Breslin - Cloudlands</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>The point that John is making about the Data Web and Interlinked <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q='data%20spaces'&type=text&output=html">Data Spaces</a> exposed via <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Resource_Identifier">URI</a>s (e.g Personal URIs), crystallizes a number of very important issues about the Data Web that may remain unclear. I am hoping that by digesting the post excerpt above, in conjunction with the items below, aids the pursuit of clarity and comprehension about the all important Data Web (Semantic Web - Layer 1):</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://kidehen.idehen.net/dataspace/kidehen">Your OpenID can be Your Personal URI</a> (as noted by <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/">Henry Story</a>'s post about: <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/openid_for_blogs_sun_com">The Many Uses of OpenID</a>). That that's what I have courtesy of OpenLink Data Spaces (ODS)</li> <li>The above only works unobtrusively (i.e. OpenID and Personal sharing a URI) if Content Negotiation is exploited on the Client and Server sides.</li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card.rdf">TimBL</a>'s call out to <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html">Share Your Data and Link to Other Data</a> via URIs via post titled: <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/71">Give Yourself a URI</a>.</li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/swbp-vocab-pub/">W3C's Best Practice Recipes for Publishing RDF Vocabularies</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-webarch-20041215/#dereference-uri">W3C's Architecture of the World Wide Web - Vol 1</a> which covers URI Dereferencing (HTTP GET-ing the data that a URI points to)</li> <li> <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/is-group/page/persons/Person6">Richard Cyganiak</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://dowhatimean.net/2007/02/debugging-semantic-web-sites-with-curl">Debugging Semantic Web Sites with Curl</a>.</li> </ol> <p>Examples of some of these principles in practice:</p> <ol> <li>Chris Bizer, Tobias Gaub, and Richard's Javascript based<a href="http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/ng4j/semwebclient/"> Semantic Web Client Library</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/ng4j/disco/">DISCO RDF Browser</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://oat.openlinksw.com">OpenLink Ajax Toolkit</a>'s (OAT) <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/tests/rdfbrowser/index.html">RDF Browser</a> </li> <li>OpenLink <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/isparql">Interactive SPARQL Query by Example</a> (iSPARQL QBE)</li> <li>Dynamic Data Web Pages from my prior posts [<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1144">1</a>][<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=1145">2</a>][<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=1146">3</a>]</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/docs/">dbpedia</a> (Wikipedia as a Data Web oriented Data Source)</li> <li>And of course this blog post's permalink is a bona fide dereferencable URI.</li> </ol> <p>And of course there is more to come such as Grandma's Semantic Web Browser which is coming from <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php/2007/02/18/zitgist_a_semantic_web_search_engine">Zitgist LLC</a> (pronounced: Zeitgeist) a joint venture of OpenLink Software and <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/">Frederick Giasson</a>.</p>
Using The Data Web to Research Oscar Winners
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-02-26#1146
2007-02-26T17:36:40Z
2007-02-27T00:29:02-05:00
<p>Situation Analysis: Pre or Post Oscars, you want to research Forest Whitaker, Helen Mirren, or Jennifer Hudson. What do you do? Go on a screen scrapping and keyword regular expression odyssey? Or you simply lookup a Data Web oriented Data Source like <a href="http://dbpedia.org">dbpedia</a>.</p> <p>Here is what I was I was able to knock together using my <a href="http://demo3.openlinksw.com:8890/isparql">SPARQL QBE</a> (without writing the SPARQL by hand):</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo3.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/Forest_Whitaker_DataSpace.isparql.xml">Forest Whitaker Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo3.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/Helen_Mirren_DataSpace.isparql.xml">Helen Mirren Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo3.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/Jennifer_Hudson_DataSpace.isparql.xml">Jennifer Hudson Data</a>. </li> </ol> <p>Note: Just select the "Explore" option when the link-lookup window appears in response to you clicking on any of the links. That said, if you are using the <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/190/">Firefox Linkification</a> extension the page will not work properly (as per this <a href="http://www.beggarchooser.com/forum/index.php?topic=37.0">discussion about disabling Linkification</a>) :-(</p> <p>BTW - I have a comments page, so don't be shy about showing me how you could produce this kind of data driven web page much quicker than I have :-)</p> <p>Warning: IE6 and Safari (use <a href="http://webkit.org/">Webkit</a> instead) cannot process these pages due to the use of Ajax.</p>
XMP and microformats revisited
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-02-17#1140
2007-02-17T17:43:05Z
2007-02-17T12:43:05.000001-05:00
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://blog.jonudell.net/2007/02/15/xmp-and-microformats-revisited/#comments">XMP and microformats revisited</a>: "</p> <div class="snap_preview"> <p> Yesterday I exercised poetic license when I suggested that Adobeâs <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/xmp/overview.html">Extensible metadata platform (XMP)</a> was not only the spiritual cousin of microformats like <a href="http://microformats.org/wiki/hcalendar">hCalendar</a> but also, perhaps, more likely to see widespread use in the near term. My poetic license was revoked, though, in a couple of comments: </p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://gondwanaland.com/mlog/2007/02/14/xmp-microformat/">Mike Linksvayer</a>: How someone as massively clued-in as Jon Udell could be so misled as to describe XMP as a microformat is beyond me. </p> </blockquote> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://dannyayers.com/2007/02/15/microsoft-vista-slipup">Danny Ayers</a>: Like Mike I donât really understand Jonâs references to microformats - I first assumed he meant XMP could be replaced with a uF. </p> </blockquote> <p> Actually, Iâm serious about this. If I step back and ask myself what are the essential qualities of a microformat, itâs a short list: </p> <ol> <li>A small chunk of machine-readable metadata,</li> <li>embedded in a document.</li> </ol> <p> Mike notes: </p> <blockquote> <p> XMP is embedded in a binary file, completely opaque to nearly all users; microformats put a premium on (practically require) colocation of metadata with human-visible HTML. </p> </blockquote> <p> Yes, I understand. And as someone who is composing this blog entry as XHTML, in emacs, using a semantic CSS tag that will enable me to search for quotes by Mike Linksvayer and find the above fragment, Iâm obviously all about metadata coexisting with human-readable HTML. And Iâve been applying this technique since <a href="http://webservices.xml.com/lpt/a/1223">long before</a> I ever heard the term microformats â my own term was originally microcontent. </p> <p>(Via <a href="http://blog.jonudell.net">Jon Udell</a>.)</p> <p>I believe Jon is acknowledging the fact that the propagation of metadata in "Binary based" Web data sources is no different to the microformats based propagation that is currently underway in full swing across the "Text based" Web data sources realm. He is reiterating the fact that the Web is self-annotating (exponentially) by way of Metadata Embedding. And yes, what he describes is a similar to Microformats in substance and propagation style :-)</p> <p>Here is what I believe Jon is hoping to see:</p> <ol> <li> Binary files become valid data sources for Metadata oriented query processing. Technically I mean a binary file becomes a valid data source from which RDF Instance could be generated on the fly. </li> <li>Enhanement or unveiling of the Data Web by way of meshups that combine metadata from an array or data sources (not just the XML, (X)HTML, or RDF variety)</li> <li>The ability to use an array of query languages and techniques to construct these meshups</li> </ol> <p>My little "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=1137">Hello Data Web!</a>" meme was about demonstrating a view that Danny has sought for a while: unobtrusive <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/grddl-scenarios/">meshing of microformats and RDF via GRDDL and SPARQL</a> binding that simply eliminates the often perceived "RDF Tax". Danny, Jon, myself, and many others have always understood that making the Data Web (Web of RDF Instance Data) more of a Force (Star Wars style) is the key to unravelling the power of the "Web as a Database". Of course, we also tend the describe our nirvana in different ways that sometimes obscures the fundamental commonality of vision that we all share.</p> <p> Personally, I believe everyone should simply "feel the force" or observe "the bright and dark sides of the force" that is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Description_Framework">RDF</a>. When this occurs en masse there will be a global epiphany (similar to what happened around the time of the initial unveiling of the Web of Hypertext). Jon's meme brings the often overlooked realm of binary based metadata sources into the general discourse.</p> <p>JBinary Files as bona fide Data Web URIs (i.e. Metadata Sources) is much closer than you think :-) I should have my "Hello Data Web of Binary Data Sources" unveiled very soon!</p> </div> </blockquote>
Hello Data Web (Take 2 - with Screenshots)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-02-09#1137
2007-02-09T01:46:50Z
2007-02-18T10:23:42-05:00
<p>While I continue to wrestle with screencast production etc.. Here is are some screenshots that guide you through the process of providing Data Web URIs to the SPARQL Query Builder (first cut of an MS Query or MS ACCESS type tool for the Data Web).</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/briefcase/Public/Screenshots/sparql_qbe1.png">Step 1 - Enter a Data Source URI</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/briefcase/Public/Screenshots/sparql_qbe2.png">Step 2 - Click on the Run Control (">" video control icon)</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/briefcase/Public/Screenshots/sparql_qbe3.png">Step 3 - Interact with Custom Grid hosted results (comprised of Resource Identifiers (S), Properties (P), and Property Values (O).</a> </li> </ol> <p>Once you grasp the concept of entering values into the "Default Data Source URI field", take a look at: http://programmableweb.com and other URIs (hint: scroll through the results grid to the QEDWiki demo item)</p>
Hello Data Web!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-02-08#1134
2007-02-08T19:13:48Z
2008-02-04T23:22:04.000001-05:00
<p>The simple demo use our Ajax based Visual Query Builder for the SPARQL Query Language (this isn't Grandma's Data Web UI, but not to worry, that is on it's way also). Here goes:</p> <ol> <li> go to http://demo.openlinksw.com/isparql </li> <li> Enter any of the following values into the "Default Data URI"; field: </li> <ul>- http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=336</ul> <ul>- http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/02/pipes_and_filte.html</ul> <ul>- http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/008513.html</ul> <ul>- Other URIs </ul> </ol> <p> What I am demonstrating is how existing Web Content hooks transperently into the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=data%20web&type=text&output=html">"Data Web"</a>. Zero RDF Tax :-) Everything is good!</p> <p>Note: Please look to the bottom of the screen for the "Run Query" Button. Remember, it not quite Grandma's UI but should do for Infonauts etc.. A screencast will follow.</p>
OAT: OpenAjax Alliance Compliant Toolkit (Live Links Version)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-01-29#1129
2007-01-29T16:16:14Z
2007-02-02T10:29:55-05:00
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://ajaxian.com/archives/oat-openajax-alliance-compliant-toolkit">OAT: OpenAjax Alliance Compliant Toolkit</a>: "</p> <p>Ondrej Zara and his team at Openlink Software have created a Openlink Software JS Toolkit, known as OAT. It is a full-blown JS framework, suitable for developing<br /> rich applications with special focus to data access.</p> <p>OAT works standalone, offers vast number of widgets and has some rarely seen features, such as on-demand library loading (which reduces the total amount of downloaded JS code).</p> <p>OAT is one of the first JS toolkits which show full OpenAjax Alliance conformance: see the appropriate <a href="http://www.openajax.org/member/wiki/InteropFest_2007_March)">wiki page</a> and <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/openajax/HubTest-OATConformance.html">conformance test page</a>.</p> <p>There is a lot to see with this toolkit:</p> <p>You can see some of the widgets in a <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html">Kitchen sink application</a> </p> <p>Sample data access applications:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/qbe/index.html">SQL Query By Example</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/formdesigner/index.html">Forms designer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/designer/index.html">DB Designer</a> </li> </ul> <p>OAT is Open Source and GPLâed over at <a href="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=168143">sourceforge</a> and the team has recently managed to incorporate our OAT data access layer as a<br /> module to <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/dojo-oatstore-demo/test_OATStore_in_FilteringTable.html">dojo datastore</a>.</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://ajaxian.com">Ajaxian Blog</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>This is a corrected version of the initial post. Unfortunately, the initial post was inadvertently littered with invalid links :-( Also, since the original post we have released <a href="http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=31568932&forum_id=49207">OAT 1.2</a> that includes integration of our iSPARQL QBE into the OAT Form Designer application.</p> <p>Re. Data Access, It is important to note that OAT's Ajax Database Connectivity layers supports data binding to the following data source types:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-primer/">RDF</a> - via <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html?dav">SPARQL</a> (Query Language, Protocol, and Resultset Serialization formats: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JDBC">RDF/XML</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Notation3">RDF/N3</a>, <a href="http://www.dajobe.org/2004/01/turtle/">RDF/Turtle</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML">XML</a>, and <a href="http://www.json.org/">JSON</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL">SQL</a> - via <a href="http://www.xmla.org/faq.asp">XMLA</a> (somewhat forgotten <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOAP">SOAP</a> protocol for SQL Data Access that can sit atop <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Database_Connectivity">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADO.NET">ADO.NET</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLE_DB">OLE-DB</a>, and even <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JDBC">JDBC</a>)</li> <li>XML - via SOAP or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_State_Transfer">REST</a> style Web Services</li> </ol> In all cases, OAT also provides Data Aware controls for the above that include: <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlnksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html?grid">Tabular Grids</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html?pivot">Pivot Tables</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlnksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html?timeline">TimeLines</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html?anchor">Extended Anchor Tags</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlnksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html?mashups">Map Service Controls</a> (Google, Yahoo!, OpenLayers, Microsoft Visual Earth)</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html?rdf">SVG based RDF Graph Control</a> (Opera 9.x provides best viewing experience at the current time)</li> </ol> <p>OAT also includes a number of prototype applications that are completely developed using OAT Controls and Libraries:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlnksw.com/isparql/">Visual SPARQL Query Builder</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/qbe/index.html">Visual SQL Query Builder</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/formdesigner/index.html">Web Forms Designer</a> (includes Drag-Drop usage of Data Aware Controls etc.)</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/designer/index.html">Visual DB Designer</a> </li> </ol> <p>Note: Pick "Local DSN" from page initialization dialog's drop-down list control when prompted</p>
SPARQL, Ajax, Tagging, Folksonomies, Share Ontologies and Semantic Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-12-07#1095
2006-12-07T17:35:29Z
2006-12-13T15:09:50-05:00
<p>A quick dump that demonstrates how I integrate tags and links from del.icio.us with links from my local bookmark database via one of my public Data Spaces (this demo uses the <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/dataspace/kidehen">kidehen Data Space</a>).</p> <p> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a> (query language for the Semantic Web) basically enables me to query a collection of typed links (predicates/properties/attributes) in my Data Space (<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsIndex">ODS</a> based of course) without breaking my existing local bookmarks database or the one I maintain at del.icio.us.</p> <p>I am also demonstrating how <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0">Web 2.0</a> concepts such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tags">Tagging</a> mesh nicely with the more formal concepts of Topics in the Semantic Web realm. The key to all of this is the ability to generate <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-primer/">RDF Data Model</a> Instance Data based on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_ontology_(computer_science)">Shared Ontologies</a> such as <a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/spec/">SIOC</a> (from <a href="http://www.semanticweb.org/">DERI</a>'s <a href="http://sioc-project.org/">SIOC Project</a>) and <a href="http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/">SKOS</a> (again showing that <a href="http://tomgruber.org/writing/ontology-of-folksonomy.htm">Ontologies and Folksonomies</a> are complimentary).</p> <p>This demo also shows that Ajax also works well in the Semantic Web realm (or <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1037">web dimension of interaction 3.0</a>) especially when you have a toolkit with Data Aware controls (for SQL, RDF, and XML) such as OAT (<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html">OpenLink Ajax Toolkit</a>). For instance, we've successfully used this to build a <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/isparl/">Visual Query Building Tool for SPARQL</a> (alpha) that really takes a lot of the pain out of constructing SPARQL Queries (there is much more to come on this front re. handling of DISTINCT, FILTER, ORDER BY etc..). </p> <p>For now, take a look at the SPARQL Query dump generated by this <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/DAV/home/kidehen/gallery/my_photos/sparql_qbe_sioc_skos_shot1.png">SIOC & SKOS SPARQL QBE Canvas Screenshot</a>. </p> <p>You can cut and paste the queries that follow into the Query Builder or use the screenshot to build your variation of this query sample. Alternatively, you can simply click on *<a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/sparql?default-graph-uri=http%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fdataspace&query=PREFIX+rdf%3A+%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2F02%2F22-rdf-syntax-ns%23%3E%0D%0APREFIX+sioc%3A+++%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Frdfs.org%2Fsioc%2Fns%23%3E%0D%0APREFIX+dct%3A+%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fdc%2Felements%2F1.1%2F%3E%0D%0APREFIX+skos%3A+%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2004%2F02%2Fskos%2Fcore%23%3E%0D%0A%0D%0ASELECT+distinct+%3Fforum_name%2C+%3Fowner%2C+%3Fpost%2C+%3Ftitle%2C+%3Flink%2C+%3Furl+%3Ftag%0D%0AFROM+%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fdataspace%3E%0D%0AWHERE+%7B%0D%0A++++++++%3Fforum+a+sioc%3AForum.%0D%0A++++++++%3Fforum+sioc%3Atype+%22bookmark%22.%0D%0A++++++++%3Fforum+sioc%3Aid+%3Fforum_name.%0D%0A++++++++%3Fforum+sioc%3Ahas_member+%3Fowner.%0D%0A++++++++%3Fowner+sioc%3Aid+%22kidehen%22.%0D%0A++++++++%3Fforum+sioc%3Acontainer_of+%3Fpost+.%0D%0A++++++++%3Fpost++dct%3Atitle+%3Ftitle+.%0D%0A++++++++optional+%7B+%3Fpost+sioc%3Atopic+%3Ftopic.%0D%0A+++++++++++++++++++%3Ftopic+a+skos%3AConcept%3B%0D%0A+++++++++++++++++++++++++skos%3AprefLabel+%3Ftag.+%7D%0D%0A++++++++optional%7B+%3Fpost+sioc%3Alink+%3Flink++%7D+.%0D%0A++++++++optional%7B+%3Fpost+sioc%3Alinks_to+%3Furl+%7D%0D%0A++++++%7D%0D%0AORDER+BY+%3Ftitle&format=text%2Fhtml">This</a>* <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-protocol/">SPARQL Protocol</a> URL to see the query results in a basic HTML Table. And one last thing, you can grab the <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/DAV/home/kidehen/SPARQL/tagging_sioc_skos_delicios_my_bookmarks.rq">SPARQL Query File</a> saved into my <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsBriefcase">ODS-Briefcase</a> (the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebDAV">WebDAV</a> repository aspect of my Data Space). </p> <p> <b>Note the following SPARQL Protocol Endpoints:</b> </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/sparql/">MyOpenLink Data Space</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/isparql/">Experimental Data Space SPARQL Query Builder</a> (you need to register at http://myopenlink.net:8890/ods to use this version)</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/sparql/">Live Demo Sever</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/isparql/">Demo Server SPARQL Query Builder</a> (use: demo for both username and pwd when prompted)</li> </ol> <p>My beautified Version of the SPARQL Generated by QBE (you can cut and paste into "Advanced Query" section of QBE) is presented below:</p> <pre> PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> PREFIX sioc: <http://rdfs.org/sioc/ns#> PREFIX dct: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> PREFIX skos: <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> <br /> SELECT distinct ?forum_name, ?owner, ?post, ?title, ?link, ?url, ?tag FROM <http://myopenlink.net/dataspace> WHERE { ?forum a sioc:Forum; sioc:type "bookmark"; sioc:id ?forum_name; sioc:has_member ?owner. ?owner sioc:id "kidehen". ?forum sioc:container_of ?post . ?post dct:title ?title . optional { ?post sioc:link ?link } optional { ?post sioc:links_to ?url } optional { ?post sioc:topic ?topic. ?topic a skos:Concept; skos:prefLabel ?tag}. } </pre> <p>Unmodified dump from the QBE (this will be beautified automatically in due course by the QBE):</p> <pre> PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> PREFIX sioc: <http://rdfs.org/sioc/ns#> PREFIX dct: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> PREFIX skos: <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> <br /> SELECT ?var8 ?var9 ?var13 ?var14 ?var24 ?var27 ?var29 ?var54 ?var56 WHERE { graph ?graph { ?var8 rdf:type sioc:Forum . ?var8 sioc:container_of ?var9 . ?var8 sioc:type "bookmark" . ?var8 sioc:id ?var54 . ?var8 sioc:has_member ?var56 . ?var9 rdf:type sioc:Post . OPTIONAL {?var9 dc:title ?var13} . OPTIONAL {?var9 sioc:links_to ?var14} . OPTIONAL {?var9 sioc:link ?var29} . ?var9 sioc:has_creator ?var37 . OPTIONAL {?var9 sioc:topic ?var24} . ?var24 rdf:type skos:Concept . OPTIONAL {?var24 skos:prefLabel ?var27} . ?var56 rdf:type sioc:User . ?var56 sioc:id "kidehen" . } } </pre> <p> Current missing items re. Visual QBE for SPARQL are:</p> <ol> <li> Ability to Save properly to WebDAV so that I can then expose various saved SPARQL Queries (.rq file) from my Data Space via URIs </li> <li> Handling of DISTINCT, FILTERS (note: OPTIONAL is handled via dotted predicate-links) </li> <li>General tidying up re. click event handling etc. </li> </ol> Note: You can even open up your own account (using our <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/ods">Live Demo</a> or <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/ods">Live Experiment Data</a> Space servers) which enables you to repeat this demo by doing the following (post registration/sign-up): <ol> <li>Export some bookmarks from your local browser to the usual HTML bookmarks dump file</li> <li>Create an ODS-Bookmarks Instance using your new ODS account</li> <li>Use the ODS-Bookmark Instance to import your local bookmarks from the HTML dump file</li> <li>Repeat the same import sequence using the ODS-Bookmark Instance, but this time pick the del.icio.us option</li> <li>Build your query (change 'kidehen' to your ODS-user-name)</li> <li>That's it you now have Semantic Web presence in the form of a Data Space for your local and del.icio.us hosted bookmarks with tags integrated</li> </ol> <p>Quick Query Builder Tip: You will need to import the following (using the Import Button in the Ontologies & Schemas side-bar); </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#</a> (<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-primer/">RDF</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/ns#">http://rdfs.org/sioc/ns#</a> (<a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/spec/">SIOC</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/</a> (<a href="http://dublincore.org/">Dublin Core</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#">http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#</a> (<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/WD-swbp-skos-core-guide-20050510/">SKOS</a>)</li> </ol> <p>Browser Support: The SPARQL QBE is SVG based and currently works fine with the following browsers; Firefox 1.5/2.0, Camino (Cocoa variant of Firefox for Mac OS X), Webkit (Safari pre-release / advanced sibling), Opera 9.x. We are evaluating the use of the Adobe SVG plugin re. IE 6/7 support.</p> <p>Of course this should be a screencast, but I am the middle of a plethora of things right now :-) </p>
Web Me2.0 -- Exploding the Myth of Web 2.0
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-11-15#1081
2006-11-15T23:17:36Z
2006-11-16T16:11:46-05:00
<p> <a href="http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/">Nova Spivack</a> provides poignant insights into the recent Web 2.0 vs Web 3.0 brouhaha which I've excerpted below: </p> <blockquote> <a href="http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/2006/11/web_me20_explod.html">Web Me2.0 -- Exploding the Myth of Web 2.0</a>: <p>"Many people have told me this week that they think 'Web 2.0' has not been very impressive so far and that they really hope for a next-generation of the Web with some more significant innovation under the hood -- regardless of what it's called. A lot of people found the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco to be underwhelming -- there was a lot of self-congratulation by the top few brands and the companies they have recently bought, but not much else happening. Where was all the innovation? Where was the focus on what's next? It seemed to be a conference mainly about what happened in the last year, not about what will happen in the coming year. But what happened last year is already so 'last year.' And frankly Web 2.0 still leaves a lot to be desired. The reason Tim Berners-Lee proposed the Semantic Web in the first place is that it will finally deliver on the real potential and vision of the Web. Not that today's Web 2.0 sucks completely -- it only sort of sucks. It's definitely useful and there are some nice bells and whistles we didn't have before. But it could still suck so much less!"</p> </blockquote> <p>Web 2.0 is a (not was) a piece of the overall Web puzzle. The Data Web (so called Web 3.0) is another critical piece of this puzzle, especially as it provides the foundation layer (Layer 1) of the Semantic Web.</p> <p>Web 2.0 was never about "Open Data Access", "Flexible Data Models", or "Open World" meshing of disparate data sources built atop disparate data schemas (see: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1032">Web 2.0's Open Data Access Conundrum</a>). It was simply about "Execution and APIs". I already written about "Web Interaction Dimensions", but you call also look at the relationship of the currently perceived dimensions through the M-V-C programming pattern: </p> <ol> <li>Viewer (V) - Web 1.0 (Interaction, Dimension 1 - Interactive-Web)</li> <li>Controller (C) - Web 2.0 (Services, Dimension 2 - Services-Web which is about Execution & Application Logic; SOA outside/in-front-of the Firewall for Enterprise 2.0 crowd)</li> <li>Model (M) - Web 3.0 (Data, Dimension 3 - Data-Web which is about data model dexterity and open data access)</li> </ol> <p>Another point to note, Social Networking is hot, but nearly every social network that I know (and I know and use most of them) suffers from an impedance mismatch between the service(s) they provide (social networks) and their underlying data models (in many cases Relational as opposed to Graph). Networks are about Relationships (N-ary) and your cannot effectively exploit the deep potential of: "Network Effects" (Wisdom of Crowds, Viral Marketing etc..) without a complimentary data model, you simply can't.</p> <p>Finally, the Data Web is already here, I promised a long time ago (Internet Time) that the manifestation of the Semantic Web would occur unobtrusively, meaning, we will wake up one day and realize we are using critical portions of the Semantic Web (i.e. Data-Web) without even knowing it. Guess what? It's already happening. Simple case in point, you may have started to notice the emergence of <a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/spec/">SIOC</a> gems in the same way you may have observed those RSS 2.0 gems at the dawn of Web 2.0. What I am implying here is that the real question we should be asking is: Where is the Semantic Web Data? And how easy or difficult will it be to generate? And where are the tools? My answers are presented below:</p> <p> </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://pingthesemanticweb.com/">Pingthesemanticweb.com</a> - Semantic Web Data Source Lookup & Tracking Service</li> <li> <a href="http://swoogle.umbc.edu/">Swoogle </a>- Semantic Web Ontology Location Service</li> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/RdfAndSql">Semantic Web Solutions for Generating RDF Data from SQL Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SemanticWebTools">Semantic Web Solutions Directory</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://sioc-project.org/">SIOC Project</a> - Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities Ontology, a grassroots effort that provides a critical bridge between Web 2.0 and the Data-Web. For instance, existing Web 2.0 application profiles such as; Blogs, Wikis, Feed Aggregators, Content Managers, Discussion Forums etc.. are much closer to the Data-Web than you may think :-) </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/">Virtuoso</a> - our <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuoso_Universal_Server">Universal Server</a> for the Data-Web</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsIndex">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> (ODS) - our SIOC based platform for transparent incorporation of the Data-Web into Web 1.0 and Web 2.0</li> </ol> <p>Next stop, less writing, more demos, these are long overdue! At least from my side of the fence :-) I need to produce a little step-by-guide oriented screencasts that demonstrates how Web 2.0 meshes nicely with the Data-Web.</p> <p>Here are some (not so end-user friendly) examples of how you can use <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a> (Data-Web's Query Language) to query Web 2.0 Instance Data projected through the SIOC Ontology:</p> <p> </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Weblog%20Data%20Space">Weblog Data Query</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Wiki%20Data%20Space">Wiki Data Query</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Feeds%20/%20Subscriptions%20Data%20Space%20(Feed%20Aggregation)">Aggregated Feeds Data Query</a> - (RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, Atom etc)</li> <li a="a" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Bookmarks%20Data%20Space">Shared Bookmarks Data Space</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Briefcase%20Applications%20Data%20Space">Web Filesystem Data Query</a> - (Briefcase - Virtual Spotlight of sorts)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Photo%20Gallery%20Data%20Space">Photo Gallery Data Query</a> (this could be data from Flickr etc..)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Discussion%20/%20Conversation%20Data%20Space">Discussion Data Query</a> (e.g. Blog posts comments)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Generic%20Data%20Space%20Queries">Data Queries across different Data Spaces</a> - combining data from Wikis, Blogs, Feeds, Photos, Bookmarks, Discussions etc..</li> </ol> <p>Note: You can use the online SPARQL Query Interface at: http://demo.openlinksw.com/isparql.</p> <p> </p> <p> Other Data-Web Technology usage demos include:</p> <p> </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/ajar/tab">TimBL's Tabulator</a> - A Data-Web Browser</li> <li> <a href="http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/ng4j/semwebclient/#examples">Semantic Web Client Library</a> - <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-concepts/">RDF</a> Data Drill Down Demos using SPARQL</li> <li> <a href="http://sioc-project.org/firefox">Semantic Radar</a> - A Firefox plug-in for auto-discovering SIOC Instance Data</li> <li> <a href="http://www.talkdigger.com/">Talk Digger</a> - SIOC based Web Conversation Tracker</li> </ol>
More RDF scalability tests
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-11-06#1076
2006-11-06T22:09:50Z
2006-11-06T17:09:54.000001-05:00
<p>(Posted verbatim from <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/">Orri Erling's Blog</a>.)</p> <p> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/?id=1074">More RDF scalability tests</a>: "</p> <p>We have lately been busy with RDF scalability. We work with the 8000 university LUBM data set, a little over a billion triples. We can load it in 23h 46m on a box with 8G RAM. With 16G we probably could get it in 16h.</p> <p>The resulting database is 75G, 74 bytes per triple which is not bad. It will shrink a little more if explicitly compacted by merging adjacent partly filled pages. See Advances in Virtuoso Triple Storage for an in-depth treatment of the subject.</p> <p>The real question of RDF scalability is finding a way of having more than one CPU on the same index tree without them hitting the prohibitive penalty of waiting for a mutex. The sure solution is partitioning, would probably have to be by range of the whole key. but before we go to so much trouble, well look at dropping a couple of critical sections from index random access. Also some kernel parameters may be adjustable, like a spin count before calling the scheduler when trying to get an occupied mutex. Still we should not waste too much time on platform specifics. Well see.</p> <p>We just updated the Virtuoso Open Source cut. The latest RDF refinements are not in, so maybe the cut will have to be refreshed shortly.</p> <p>We are also now applying the relational to RDF mapping discussed in <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSSQLRDF">Declarative SQL Schema to RDF Ontology Mapping</a> to the ODS applications.</p> <p>There is a form of the mapping in the VOS cut on the net but it is not quite ready yet. We must first finish testing it through mapping all the relational schemas of the ODS apps before we can really recommend it. This is another reason for a VOS update in the near future.</p> <p>We will be looking at the query side of LUBM after the ISWC 2006 conference. So far, we find queries compile OK for many SIOC use cases with the cost model that there is now. A more systematic review of the cost model for SPARQL will come when we get to the queries.</p> <p>We put some ideas about inferencing in the Advances in Triple Storage paper. The question is whether we should forward chain such things as class subsumption and subproperties. If we build these into the SQL engine used for running SPARQL, we probably can do these as unions at run time with good performance and better working set due to not storing trivial entailed triples. Some more thought and experimentation needs to go into this.</p> <p> </p>
Contd: Web Dimensionality
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-10-24#1072
2006-10-24T20:41:00Z
2006-10-25T18:19:40.000001-04:00
<a href="http://fgiasson.com"> Frederick Giasson</a> continues <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php?title=the_first_three_dimensions_of_the_web_in&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1">the conversation about the Web Experience Dimensions</a> in a new post --the first of several-- that chronicles the evolution of Pingthesemanticweb.com and Talk Digger, from Interactive-Web (Web 1.0) sites to Data-Web oriented Data Spaces:<br /> <br />On a related front, I also came across an e-Government Data Reference Model presentation (<a href="http://web-services.gov/scopedrmit210172005.ppt">PPT</a>) by <a href="http://www.project10x.com/pages/team.html">Mills Davis</a> from the <a href="http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?DRMImplementationThroughIterationandTestingPilotProjects">Colab Wiki</a> that illustrates the aforementioned Web Dimensions (even though his presentation didn't have dimensionality of the Web in mind) in one of its graphics (which I've yanked and placed into this post so that it has a URI courtesy of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsIndex">ODS</a> <img src="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/images/smileys/01.gif" />):<br /> <br /> <img src="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/briefcase/Public/graphics/drm-smart-search.png" /> <br /> <br /> Notes:<br />=====<br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Conceptual</span> - Data-Web (*we are starting to comprehend and use this dimension* aka Semantic Web Layer 1)<br /> <br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Logical Theory </span>- To follow when we let loose the intelligent agents that enrichen the Data Web experience<br /> <br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Philosophy</span> - by way of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiology">Axiology </a>(sometime in the future, but note, we are talking Internet time :-) )<br /> <br />I also stumbled across another graphic that actually provides visual delineation of the value propositions of XML (Structure) and RDF (Context):<br /> <img src="http://colab.cim3.net/file/work/SICoP/EPADRM2.0/ombdrm2.gif" /> <br />Notes:<br />=====<br /> <br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Description</span> - <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-infoset/#intro">XML</a> <br /> <br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Context</span> - <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-concepts/">RDF</a> <br /> <br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Sharing</span> - Access Points (e.g <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a>, <a href="http://www.xmla.org/faq.asp">XMLA,</a> <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/gdata/">GData</a> Generic Query oriented Web Service Endpoints)<br />
Virtuoso's SQL Schema to RDF Ontology Mapping Language (1.0)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-10-18#1064
2006-10-18T22:18:00Z
2006-11-17T18:24:25-05:00
<p>A new technical white paper about our declarative language for SQL Schema to RDF Ontology Mapping has just been published.</p> <h2>What is this?</h2> <p>A declarative language adapted from SPARQL's graph pattern language (N3/Turtle) for mapping SQL Data to RDF Ontologies. We currently refer to this as a Graph Pattern based RDF VIEW Definition Language.</p> <h2>Why is it important?</h2> <p>It provides an effective mechanism for exposing existing SQL Data as virtual RDF Data Sets (Graphs) negating the data duplication associated with generating physical RDF Graphs from SQL Data en route to persistence in a dedicated Triple Store. </p> <p>Enterprise applications (traditional and web based) and most Web Applications (Web 1.0 and Web 2.0) sit atop relational databases, implying that SQL/RDF model and data integration is an essential element of the burgeoning "Data Web" (Semantic Web - Layer 1) comprehension and adoption process.</p> <p>In a nutshell, this is a quick route for non disruptive exposure of existing SQL Data to SPARQL supporting RDF Tools and Development Environments.</p> <h2>How does it work?</h2> <h3>RDF Side</h3> <ol> <li>locate one or more Ontologies (e.g FOAF, SIOC, AtomOWL, SKOS etc.) that effectively defines the Concepts (Classes) and Terms (Predicates) to be exposed via your RDF Graph</li> <li>Using the Virtuoso's RDF View Definition Language declare a International Resource Identifier (or URI) for your Graph. Example:<pre>CREATE GRAPH IRI("http://myopenlink.net/dataspace")</pre> </li> <li>Then create Classes (Concepts), Class Properties/Predicates (Memb), and Class Instances (Inst) for the new Graph. Example: <pre>CREATE IRI CLASS odsWeblog:feed_iri "http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen/weblog/MyFeeds" ( in memb varchar not null, in inst varchar not null)</pre> </li> </ol> <h3>SQL Side</h3> <ol> <li>If Virtuoso isn't your SQL Data Store, Identify the ODBC or JDBC SQL data source(s) containing the SQL data to be mapped to RDF and then link the relevant tables into Virtuoso's Virtual DBMS Layer</li> <li>Then use the RDF View Definition Language's graph pattern feature to generate SQL to RDF Mapping Template for your Graph. As shown in this <a href="http://www.usnet.private:8889/wiki/main/Main/VOSSQLRDF#MappingOdsBlogToAtomOwlExample">ODS Weblog -> AtomOWL Mapping example</a>.</li> </ol>
SIOC-o-sphere & Blogosphere 2.0
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-29#1061
2006-09-29T22:24:34Z
2006-09-29T19:05:27-04:00
<p>In a <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=1038">previous blog post</a> I suggested that the emerging <a href="http://captsolo.net/info/blog_a.php/2006/09/29/sioc_o_sphere">SIOC-o-sphere</a> should be described as "Blogosphere 2.0". Well, as I think about this a little deeper, I have come to the realization that this cannot really be correct (even though it may be more buzz worthy etc..). The fact of the matter is that, SIOC is about Semantically-Interlined Online Communities (Data Spaces) comprised of Blogs, Wikis, Discussion Forums etc.. Thus, "Blogosphere 2.0" is simply a part of the SIOC-o-sphere :-) Ditto the Wikisphere and so on...</p> <p> What is Blogosphere 2.0 anyway?</p> <p>Blog clusters that incorporate the "Open Data Access" dimension to their usage pattern via content exported as RDF Data Sets or Virtual RDF Data Sets (as demonstrated by the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef">OpenLink Data Spaces SIOC Reference</a>). In either scenario, the RDF rendition of blog content is accessible for to ad-hoc querying via SPARQL (btw - checkout this cool <a href="http://thefigtrees.net/lee/sw/sparql-faq">SPARQL FAQ</a>). </p> <p>The really fascinating thing about the "Blgosophere 2.0" is that the transition from "Blogosphere 1.0" is going to be transparent! The "Open Data Access" will actually do the talking etc..</p>
Recent Virtuoso Developments
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-26#1050
2006-09-26T19:46:55Z
2006-09-26T15:46:55.000001-04:00
<p>(Cut & Pasted verbatim from <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/">Orri Erling's Weblog</a>.)</p> <p> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/?id=1043">Recent Virtuoso Developments</a>: "</p> <p>We have been extensively working on virtual database refinements. There aremany SQL cost model adjustments to better model distributed queries and wenow support direct access to Oracle and Informix statistics system tables.Thus, when you attach a table from one or the other, you automatically getup to date statistics. This helps <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/">Virtuoso</a> optimize distributed queries.Also the documentation is updated as concerns these, with a new section ondistributed query optimization.</p> <p>On the applications side, we have been keeping up with the SIOC RDF ontologydevelopments. All ODS applications now make their data available as SIOCgraphs for download and SPARQL query access.</p> <p>What is most exciting however is our advance in mapping relational data intoRDF. We now have a mapping language that makes arbitrary legacy data in <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/">Virtuoso</a> or elsewhere in the relational world RDF queriable. We will putout a white paper on this in a few days.</p> <p>Also we have some innovations in mind for optimizing the physical storage ofRDF triples. We keep experimenting, now with our sights set to the highend of triple storage, towards billion triple data sets. We areexperimenting with a new more space efficient index structure for betterworking set behavior. Next week will yield the first results.</p>
Creating connections between discussion clouds with SIOC
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-07#1036
2006-09-08T00:56:00Z
2008-02-04T23:22:26.000001-05:00
<p>Another example of <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=%27data%20spaces%27&type=text&output=html">Data Spaces</a> in action by <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog">John Breslin</a>.. In this case John visualizes the connections that are exploitable by creating SIOC (<a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/">Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities</a>) instance data from existing Distributed Collaborative Application profiles (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web%202.0&type=text&output=html">Web 2.0</a> in current parlance). Of course, SIOC is an Ontology for RDF data since it describes the Concepts and Terms for a a network mesh of online communities. Which by implication provides another insight into the realization that the Web we know has always been a "Web of Databases" (federation of Graph Model Databases encapsulated in Data Spaces). The emergence of <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=sparql%0D%0A&type=text&output=html">SPARQ</a>L as the standard <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">Query Language for querying RDF Data Sets</a>, alongside the SPARQL Protocol for transmitting SPARQL Queries over HTTP, and the SPARQL Query Results Serialization formats (XML or JSON) Results Serialization Format), basically set the stage truly open and flexible data access across Web Data Space clusters such as: the Blogosphere, Wikispehere, Usenetverse, Linkspaces, Boardscapes, and others.</p> <p> For additional clarity re. my comments above, you can also look at the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef">SPARQL & SIOC Usecase samples document</a> for our <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsIndex">OpenLink Data Spaces platform</a>. Bottom line, the Semantic Web and SPARQL aren't <a href="http://morenews.blogspot.com/2006/09/myth-of-web-20.html"> BORING.</a> In fact, quite the contrary, since they are essential ingredients of a more powerful Web than the one we work with today!</p> <p>Enjoy the rest of John's post:</p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/2006/09/07/creating-connections-between-discussion-clouds-with-sioc/#comments">Creating connections between discussion clouds with SIOC</a>: </p> <p>(Extract from our forthcoming <a href="http://blogtalk.net/Main/Program"> BlogTalk</a> paper about browsers for SIOC.)</p> <p> <a class="imagelink" title="20060907b.png" href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/20060907a.png"><img id="image515" alt="20060907b.png" src="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/20060907b.png" /> </a> </p> <p>SIOC provides a unified vocabulary for content and interaction description: a semantic layer that can co-exist with existing discussion platforms. Using SIOC, various linkages are created between the aforementioned concepts, which allow new methods of accessing this linked data, including:</p> <ul> <li> <strong>Virtual Forums</strong>. These may be a gathering of posts or threads which are distributed across discussion platforms, for example, where a user has found posts from a number of blogs that can be associated with a particular category of interest, or an agent identifies relevant posts across a certain timeframe.</li> <li> <strong>Distributed Conversations</strong>. Trackbacks are commonly used to link blog posts to previous posts on a related topic. By creating links in both directions, not only across blogs but across all types of internet discussions, conversations can be followed regardless of what point or URI fragment a browser enters at.</li> <li> <strong>Unified Communities</strong>. Apart from creating a web page with a number of relevant links to the blogs or forums or people involved in a particular community, there is no standard way to define what makes up an online community (apart from grouping the people who are members of that community using FOAF or OPML). SIOC allows one to simply define what objects are constituent parts of a community, or to say to what community an object belongs (using sioc:has_part / part_of): users, groups, forums, blogs, etc.</li> <li> <strong>Shared Topics</strong>. Technorati (a search engine for blogs) and BoardTracker (for bulletin boards) have been leveraging the free-text tags that people associate with their posts for some time now. SIOC allows the definition of such tags (using the subject property), but also enables hierarchial or non-hierarchial topic definition of posts using sioc:topic when a topic is ambiguous or more information on a topic is required. Combining with other Semantic Web vocabularies, tags and topics can be further described using the SKOS organisation system.</li> <li> <strong>One Person, Many User Accounts</strong>. SIOC also aims to help the issue of multiple identities by allowing users to define that they hold other accounts or that their accounts belong to a particular personal identity (via foaf:holdsOnlineAccount or sioc:account_of). Therefore, all the posts or comments made by a particular person using their various associated user accounts across platforms could be identified.</li> </ul> </blockquote>
Data Spaces and Web of Databases
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-08-28#1030
2006-08-28T19:38:00Z
2006-09-04T18:58:56.000001-04:00
<p>Note: An updated version of a previously unpublished blog post:</p> <p> Continuing from <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2006/04/28.html">our recent Podcast conversation</a>, Jon Udell sheds further insight into the essence of our conversation via a âStrategic Developerâ column article titled: <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/redirect?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/05/03/77873_19OPstrategic_1.html">Accessing the web of databases</a>. </p> <p> Below, I present an initial dump of a DataSpace FAQ below that hopefully sheds light on the DataSpace vision espoused during my podcast conversation with Jon. </p> <p> What is a DataSpace? <br /> </p> <p>A moniker for Web-accessible atomic containers that manage and expose Data, Information, Services, Processes, and Knowledge. </p> <p> What would you typically find in a Data Space? Examples include: </p> <ul> <li>Raw Data - SQL, HTML, XML (raw), XHTML, RDF etc.<br /> <br /> </li> <li>Information (Data In Context) - XHTML (various microformats), Blog Posts (in RSS, Atom, RSS-RDF formats), Subscription Lists (OPML, OCS, etc), Social Networks (FOAF, XFN etc.), and many other forms of applied XML.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Web Services (Application/Service Logic) - REST or SOAP based invocation of application logic for context sensitive and controlled data access and manipulation.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Persisted Knowledge - Information in actionable context that is also available in transient or persistent forms expressed using a Graph Data Model. A modern knowledgebase would more than likely have RDF as its Data Language, RDFS as its Schema Language, and OWL as its Domain Definition (Ontology) Language. Actual Domain, Schema, and Instance Data would be serialized using formats such as RDF-XML, N3, Turtle etc).</li> </ul> <p> How do Data Spaces and Databases differ? <br />Data Spaces are fundamentally problem-domain-specific database applications. They offer functionality that you would instinctively expect of a database (e.g. AICD data management) with the additonal benefit of being data model and query language agnostic. Data Spaces are for the most part DBMS Engine and Data Access Middleware hybrids in the sense that ownership and control of data is inherently loosely-coupled. </p> <p>How do Data Spaces and Content Management Systems differ?<br />Data Spaces are inherently more flexible, they support multiple data models and data representation formats. Content management systems do not possess the same degree of data model and data representation dexterity. </p> <p>How do Data Spaces and Knowledgebases differ?<br />A Data Space cannot dictate the perception of its content. For instance, what I may consider as knowledge relative to my Data Space may not be the case to a remote client that interacts with it from a distance, Thus, defining my Data Space as Knowledgebase, purely, introduces constraints that reduce its broader effectiveness to third party clients (applications, services, users etc..). A Knowledgebase is based on a Graph Data Model resulting in significant impedance for clients that are built around alternative models. To reiterate, Data Spaces support multiple data models. </p> <p> What Architectural Components make up a Data Space? </p> <ul> <li>ORDBMS Engine - for Data Modeling agility (via complex purpose specific data types and data access methods), Data Atomicity, Data Concurrency, Transaction Isolation, and Durability (aka ACID).<br /> <br /> </li> <li>Virtual Database Engine - for creating a single view of, and access point to, heterogeneous SQL, XML, Free Text, and other data. This is all about Virtualization at the Data Access Level.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Web Services Platform - enabling controlled access and manipulation (via application, service, or protocol logic) of Virtualized or Disparate Data. This layer handles the decoupling of functionality from monolithic wholes for function specific invocation via Web Services using either the SOAP or REST approach.</li> </ul> <br />Where do Data Spaces fit into the Web's rapid evolution?<br />They are an essential part of the burgeoning Data Web / Semantic Web. In short, they will take us from data âMash-upsâ (combining web accessible data that exists without integration and repurposing in mind) to âMesh-upsâ (combining web accessible data that exists with integration and repurposing in mind).<p> Where can I see a DataSpace along the lines described, in action? </p> <p> Just look at my blog, and take the journey as follows: </p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/">Front Door</a> (Web 1.0)</li> <li>Lounge (Web 2.0) via <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/GData/127">GData</a> or <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&type=text&kwds=%27semantic+web%27&OpenSearch">OpenSearch</a> </li> <li>Floor Plan via <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/about.rdf">FOAF</a> or <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/sioc.rdf">SIOC</a> RDF Data Sets (Graphs)</li> <li>Rest of the house (beyond Web 2.0) sending <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSODSSparqlSamples">SPARQL Queries</a> to a <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/sparql/">SPARQL Endpoint</a>.<br /> </li> </ul> <p> What about other Data Spaces? </p> <p> There are several and I will attempt to categorize along the lines of query method available: <br />Type 1 (Free Text Search over HTTP): <br />Google, MSN, Yahoo!, Amazon, eBay, and most Web 2.0 plays . </p> <p> Type 2 (Free Text Search and XQuery/XPath over HTTP) <br />A few blogs and Wikis (Jon Udell's and a few others)</p>Type 3 (RDF Data Sets and SPARQL Queryable):<br /> <ul> <li>  <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SIOC/EnabledSites">SIOC enabled sites</a> (aka points of semantic web presence)<br /> </li> <li>  <a href="http://pingthesemanticweb.com/">PingTheSemantic</a> <br /> </li> </ul>Type 4 (Generic Free Text Search, OpenSearch, GData, XQuery/XPath, and SPARQL):<br />Points of Semantic Web presence such as the Data Spaces at: <br /> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com">My Blog Data Space</a> (as stated earlier in this post)<br /> </li> <li> <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com">My General Data Space</a> - (ditto; note that this is currently experimental)<br /> </li> </ul> <p>What About Data Space aware tools?<br /> <br /> </p> <ul> <li>  <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/oat/index.html/">OpenLink Ajax Toolkit </a>- provides Javascript Control level binding to Query Services such as XMLA for SQL, GData for Free Text, OpenSearch for Free Text, SPARQL for RDF, in addition to service specific Web Services (Web 2.0 hosted solutions that expose service specific APIs)</li> <li>  <a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/firefox">Semantic Radar </a>- a Firefox Extension</li> <li>  <a href="http://pingthesemanticweb.com/">PingTheSemantic</a> - the Semantic Webs equivalent of Web 2.0's weblogs.com</li> <li>  <a href="http://simile.mit.edu/piggy-bank/">PiggyBank</a> - a Firefox Extension</li> </ul> <p> </p>
The WWW Proposal and RDF: Then and Now (circa 1999)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-08-28#1029
2006-08-28T10:20:00Z
2006-09-30T16:27:36-04:00
<p>I've just re-read an article penned by Dan Brickley in 1999 titled: <a href="http://www.w3.org/1999/11/11-WWWProposal/thenandnow">The WWW Proposal and RDF: Then and Now</a>, that retains its prescience to this very day. Ironically I stumbled across this timeless piece while revisiting the <a href="http://diveintomark.org/archives/2002/09/06/history_of_the_rss_fork">RSS name imbroglio</a> that gave us a simple syndication format (RSS 2.0) that will ultimately implode (IMHO) since "Simple" is ultimately short lived when dealing with attention challenged end-users that are always assumed to be dumb when in fact they are simply ambivalent.</p> <p>I was compelled to go back to the RSS 2.0 imbroglio when I came across <a href="http://www.scripting.com/dwiner/">Dave Winer</a>'s comments re. "the SEC attempting to reinvent RSS 2.0..." response to <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2006/08/16.html">Jon Udell's recent XBRL article</a>. </p> <p>Although I don't believe in complex entry points into complex technology realms, I do subscribe to the approach where developers deal with the complexity associated with a problem domain while hiding said complexity from ambivalent end-users via coherent interfaces -- which does not always imply User Interface.</p> <p> <a href="http://xml.coverpages.org/xbrl.html">XBRL</a> is a great piece of work that addresses the complex problem domain of Financial Reporting. The only thing it's missing right now is an Ontology that facilitates <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-primer/">RDF Data Model</a> based XBRL Schema and Instance Data which ultimately makes XBRL data available to RDF query languages such as <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a>. This line of thought implies, for instance, an XML Schema to <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-guide/">OWL Ontology Mapping</a> for Schema Data (as explained in a <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=4&url=http%3A%2F%2Fvsis-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de%2FgetDoc.php%2Fpublications%2F204%2Ffzt-lxs-04.pdf&ei=4lXzRPLaO8SmaJmgsLgC&sig2=INc-OyDoxj16TW8tb0pNXA#search=%22xml%20schema%20owl%20mapping%22">white paper by the VSIS Group at the university of Hamburg</a>) leaving the Instance Data to be generated in a myriad of ways that includes XML to RDF and/or XML->SQL->RDF.</p> <p>As I stated in an earlier post: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=1018">we should not mistake ambivalence to lack of intelligence</a>. Assuming "Simple" is always right at all times is another way of subscribing to this profound misconception. You know, assuming the world was flat (as opposed to geoid) was quite palatable at some point in the history of mankind, I wonder what would have happened if we held on to this point of view to this day because of its "Simplicity"?</p>
OpenLink Ajax Toolkit (OAT) 1.0 Released
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-08-08#1023
2006-08-08T22:11:45Z
2006-08-09T05:12:48-04:00
<p> We have finally released the 1.0 edition of OAT. </p> <p> OAT offers a broad Javascript-based, browser-independent widget set <br />for building data source independent rich internet applications that are usable across a broad range of Ajax-capable web browsers. </p> <p> OAT's support binding to the following data sources via its Ajax Database Connectivity Layer: </p> <p> SQL Data via XML for Analysis (XMLA) <br />Web Data via SPARQL, GData, and OpenSearch Query Services <br />Web Services specific Data via service specific binding to SOAP and REST style web services </p> <p> The toolkit includes a collection of powerful rich internet application prototypes include: SQL Query By Example, Visual Database Modeling, and Data bound Web Form Designer. </p> <p> Project homepage on sourceforge.net: </p> <p> <span style="color:#0000ff;text-decoration:underline;">http://sourceforge.net/projects/oat</span> </p> <p> Source Code: </p> <p> <span style="color:#0000ff;text-decoration:underline;">http://sourceforge.net/projects/oat/files</span> </p> <p> Live demonstration: </p> <p> <span style="color:#0000ff;text-decoration:underline;">http://www.openlinksw.com/oat/</span> </p>
Virtuoso RDF Triple Store White Paper
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-07-22#1016
2006-07-22T00:08:13Z
2006-07-21T21:26:26.000003-04:00
<p>We have just released a new technical white paper covering the usage of Virtuoso's SQL-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-relational_database">ORDBMS</a> Engine to implement a <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a> compliant <a href="http://www.w3.org/RDF/">RDF</a> Triple Store. The paper is titled: <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSRDFWP">Implementing a SPARQL Compliant RDF Triple Store using a SQL-ORDBMS</a> </p>
Google vs Semantic Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-07-20#1018
2006-07-20T19:19:16Z
2006-07-29T19:55:57-04:00
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://morenews.blogspot.com/2006/07/goggle-vs-semantic-web.html">Goggle vs Semantic Web</a>: "<a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-6095705.html?part=rss&tag=6095705&subj=news">Google exec challenges Berners-Lee</a> 'At the end of the keynote, however, things took a different turn. Google Director of Search and AAAI Fellow Peter Norvig was the first to the microphone during the Q&A session, and he took the opportunity to raise a few points.<br /> <br />'What I get a lot is: 'Why are you against the Semantic Web?' I am not against the Semantic Web. But from Google's point of view, there are a few things you need to overcome, incompetence being the first,' Norvig said. Norvig clarified that it was not Berners-Lee or his group that he was referring to as incompetent, but the general user.'<br /> <br />Related: <a href="http://blogmatrix.semantic.blogmatrix.com/:entry:blogmatrix-2006-07-17-0005/">Google Base -- summing up</a>."</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://morenews.blogspot.com">More News</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>When will we drop the ill conceived notion that end-users are incompetent?</p> <p> Has it every occurred to software developers and technology vendors that incompetent, dumb, and other contemptuous end-user adjectives simply reflect the inability of most technology products to surmount end-user "Interest Activation Thresholds"?</p> <p>Interest Activation Threshold (IAT)? What's That?</p> <p>I have a fundamental personal belief that all human beings are intelligent. Our ability to demonstrate intelligence, or be perceived as intelligent, is directly proportional to our interest level in a given context. In short, we have "Ambivalence Quotients" (AQs) just as we have "Intelligence Quotients" (IQs).</p> <p>An interested human being is an inherently intelligent entity. The abstract nature of human intelligence also makes locating the IQ and AQ on/off buttons a mercurial quest at the best of times.</p> <p>Technology end-users exhibit high AQs, most of the time due to the inability of most technology products to truly engage, and ultimately stimulate genuine interest, by surmounting IAT and reducing AQ.</p> <p>Ironically, when a technology vendor is lagging behind its competitors in the "features arms race" it is common place to use the familiar excuse: "our end-users aren't asking for this feature". </p> <p> <b>Note To Google:</b> </p> <p>Ambivalence isn't incompetence. If end-users were genuinely incompetent, how is that they run rings around your page rank algorithms by producing google-friendly content at the expense of valuable context? What about the <a href="http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/blogger/2006/07/25/revealed-how-google-manages-click-fraud/">deteriorating value of Adsense due to click fraud</a>? Likewise, the continued erosion of the value of your once exemplary "keyword based search" service? As we all know, necessity is the mother of invention, so when users develop high AQs because there is nothing better, we end up with a forced breech of "IAT"; which is why the issues that I mention remain long term challenges for you. Ironically, the so called "incompetents" are already outsmarting you, and you don't seem to comprehend this reality or its inevitable consequences.</p> <p>Finally, how you are going to improve value without integrating the Semantic Web vision into your R&D roadmap? I can tell you categorically that you have little or no wiggle room re. this matter, especially if you want to remain true to your: "don't be evil" mantra. My guess is that you will incorporate Semantic Web technologies sooner rather than later (Google Co-op is a big clue). I would even go as far as predicting a Google hosted SPARQL Query Endpoint alongside your GData endpints during the next 6-12 months (if even that long). I believe that your GData protocol (like the rest of Web 2.0) will ultimately accelerate your appreciation of the data model dexterity that RDF brings to loosely coupled knowledge networks espoused by the Semantic Web vision.</p> <p> <b>Google & Semantic Web Paradox</b> </p> <p> The Semantic Web vision has the RDF graph data model at its core (and for good reason), but even more confusing for me, as I process Google sentiments about the Semantic Web, is the fact that RDF's actual creator (Ramanathan Guha aka. Guha) currently works at Google. There's a strange disconnect here IMHO.</p> <p>If I recall correctly, Google wants to organize the worlds data and information, leaving the knowledge organization to someone else which is absolutely fine. What is increasingly irksome, is the current tendency to use corporate stature to generate Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt when the subject matter is the "Semantic Web".</p> <p> BTW - I've just read <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php?title=norvig_and_berners_lee_on_the_semantic_w_06&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1">Frederick Giasson's perspective on the Google Semantic Web paradox</a> which ultimately leads to the same conclusions regarding Google's FUD stance when dealing with matters relating to the Semantic Web. </p> <p>I wonder if anyone is tracking the google hits for "<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=google+fud+semantic+web&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official">fud google semantic web</a>"?</p>
More Thoughts on ORDBMS Clients, ADO.NET vNext, and RDF
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-07-18#1012
2006-07-18T13:29:13Z
2006-07-18T14:28:58.000001-04:00
<p>Additional commentary from <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/">Orri Erling</a>. re. ORDBMS, ADO.NET vNext, and RDF (in relation to Semantic Web Objects):</p> <p> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/?id=1007">More Thoughts on ORDBMS Clients, .NET and RDF</a>:</p> <blockquote>Continuing on from the previous post... If Microsoft opens the right interfaces for independent developers, we see many exciting possibilities for using ADO .NET 3 with <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/">Virtuoso</a>. <p>Microsoft quite explicitly states that their thrust is to decouple the client side representation of data as .NET objects from the relational schema on the database. This is a worthy goal.</p> <p>But we can also see other possible applications of the technology when we move away from strictly relational back ends. This can go in two directions: Towards object oriented database and towards making applications for the semantic web.</p> <p>In the OODBMS direction, we could equate Virtuoso table hierarchies with .NET classes and create a tighter coupling between client and database, going as it were in the other direction from Microsofts intended decoupling. For example, we could do typical OODBMS tricks such as prefetch of objects based on storage clustering. The simplest case of this is like virtual memory, where the request for one byte brings in the whole page or group of pages. The basic idea is that what is created together probably gets used together and if all objects are modeled as subclasses of (subtables) of a common superclass, then, regardless of instance type, what is created together (has consecutive ids) will indeed tend to cluster on the same page. These tricks can deliver good results in very navigational applications like GIS or CAD. But these are rather specialized things and we do not see OODBMS making any great comeback.</p> <p>But what is more interesting and more topical in the present times is making clients for the RDF world. There, the<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-ref/"> OWL Ontology Language</a> could be used to make the .NET classes and the DBMS could, when returning URIs serving as subjects of triple include specified predicates on these subjects, enough to allow instantiating .NET instances as 'proxies' of these RDF objects. Of course, only predicates for which the client has a representation are relevant, thus some client-server handshake is needed at the start. What data could be prefetched is like the intersection of a concise bounded description and what the client has classes for. The rest of the mapping would be very simple, with IRIs becoming pointers, multi-valued predicates lists and so on. IRIs for which the RDF type were not known or inferable could be left out or represented as a special class with name-value pairs for its attributes, same with blank nodes.</p> <p>In this way,.NETs considerable UI capabilities could directly be exploited for visualizing RDF data, only given that the data complied reasonably well with a known ontology.</p> <p>If an <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a> query returned a resultset, IRI type columns would be returned as .NET instances and the server would prefetch enough data for filling them in. For a SPARQL CONSTRUCT, a collection object could be returned with the objects materialized inside. If the interfaces allow passing an Entity SQL string, these could possibly be specialized to allow for a SPARQL string instead. LINQ might have to be extended to allow for SPARQL type queries, though.</p> <p>Many of these questions will be better answerable as we get more details on Microsofts forthcoming ADO .NET release. We hope that sufficient latitude exists for exploring all these interesting avenues of development. </p> </blockquote>
Web 2.0 Self-Experiment aids Web 3.0 comprehension
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-07-17#1009
2006-07-17T21:46:42Z
2006-07-18T01:17:43-04:00
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://vzach.blogspot.com/2006/07/web-20-self-experiment.html">Web 2.0 Self-Experiment</a>: "</p> <blockquote>I shopped for everything except food on eBay. When working with foreign-language documents, I used translations from Babel Fish. (This worked only so well. After a Babel Fish round-trip through Italian, the preceding sentence reads, 'That one has only worked therefore well.') Why use up space storing files on my own hard drive when, thanks to certain free utilities, I can store them on Gmail's servers? I saved, sorted, and browsed photos I uploaded to Flickr. I used Skype for my phone calls, decided on books using Amazon's recommendations rather than 'expert' reviews, killed time with videos at YouTube, and listened to music through customizable sites like Pandora and Musicmatch. I kept my schedule on Google Calendar, my to-do list on Voo2do, and my outlines on iOutliner. I voyeured my neighborhood's home values via Zillow. I even used an online service for each stage of the production of this article, culminating in my typing right now in Writely rather than Word. (Being only so confident that Writely wouldn't somehow lose my work -- or as Babel Fish might put it, 'only confident therefore' -- I backed it up into Gmail files.</blockquote> <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17061&ch=infotech">Interesting article</a>, Tim O'Reilly's response is <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/07/levels_of_the_game.html">here</a>" <p>(Via <a href="http://vzach.blogspot.com">Valentin Zacharias (Student)</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>Tim O'Reilly's response provides the following hierarchy for Web 2.0 based on The what he calls: "Web 2.0-ness":</p> <blockquote> <p>level 3: The application could ONLY exist on the net, and draws its essential power from the network and the connections it makes possible between people or applications. These are applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them. EBay, craigslist, Wikipedia, del.icio.us, Skype, (and yes, Dodgeball) meet this test. They are fundamentally driven by shared online activity. The web itself has this character, which Google and other search engines have then leveraged. (You can search on the desktop, but without link activity, many of the techniques that make web search work so well are not available to you.) Web crawling is one of the fundamental Web 2.0 activities, and search applications like Adsense for Content also clearly have Web 2.0 at their heart. I had a conversation with Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, the other day, and he summed up his philosophy and strategy as "Don't fight the internet." In the hierarchy of web 2.0 applications, the highest level is to embrace the network, to understand what creates network effects, and then to harness them in everything you do.</p> <p> Level 2: The application could exist offline, but it is uniquely advantaged by being online. Flickr is a great example. You can have a local photo management application (like iPhoto) but the application gains remarkable power by leveraging an online community. In fact, the shared photo database, the online community, and the artifacts it creates (like the tag database) is central to what distinguishes Flickr from its offline counterparts. And its fuller embrace of the internet (for example, that the default state of uploaded photos is "public") is what distinguishes it from its online predecessors.</p> <p> Level 1: The application can and does exist successfully offline, but it gains additional features by being online. Writely is a great example. If you want to do collaborative editing, its online component is terrific, but if you want to write alone, as Fallows did, it gives you little benefit (other than availability from computers other than your own.) </p> <p> Level 0: The application has primarily taken hold online, but it would work just as well offline if you had all the data in a local cache. MapQuest, Yahoo! Local, and Google Maps are all in this category (but mashups like housingmaps.com are at Level 3.) To the extent that online mapping applications harness user contributions, they jump to Level 2.</p> </blockquote> <p>So, in a sense we have near conclusive confirmation that Web 2.0 is simply about APIs (typically service specific Data Silos or Walled-gardens) with little concern, understanding, or interest in truly open data access across the burgeoning "<a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/05/03/77873_19OPstrategic_1.html">Web of Databases</a>". Or the<a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/0623-sb-IEEEStorConf/"> Web of "Databases and Programs"</a> that I prefer to describe as "<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/DataSpaceFAQ">Data Spaces</a>"</p> <p>Thus, we can truly begin to conclude that Web 3.0 (Data Web) is the addition of Flexible and Open Data Access to Web 2.0; where the Open Data Access is achieved by leveraging Semantic Web deliverables such as the RDF Data Model and the SPARQL Query Language :-)</p>
RDF's History
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-07-13#1004
2006-07-13T21:42:57Z
2006-07-13T19:04:36-04:00
<p>We are getting very close to a Semantic Web watershed moment (IMHO). Thus, for the purpose of historic record, I would like to create a public bookmark to Tim Bray's 2003 post titled: <a href="http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/05/21/RDFNet">RDF.net</a> Challenge that also contains a nice section about the <a href="http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/05/21/RDFNet">History of RDF</a>.</p> <p>Note to Tim:</p> <p> Is the RDF.net domain deal still on? I know it's past 1st Jan 2006, but do bear in mind that the critical issue of a broadly supported RDF Query Language only took significant shape approximately 13 months ago (in the form of SPARQL), and this is all so critical to the challenge you posed in 2003.</p> <p> <a href="http://rdf.net">RDF.net</a> could become a point of semantic-web-presence through which the benefits of SPARQL compliant Triple|Quad Stores, Shared Ontologies, and SPARQL Protocol are unveiled in their well intended glory :-).</p>
Hiding Ontology from the Semantic Web Users
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-06-30#994
2006-06-30T12:33:46Z
2006-06-30T09:32:56.000001-04:00
<p>A great piece from Harry Chen via his <a href="http://www.geospatialsemanticweb.com">Geospatial Semantic Web Blog</a>. I have nothing to add to this bar: Amen! Enjoy the rest of his post below: </p> <p> <a href="http://www.geospatialsemanticweb.com/2006/06/05/hiding-ontology-from-the-semantic-web-users#comments">Hiding Ontology from the Semantic Web Users</a>: "</p> <p>Ontology is a key foundation of the Semantic Web. Without ontology, it will be difficult for applications to share knowledge and reason over information that is published on the Web. However, it is a serious mistake to think that the Semantic Web is simply a collection of ontologies.</p> <p>Last week I was invited to be on a panel discussion at <a target="_blank" title="the Humans and the Semantic Web Workshop" href="http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/soh/index.shtml">the Humans and the Semantic Web Workshop</a>. I <a title="Geospatial Semantic Web for the Everyday People" target="_blank" href="http://www.geospatialsemanticweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/HCIL-SemWeb.pdf">talked</a> a bit about the Geospatial Semantic Web and its associated research issues. Overall the workshop went very well. You can read about the notes from the workshop <a title="Notes from the Humans and the Semantic Web Workshop" target="_blank" href="http://robfay.com/2006/06/02/hcil-symposium-day-2/">here</a>.</p> <p> <a id="more-76"></a> </p> <h5>New Thinkings</h5> <p>Some of my new thinkings after the workshop are as the follows.</p> <ul> <li>People, especially those who are new to the Semantic Web, have put too much emphasis on developing ontologies and not enough emphasis on developing application functions.</li> <li>While ontology languages such RDF and OWL are important part of the current Semantic Web development, itâs a mistake to build Semantic Web applications that assume that average users are fluent in those languages.</li> <li>Many people seem to have forgotten that building Semantic Web applications donât have start with ontology development. Itâs a good idea to start with ontology reuse â i.e. reuse ontologies that have already been developed even if they donât meet every single requirements of the application.</li> <li>There is no excuse to build âcrappyâ UI just because developing Semantic Web applications are challenging.</li> </ul> <h5>Hide Low-Level Details from the Semantic Web Users</h5> <p>I was asked the question, â<em>Whatâre user-related issues that Semantic Web developers must pay attention to?</em>â I think building Semantic Web applications are similar to building database applications. Few things we can learn from our past experience in building database applications.</p> <p>When building database-driven applications, we store information in SQL databases, and we use SQL to access, manipulate, and manage this information. When building Semantic Web applications, we express ontologies and information in RDF, and use RDF query languages (e.g. <a target="_blank" title="SPARQL" href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a>) to access and manipulate this information.</p> <p>When building database-driven applications, we hide complexity from the end-users. For example, we almost never expose raw SQL statements to the end users, or ask users to process the raw result sets returned from an SQL engine. We always provide intuitive interfaces for accessing and representing information.</p> <p>When building Semantic Web applications, we should also hide complexity from the end-users. Users shouldnât need to see or edit RDF statements. Users shouldnât need to be fluent in SPARQL queries or able parse graphs that are returned by a SPARQL engine.</p> <h5>Concluding Remarks</h5> <p>Semantic Web developers should spend more time on building functional capabilities that solve real world problems and improve peopleâs productivity. Itâs important to remember that â<strong>the Semantic Web != ontologies</strong>â. </p>"
DBMS Hosted Filesystems & WinFS
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-06-26#990
2006-06-26T21:41:33Z
2006-06-26T21:28:44-04:00
<p> The return of WinFS back into SQL Server has re-ignited interest in the somewhat forgotten “DBMS Engine hosted Unified Storage System” vision. The WinFS project struggles have more to do with the futility of “Windows Platform Monoculture” than the actual vision itself. In today's reality you simply cannot seek to deliver a “Unified Storage” solution that's inherently operating system specific, and even worse, ignores existing complimentary industry standards and the loosely coupled nature of the emerging Web Operating System. </p> <p> A quick FYI: <br />Virtuoso has offered a DBMS hosted Filesystem via WebDAV for a number of years, but the implications of this functionality have remained unclear for just as long. Thus, we developed (a few years ago) and released (recently) an application layer above <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSDAV">Virtuoso's WebDAV storage</a> realm called: “<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsBriefcase">The OpenLink Briefcase</a>” (nee. oDrive). This application allows you to view items uploaded by content type and/or kind (People, Business Cards, Calendars, Business Reports, Office Documents, Photos, Blog Posts, Feed Channels/Subscriptions, Bookmarks etc..). it also includes automatic metadata extraction (where feasible) and indexing. Naturally, as an integral part of our “OpenLink Data Spaces” (ODS) product offering, it supports GData, URIQA, SPARQL (note: WebDAV metadata is sync'ed with <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSRDF">Virtuoso's RDF Triplestore</a>), SQL, and WebDAV itself. </p> <p> You can explore the power of this product via the following routes: </p> <ol> <li>Download the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/">Virtuoso Open Source Edition</a> and the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsIndex">ODS add-ons </a>or</li> <li>Visit <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com">our live demo server</a> (note: this is strictly a demo server with full functionality available) and simply register and then create a “Briefcase” application instance</li> <li>Digest this <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/~kidehen/blog/public/graphics/briefcase_home_page.png">Briefcase Home Page Screenshot</a> </li> </ol>
Structured Data vs. Unstructured Data
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-06-23#991
2006-06-23T18:35:09Z
2006-06-27T01:39:09-04:00
There is an interesting article at regdeveloper.com titled: <a href="http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2006/06/23/unstructured_data/">Structured data is boring and useless</a>.. This article provides insight into a serious point of confusion about what exactly is structured vs. unstructured data. Here is a key excerpt: <blockquote> <cite>"We all know that structured data is boring and useless; while unstructured data is sexy and chock full of value. Well, only up to a point, Lord Copper. Genuinely unstructured data can be a real nuisance - imagine extracting the return address from an unstructured letter, without letterhead and any of the formatting usually applied to letters. A letter may be thought of as unstructured data, but most business letters are, in fact, highly-structured." .... </cite> </blockquote> Duncan Pauly, founder and chief technology officer of Coppereye add's eloquent insight to the conversation: <blockquote> <cite>"The labels "structured data" and "unstructured data" are often used ambiguously by different interest groups; and often used lazily to cover multiple distinct aspects of the issue. In reality, there are at least three orthogonal aspects to structure: <il></il></cite> <ol> * The structure of the data itself.</ol> <ol>* The structure of the container that hosts the data.</ol> <ol>* The structure of the access method used to access the data.</ol> These three dimensions are largely independent and one does not need to imply another. For example, it is absolutely feasible and reasonable to store unstructured data in a structured database container and access it by unstructured search mechanisms." </blockquote> <p> Data understanding and appreciation is dwindling at a time when the reverse should be happening. We are supposed to be in the throws of the "Information Age", but for some reason this appears to have no correlation with data and "data access" in the minds of many -- as reflected in the broad contradictory positions taken re. unstructured data vs structured data, structured is boring and useless while unstructured is useful and sexy....</p> <p> The difference between "Structured Containers" and "Structured Data" are clearly misunderstood by most (an unfortunate fact).</p> <p> For instance all DBMS products are "Structured Containers" aligned to one or more data models (typically one). These products have been limited by proprietary data access APIs and underlying data model specificity when used in the "Open-world" model that is at the core of the World Wide Web. This confusion also carries over to the misconception that Web 2.0 and the Semantic/Data Web are mutually exclusive. </p> <p> But things are changing fast, and the concept of multi-model DBMS products is beginning to crystalize. On our part, we have finally released the long promised "OpenLink Data Spaces" application layer that has been developed using our <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/">Virtuoso Universal Server</a>. We have structured unified storage containment exposed to the data web cloud via endpoints for querying or accessing data using a variety of mechanisms that include; GData, OpenSearch, SPARQL, XQuery/XPath, SQL etc.. </p> <p> To be continued.... </p>
Apple patent application for cascade feature for creating records in a database
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-06-22#989
2006-06-22T17:03:09Z
2006-06-22T17:50:30-04:00
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/apple_patent_application_for_cascade_feature_for_creating_records_in_a_data/">Apple patent application for cascade feature for creating records in a database</a>: </p> <p> " On June 22, the US Patent & Trademark Office revealed Apple’s patent application titled ‘Cascade feature for creating records in a database,’ originally filed in December 2004. The present invention relates to databases and, more particularly, to providing a cascade feature for a database program which can serve as an... [ <a href="http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/13824/"> read more</a> ]"</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/main/index/">Macsimum News</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>Its one thing to not know, or have any demonstrable interest in, the enterprise corporate market (the land of database technology utilization etc..), and a completely different matter when lack of technology advances in this realm amount to advertising one's ignorance about database matters so publicly.</p> <p>I would like to assume that this patent is dead on arrival since there should be an army of DBMS vendors Triggered by this attempt to CASCADE DELETE years of existing prior art LOL!!</p> <p>The attempt to use Model Independence as the patentable variation of "DBMS Cascade Functionality" prior art doesn't wash. CASCADE functionality is old news in the real DBMS world! What next? Patent application for mixing SQL and SPARQL in 2009?</p> <p>There is a gradual sense that we are now making the Conceptual View of Data Real, across the board, and obviously there would be a clear need to apply CASCADE technology in this context. But the fact that you realize this now (Apple!) simply doesn't make it novel in any shape or form.</p>
A Web 2.0 Style Mash-up using the OpenLink Ajax Toolkit (OAT)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-25#981
2006-05-25T20:47:00Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
We are now on the verge of finally releasing one of the many items discussed in my recent <a href="http://www.usnet.private:8889/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/127/index.vspx?page=&id=965&sid=e295397b4a9d07fa9c12baf31569aa97&realm=wa">chat with Jon Udell</a>. The item in question is the OpenLink Ajax Toolkit (OAT) that enables the rapid development of Database Independent Rich Internet Applications. My very first public screencast is deliberately silent (since its a live work in progress etc.). <br /> <br />The screencast style demo covers the production of a map based mashup that simply unveils the national flag of each country underneath its map marker (a lookup associated with geocoded map pin).<br /> <br />This post is also a deliberate test of the automatic production of IPod and Yahoo RSS sytle syndication gems based on the content of my blog post. Naturally, this is a demonstration of the soon to be unveiled OpenLink Data Spaces technology (the one that supports GData and SPARQL Query Services).<br /> <br />BTW - The the Data Space that is this blog has been <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/%7Ekidehen/GData">GData</a> aware for a few weeks now (I digress, just watch the movie!):<br /> <br />Note: If you are reading this post Web 1.0 style (i.e. via traditional non aggregating browser UI) then click on the "enclosure" link to grab the quicktime movie file. If on the other hand your are reading via a Web 2.0 aggregator, note that the Podcast Gem should alert you to the existence of the movie enclosure.<br />
SPARQL Parameterized Queries (Virtuoso using SPARQL in SQL)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-11#973
2006-05-11T18:54:47Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<h2>SPARQL with SQL (Inline) </h2> <p>Virtuoso extends its SQL3 implementation with syntax for integrating SPARQL into queries and subqueries.Thus, as part of a SQL SELECT query or subquery, one can write the SPARQL keyword and a SPARQL query as part of query text processed by Virtuoso's SQL Query Processor.</p> <h4>Example 1 (basic) : </h4> <p>Using Virtuoso's Command line or the Web Based ISQL utility type in the following (note: "SQL>" is the command line prompt for the native ISQL utility): </p> <pre>SQL> sparql select distinct ?p where { graph ?g { ?s ?p ?o } };</pre> <p>Which will return the following: </p> <blockquote> <pre> p varchar ---------- http://example.org/ns#b http://example.org/ns#d http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/mbox ... </pre> </blockquote> <h4>Example 2 (a subquery variation):</h4> <pre>SQL> select distinct subseq (p, strchr (p, '#')) as fragment from (sparql select distinct ?p where { graph ?g { ?s ?p ?o } } ) as all_predicates where p like '%#%' ;</pre> <blockquote> <pre> fragment varchar ---------- #query #data #name #comment ...</pre> </blockquote> <h3>Parameterized Queries:</h3> <p>You can pass parameters to a SPARQL query using a Virtuoso-specific syntax extension. '??' or '$?' indicates a positional parameter similar to '?' in standard SQL. '??' can be used in graph patterns or anywhere else where a SPARQL variable is accepted. The value of a parameter should be passed in SQL form, i.e. this should be a number or an untyped string. An IRI ID can not be passed, but an absolute IRI can. Using this notation, a dynamic SQL capable client (ODBC, JDBC, ADO.NET, OLEDB, XMLA, or others) can execute parametrized SPARQL queries using parameter binding concepts that are common place in dynamic SQL. Which implies that existing SQL applications and development environments (PHP, Ruby, Python, Perl, VB, C#, Java, etc.) are capable of issuing SPARQL queries via their existing SQL bound data access channels against RDF Data stored in Virtuoso. </p> <p>Note: This is the Virtuoso equivalent of a <a href="http://seaborne.blogspot.com/2006/05/parameterized-queries_07.html">recently published example using Jena </a>(a Java based RDF Triple Store).</p> <h3>Example:</h3> <p>Create a Virtuoso Function by execting the following: </p> <pre>SQL> create function param_passing_demo (); { declare stat, msg varchar; declare mdata, rset any; exec ('sparql select ?s where { graph ?g { ?s ?? ?? }}', stat, msg, vector ('http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/DataAccess/tests/data/Sorting/sort-0#int1', 4 ), -- Vector of two parameters 10, -- Max. result-set rows mdata, -- Variable for handling result-set metadata rset -- Variable for handling query result-set ); return rset[0][0]; } </pre> Test new "param_passing_demo" function by executing the following: <br /> <pre>SQL> select param_passing_demo (); </pre> <p>Which returns: </p> <blockquote> <pre> callret VARCHAR _______________________________________________________________________________</pre> <pre>http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/DataAccess/tests/data/Sorting/sort-0#four</pre> <pre>1 Rows. -- 00000 msec.</pre> </blockquote> <h3>Â </h3> <h3>Using SPARQL in SQL Predicates:</h3> <p>A SPARQL ASK query can be used as an argument of the SQL EXISTS predicate.</p> <pre>create function sparql_ask_demo () returns varchar { if (exists (sparql ask where { graph ?g { ?s ?p 4}})) return 'YES'; else return 'NO'; }; </pre> <p> <br /> Test by executing: </p> <pre>SQL> select sparql_ask_demo (); </pre> <p>Which returns:</p> <pre>_________________________ YES</pre>
SPARQL Parameterized Queries (In Jena via Java)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-09#971
2006-05-09T16:42:40Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p> <a href="http://seaborne.blogspot.com/2006/05/parameterized-queries_07.html">Parameterized Queries</a>: " </p> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p>Sometimes, an application will be making a SPARQL query, using the results from a previous query or using some RDF term found through the other Jena APIs.</p> <p>SQL has prepared statements - they allow an SQL statement to take a number of parameters. The application fills in the parameters and executes the statement.</p> <p>One way is to resort to doing this in SPARQL by building a complete, new query string, parsing it and executing it. But it takes a little care to handle all cases like quoting special characters; you can at least use some of the many utilities in ARQ for producing strings such as <code>FmtUtils.stringForResource</code> (it's not in the application API but in the <code>util</code> package currently).</p> <p>Queries in ARQ can be <a href="http://jena.sourceforge.net/ARQ/programmatic.html">built programmatically</a> but it is tedious, especially when the documentation hasn't been written yet.</p> <p>Another way is to use query variables and bind them to initial values that apply to all query solutions. Consider the query:</p> <pre class="box">PREFIX dc <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> SELECT ?doc { ?doc dc:title ?title }</pre> <p>It gets documents and their titles.</p> <p>Executing a query in program <a href="http://jena.sourceforge.net/ARQ/app_api.html">might look like</a>:</p> <pre class="box">import com.hp.hpl.jena.query.* ; Model model = ... ;</pre> <pre class="box">String queryString = StringUtils.join('\n', new String[]{ 'PREFIX dc <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>', 'SELECT ?doc { ?doc dc:title ?title }' }) ; Query query = QueryFactory.create(queryString) ; QueryExecution qexec = QueryExecutionFactory.create(query, model) ; try { ResultSet results = qexec.execSelect() ; for ( ; results.hasNext() ; ) { QuerySolution soln = results.nextSolution() ; Literal l = soln.getLiteral('doc') ; } } finally { qexec.close() ; }</pre> <p>Suppose the application knows the title it's interesting in - can it use this to get the document?</p> <p>The value of <code>?title</code> made a parameter to the query and fixed by an initial binding. All query solutions will be restricted to patterns matches where <code>?title</code> is that RDF term.</p> <pre class="box">QuerySolutionMap initialSettings = new QuerySolutionMap() ; initialSettings.add('title', node) ;</pre> <p>and this is passed to the factory that creates QueryExecution's:</p> <pre class="box">QueryExecution qexec = QueryExecutionFactory.create(query, model, <b>initialSettings</b>) ;</pre> <p>It doesn't matter if the node is a literal, a resource with URI or a blank node. It becomes a fixed value in the query, even a blank node, because it's not part of the SPARQL syntax, it's a fixed part of every solution.</p> <p>This gives named parameters to queries enabling something like SQL prepared statements except with named parameters not positional ones.</p> <p>This can make a complex application easier to structure and clearer to read. It's better than bashing strings together, which is error prone, inflexible, and does not lead to clear code.</p> </div> " <p>(Via <a href="http://seaborne.blogspot.com">ARQtick</a>.)</p>
"Free" Databases: Express vs. Open-Source RDBMSs
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-05#968
2006-05-05T16:02:17Z
2006-07-21T07:21:57.000006-04:00
<p>Very detailed and insightful peek into the state of affairs re. database engines (Open & Closed Source).</p> <p>I added the missing piece regarding the "Virtuoso Conductor" (the Web based Admin UI for Virtuoso) to the original post below. I also added a link to our live SPARQL Demo so that anyone interested can start playing around with SPARQL and SPARQL integrated into SQL right away.</p> <p>Another good thing about this post is the vast amount of valuable links that it contains. To really appreciate this point simply visit my Linkblog (excuse the current layout :-) - a Tab if you come in via the front door of this <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/opinions/index.html">Data Space</a> (what I used to call <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/">My Weblog Home Page</a>).</p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://oakleafblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/free-databases-express-vs-open-source.html">"Free" Databases: Express vs. Open-Source RDBMSs</a>: "<span style="font-family: verdana;">Open-source relational database management systems (RDBMSs) are gaining IT mindshare at a rapid pace. As an example, <em>BusinessWeek</em>'s February 6, 2006 '</span> <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2006/tc20060206_918648.htm"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Taking On the Database Giants</span> </a><span style="font-family: verdana;">' article asks 'Can open-source upstarts compete with Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft?' and then provides the answer: 'It's an uphill battle, but customers are starting to look at the alternatives.'</span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">There's no shortage of open-source alternatives to look at. The <em>BusinessWeek</em> article concentrates on <a href="http://www.mysql.com/">MySQL</a>, which <em>BW</em> says 'is trying to be the Ikea of the database world: cheap, needs some assembly, but has a sleek, modern design and does the job.' The article also discusses <a href="http://www.postgresql.org/">Postgre[SQL]</a> and <a href="http://www.ingres.com/products/Prod_Ingres_2006.html">Ingres</a>, as well as <a href="http://www.enterprisedb.com/">EnterpriseDB</a>, an Oracle clone created from PostgreSQL code*. Sun includes <a href="http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/postgres.jsp">PostgreSQL with Solaris 10</a> and, as of April 6, 2006, with <a href="http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/819-2183/6n4g726uc?a=view">Solaris Express</a>.**</span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 85%;">*Frank Batten, Jr., the investor who originally funded Red Hat, invested a reported </span> <a href="http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=28201"><span style="font-size: 85%;">$16 million into Great Bridge</span> </a><span style="font-size: 85%;"> with the hope of making a business out of providing paid support to PostgreSQL users. </span> <a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1001-272715.html"><span style="font-size: 85%;">Great Bridge stayed in business only 18 months</span> </a><span style="font-size: 85%;">, having </span> <a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1001-268915.html"><span style="font-size: 85%;">missed an opportunity to sell the business to Red Hat</span> </a><span style="font-size: 85%;"> and finding that selling </span> <a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1001-269729.html"><span style="font-size: 85%;">$50,000-per-year support packages</span> </a><span style="font-size: 85%;"> for an open-source database wasn't easy. As Batten concluded, 'We could not get customers to pay us big dollars for support contracts.' Perhaps EnterpriseDB will be more successful with a choice of </span> <a href="http://www.enterprisedb.com/shop.do?cID=10000&pID=10001"><span style="font-size: 85%;">$5,000, $3,000, or $1,000 annual support subscriptions</span> </a><span style="font-size: 85%;">.</span> </span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 85%;">**Interestingly, <a href="http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2005-11/sunflash.20051115.4.xml">Oracle announced in November 2005</a> that Solaris 10 is 'its preferred development and deployment platform for most x64 architectures, including x64 (x86, 64-bit) AMD Opteron and Intel Xeon processor-based systems and Sun's UltraSPARC(R)-based systems.'</span> <br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">There is a surfeit of reviews of current MySQL, PostgreSQL andâto a lesser extentâIngres implementations. These three open-source RDBMSs come with their own or third-party management tools. These systems compete against free versions of commercial (proprietary) databases: <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/sql/">SQL Server 2005 Express Edition</a> (and its MSDE 2000 and 1.0 predecessors), <a href="http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/xe/index.html" target="_blank">Oracle Database 10g Express Edition</a>, <a href="http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/db2/udb/db2express/download.html" target="_blank">IBM DB2 Express-C</a>, and <a href="http://www.sybase.com/linux_promo" target="_blank">Sybase ASE Express Edition for Linux</a> where database size and processor count limitations aren't important. Click <a href="http://www.ftponline.com/special/sqlserver/rjennings-overview/table4.aspx">here</a> for a summary of recent <em>InfoWorld</em> reviews of the full versions of these four databases plus MySQL, which should be valid for Express editions also. The <a href="http://www.ftponline.com/special/sqlserver/">FTPOnline Special Report</a> article, 'Microsoft SQL Server Turns 17,' that contains the preceding table is <a href="http://www.ftponline.com/special/sqlserver/rjennings-overview/">here</a> (requires registration.)</span> <br /> <br /> </p> <p> <strong><span style="font-family: verdana;">SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP-1 Advanced Features</span> </strong> </p> <p> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4C6BA9FD-319A-4887-BC75-3B02B5E48A40&displaylang=en">SQL Server 2005 Express Edition with Advanced Features</a> enhances SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (SQL Express or SSX) dramatically, so it deserves special treatment here. SQL Express gains full text indexing and now supports SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) on the local SSX instance. The SP-1 with Advanced Features setup package, which Microsoft released on April 18, 2006, installs the release version of SQL Server Management Studio Express (SSMSE) and the full version of Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) for designing and editing SSRS reports. My '<a href="http://www.ftponline.com/special/sqlserver/rjennings-sp1/">Install SP-1 for SQL Server 2005 and Express</a>' article for FTPOnline's <a href="http://www.ftponline.com/special/sqlserver/">SQL Server Special Report</a> provides detailed, illustrated installation instructions for and related information about the release version of SP-1. SP-1 makes SSX the most capable of all currently available Express editions of commercial RDBMSs for Windows.</span> </p> <p> <strong><span style="font-family: verdana;">OpenLink Software's Virtuoso Open-Source Edition</span> </strong> <br /> <span style="font-family: verdana;"></span> <br /> <span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="http://openlinksw.com/">OpenLink Software</a> announced an <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/">open-source version</a> of it's <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/">Virtuoso Universal Server</a> commercial DBMS on April 11, 2006. On the initial date of this post, May 2, 2006, Virtuoso Open-Source Edition (VOS) was virtually under the radar as an open-source product. According to <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/press/VOSPressRelease.htm">this press release</a>, the new edition includes:</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span> </p> <blockquote> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span> </blockquote> <blockquote></blockquote> <blockquote></blockquote> <ul> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/sparql_demo/">SPARQL compliant RDF Triple Store</a> </li> <li>SQL-200n Object-Relational Database Engine (SQL, XML, and Free Text) </li> <li>Integrated BPEL Server and Enterprise Service Bus</li> <li>WebDAV and Native File Server </li> <li>Web Application Server that supports PHP, Perl, Python, ASP.NET, JSP, etc. </li> <li>Runtime Hosting for Microsoft .NET, Mono, and Java </li> </ul>VOS only lacks the virtual server and replication features that are offered by the commercial edition. VOS includes a Web-based administration tool called the "Virtuoso Conductor" According to <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=951&sid=&realm=">Kingsley Idehen's Weblog</a>, 'The Virtuoso build scripts have been successfully tested on Mac OS X (Universal Binary Target), Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris (AIX, HP-UX, and True64 UNIX will follow soon). A Windows Visual Studio project file is also in the works (ETA some time this week).'<br /> <br /> <em>InfoWorld</em>'s Jon Udell has tracked Virtuoso's progress since <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/02/04/12/020415plvirtuoso_1.html">2002</a>, with an <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/03/21/12virtuoso_1.html">additional article in 2003</a> and a <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2006/04/28.html#a1437">one-hour podcast with Kingsley Idehen</a> on April 26, 2006. A major talking point for Virtuoso is its support for Atom 0.3 syndication and publication, Atom 1.0 syndication and (forthcoming) publication, and future support for Google's <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/gdata/overview.html">GData protocol</a>, as mentioned in <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=965">this Idehen post</a>. Yahoo!'s <a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/006687.html">Jeremy Zawodny</a> points out that the 'fingerprints' of <a href="http://oakleafblog.blogspot.com/2005/11/adam-bosworth-learning-from-web-and.html">Adam Bosworth</a>, Google's VP of Engineering and the primary force behind the development of Microsoft Access, 'are all over GData.' Click <a href="http://search.blogger.com/?as_q=bosworth&ie=UTF-8&ui=blg&bl_url=oakleafblog.blogspot.com&x=50&y=10">here</a> to display a list of all OakLeaf posts that mention Adam Bosworth.<br /> <br />One application for the GData protocol is querying and updating the Google Base database independently of the Google Web client, as mentioned by Jeremy: 'It's not about building an easier onramp to Google Base. ... Well, it is. But, again, that's the small stuff.' Click <a href="http://search.blogger.com/?as_q=%22google+base%22&ie=UTF-8&x=50&y=9&q=%22google+base%22+blogurl:oakleafblog.blogspot.com&filter=0&ui=blg&sa=N&start=0">here</a> for a list of posts about my experiences with Google Base. Watch for a future OakLeaf post on the subject as the GData APIs gain ground.<br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><strong>Open-Source and Free Embedded Database Contenders</strong> </span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Open-source and free embedded SQL databases are gaining importance as the number and types of mobile devices and OSs proliferate. Embedded databases usually consist of Java classes or Windows DLLs that are designed to minimize file size and memory consumption. Embedded databases avoid the installation hassles, heavy resource usage and maintenance cost associated with client/server RDBMSs that run as an operating system service.</span> <br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Andrew Hudson's December 2005 '<a href="http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=28201">Open Source databases rounded up and rodeoed</a>' review for The Enquirer provides brief descriptions of one commercial and eight open source database purveyors/products: Sleepycat, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Ingres, InnoBase, Firebird, IBM Cloudscape (a.k.a, Derby), Genezzo, and Oracle. Oracle <a href="http://www.sleepycat.com/">Sleepycat</a>* isn't an SQL Database, Oracle <a href="http://www.innodb.com/index.php">InnoDB</a>* is an OEM database engine that's used by MySQL, and <a href="http://www.genezzo.com/">Genezzo</a> is a multi-user, multi-server distributed database engine written in Perl. These special-purpose databases are beyond the scope of this post.</span> <br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 85%;">* Oracle <a href="http://www.oracle.com/sleepycat/index.html">purchased Sleepycat Software, Inc. in February 2006</a> and </span> <a href="http://www.oracle.com/innodb/index.html"><span style="font-size: 85%;">purchased Innobase OY in October 2005</span> </a><span style="font-size: 85%;">. The press release states: 'Oracle intends to continue developing the InnoDB technology and expand our commitment to open source software.' </span> </span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 85%;"></span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <a href="http://db.apache.org/derby/"><strong>Derby</strong> </a> is an open-source release by the <a href="http://www.apache.org/">Apache Software Foundation</a> of the <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/08/03/HNcloudscape_1.html">Cloudscape Java-based database that IBM acquired</a> when it bought Informix in 2001. IBM offers a commercial release of Derby as <a href="http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/techarticle/dm-0408cline/">IBM Cloudscape 10.1</a>. Derby is a Java class library that has a relatively light footprint (2 MB), which make it suitable for <a href="http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/techarticle/dm-0503stumpf/">client/server synchronization</a> with the IBM DB2 Everyplace Sync Server in <a href="http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/wi-cloud/">mobile applications</a>. The IBM DB2 Everyplace Express Edition isn't open source or free*, so it doesn't qualify for this post. The same is true for the corresponding Sybase SQL Anywhere components.**</span> <br /> <br /> <br /> <p> <span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 85%;">* IBM DB2 Everyplace Express Edition with synchronization costs $379 per server (up to two processors) and $79 per user. DB2 Everyplace Database Edition (without DB2 synchronization) is $49 per user. (Prices are based on those when </span> <a href="http://news.earthweb.com/wireless/article.php/3107101"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 85%;">IBM announced version 8</span> </a><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 85%;"> in November 2003.)</span> </p> <p> <span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 85%;">** Sybase's iAnywhere subsidiary calls SQL Anywhere 'the industry's leading mobile database.' A Sybase SQL Anywhere Personal DB seat license with synchronization to SQL Anywhere Server is $119; the cost without synchronization wasn't available from the Sybase Web site. Sybase SQL Anywhere and IBM DB2 Everyplace perform similar replication functions.</span> </p> <p> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Sun's <a href="http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/javadb/"><strong>Java DB</strong></a>, another commercial version of Derby, comes with the <a href="http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/">Solaris Enterprise Edition</a>, which bundles Solaris 10, the Java Enterprise System, developer tools, desktop infrastructure and N1 management software. A recent Between the Lines blog entry by ZDNet's David Berlind waxes enthusiastic over the use of <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=2298">Java DB embedded in a browser</a> to provide offline persistence. RedMonk analyst <a href="http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/archives/001151.html">James Governor</a> and <em>eWeek</em>'s <a href="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1902407,00.asp">Lisa Vaas</a> wrote about the use of Java DB as a local data store when <a href="http://www.sauria.com/blog/2005/12/13#1440">Tim Bray announced Sun's Derby derivative</a> and <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/FrancoisOrsini?entry=derby_apachecon_demo">Francois Orsini</a> demonstrated Java DB embedded in the Firefox browser at the ApacheCon 2005 conference.</span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <a href="http://www.firebirdsql.org/"><strong>Firebird</strong> </a> is derived from Borland's InterBase 6.0 code, the first commercial relational database management system (RDBMS) to be released as open source. Firebird has excellent support for SQL-92 and comes in three versions: Classic, SuperServer and Embedded for Windows, Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, FreeBSD and MacOS X. The embedded version has a 1.4-MB footprint. Release Candidate 1 for Firebird 2.0 became available on March 30, 2006 and is a major improvement over earlier versions. <a href="http://www.borland.com/us/products/interbase/index.html">Borland continues to promote InterBase</a>, now at version 7.5, as a small-footprint, embedded database with commercial Server and Client licenses.</span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <a href="http://www.sqlite.org/index.html"><strong>SQLite</strong> </a> is a featherweight C library for an embedded database that implements most SQL-92 entry- and transitional-level requirements (some through the JDBC driver) and supports transactions within a tiny 250-KB code footprint. <a href="http://www.sqlite.org/cvstrac/wiki?p=SqliteWrappers">Wrappers</a> support a multitude of languages and operating systems, including Windows CE, SmartPhone, Windows Mobile, and Win32. SQLite's primary <a href="http://www.sqlite.org/omitted.html">SQL-92 limitations</a> are lack of nested transactions, inability to alter a table design once committed (other than with RENAME TABLE and ADD COLUMN operations), and foreign-key constraints. SQLite provides read-only views, triggers, and 256-bit encryption of database files. A downside is the the entire database file is <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2006/04/12/442615.aspx">locked when while a transaction is in progress</a>. SQLite uses file access permissions in lieu of GRANT and REVOKE commands. Using SQLite involves no license; its code is entirely in the public domain.</span> </p> <p> <span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 85%;">The Mozilla Foundation's <a href="http://wiki.mozilla.org/Mozilla2:Unified_Storage">Unified Storage wiki</a> says this about SQLite: 'SQLite will be the back end for the unified store [for Firefox]. Because it implements a SQL engine, we get querying 'for free', without having to invent our own query language or query execution system. Its code-size footprint is moderate (250k), but it will hopefully simplify much existing code so that the net code-size change should be smaller. It has exceptional performance, and supports concurrent access to the database. Finally, it is released into the public domain, meaning that we will have no licensing issues.'</span> </p> <p> <span style="font-family: verdana;">Vieka Technology, Inc.'s <a href="http://vieka.com/esql.htm"><strong>eSQL 2.11</strong></a> is a port of SQLite to Windows Mobile (Pocket PC and Smartphone) and Win32, and includes development tools for Windows devices and PCs, as well as a .NET native data provider. A conventional ODBC driver also is available. eSQL for Windows (Win32) is free for personal and commercial use; eSQL for Windows Mobile requires a license for commercial (for-profit or business) use.</span> </p> <p> <span style="font-family: verdana;"> <a href="http://hsqldb.org/"><strong>HSQLDB</strong> </a> isn't on most reviewers' radar, which is surprising because it's the default database for <a href="http://www.openoffice.org/">OpenOffice.org</a> (OOo) 2.0's <a href="http://www.openoffice.org/product/base.html">Base</a> suite member. HSQLDB 1.8.0.1 is an open-source (BSD license) Java dembedded database engine based on Thomas Mueller's original Hypersonic SQL Project. Using OOo's Base feature requires installing the Java 2.0 Runtime Engine (which is not open-source) or the presence of an alternative open-source engine, such as Kaffe. My prior posts about OOo Base and HSQLDB are <a href="http://oakleafblog.blogspot.com/2005/10/openoffice-base-20-vs-microsoft-access.html">here</a>, <a href="http://oakleafblog.blogspot.com/2005/10/openoffice-base-20-vs-microsoft-access_22.html">here</a> and <a href="http://oakleafblog.blogspot.com/2005/10/openoffice-20-base-matches-microsoft.html">here</a>.</span> </p> <p> <span style="font-family: verdana;">The <a href="http://hsqldb.sourceforge.net/web/hsqlDocsFrame.html">HSQLDB 1.8.0 documentation</a> on SourceForge states the following regarding SQL-92 and later conformance:</span> </p> <span style="font-family: verdana;"> <blockquote> <p> <span style="font-family: verdana;">HSQLDB 1.8.0 supports the dialect of SQL defined by SQL standards 92, 99 and 2003. This means where a feature of the standard is supported, e.g. left outer join, the syntax is that specified by the standard text. Many features of SQL92 and 99 up to Advanced Level are supported and here is support for most of SQL 2003 Foundation and several optional features of this standard. However, certain features of the Standards are not supported so no claim is made for full support of any level of the standards. </span> </p> </blockquote> <span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: 85%;">Other less well-known embedded databases designed for or suited to mobile deployment are </span> <a href="http://www.mimer.com/leftright.asp?secId=172"><span style="font-size: 85%;">Mimer SQL Mobile</span> </a><span style="font-size: 85%;"> and </span> <a href="http://www.vistadb.net/"><span style="font-size: 85%;">VistaDB 2.1</span> </a><span style="font-size: 85%;">. Neither product is open-source and require paid licensing; VistaDB requires a small up-front payment by developers but offers royalty-free distribution.</span> </span> <br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Java DB, Firebird embedded, SQLite and eSQL 2.11 are contenders for lightweight PC and mobile device database projects that aren't Windows-only.</span> <br /> <br /> <strong> <span style="font-family: verdana;">SQL Server 2005 Everywhere<br /> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span> </strong> <br /> <span style="font-family: verdana;">If you're a Windows developer, SQL Server Mobile is the logical embedded database choice for mobile applications for Pocket PCs and Smartphones. Microsoft's April 19, 2006 press release delivered the news that SQL Server 2005 Mobile Editon (SQL Mobile or SSM) would gain a big brotherâSQL Server 2005 Everywhere Edition. </span> <br /> <span style="font-family: verdana;"></span> <br /> <span style="font-family: verdana;">Currently, the SSM client is licensed (at no charge) to run in production on devices with Windows CE 5.0, Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC or Windows Mobile 5.0, or on PCs with Windows XP Tablet Edition only. SSM also is licensed for development purposes on PCs running Visual Studio 2005.</span> <span style="font-family: verdana;"> Smart Device replication with SQL Server 2000 SP3 and later databases has been the most common application so far for SSM.<br /> <br /> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">By the end of 2006, Microsoft will license SSE for use on <em>all</em> PCs running any Win32 version or the preceding device OSs. A version of SQL Server Management Studio Express (SSMSE)âupdated to support SSEâis expected to release by the end of the year. These features will qualify SSE as <em>the universal embedded database</em> for Windows client and smart-device applications. </span> <br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: verdana;">For more details on SSE, read <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2006/04/11/442451.aspx">John Galloway's April 11, 2006 blog post</a> and my '<a href="http://www.ftponline.com/special/sqlserver/rjennings-mobile/">SQL Server 2005 Mobile Goes Everywhere</a>' article for the <a href="http://www.ftponline.com/special/sqlserver/">FTPOnline Special Report on SQL Server</a>.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span>" <p>(Via <a href="http://oakleafblog.blogspot.com">OakLeaf Systems</a>.)</p> </span> </blockquote>
My podcast conversation with Jon Udell
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-04-28#965
2006-04-28T14:43:12Z
2006-07-21T07:22:41.000001-04:00
<p>Jon and I had a recent chat yesterday that is now available in <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2006/04/28.html#a1437">Podcast</a> form.</p> <blockquote> <cite><p>"In my <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/gems/ju_idehen.mp3">fourth Friday podcast</a> we hear from Kingsley Idehen, CEO of <a href="http://openlinksw.com/">OpenLink Software</a>. I wrote about OpenLink's universal database and app server, Virtuoso, back in <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/02/04/12/020415plvirtuoso_1.html">2002</a> and <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/03/21/12virtuoso_1.html">2003</a>. Earlier this month Virtuoso became the first mature SQL/XML hybrid to make the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=951">transition to open source</a>. The latest incarnation of the product also adds SPARQL (a semantic web query language) to its repertoire. <b>...</b>"</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/">Jon's Radio</a>.)</p> </cite> </blockquote> I would like to make an important clarification re. the GData Protocol and what is popularly dubbed as "<a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/006687.html">Adam Bosworth's fingerprints.</a>" I do not believe in a one solution (a simple one for the sake of simplicity) to a deceptively complex problem. Virtuoso supports Atom 1.0 (syndication only at the current time) and Atom 0.3 (syndication and publication which have been in place for years). <blockquote>BTW - the GData Protocol and Atom 1.0 publishing support will be delivered in both the Open Source and Commercial Edition updates to Virtuoso next week (very little work due to what's already in place).</blockquote> <p>I make the clarification above to eliminate the possibility of assuming mutual exclusivity of my perspective/vison and Adam's (Jon also makes this important point when he speaks about our opinions being on either side of a spectrum/continuum). I simply want to broaden the scope of this discussion. I am a profound believer in the Semantic Web / Data Web vision, and I predict that we will be querying the Googlebase via SPARQL in the not to distant future (this doesn't mean that netizens will be forced to master SPARQL, absolutely not! But there will be conduit technologies that deal with matter).</p> <p>Side note: I actually last spoke with Adam at the NY Hilton in 2000 (the day I unveiled Virtuoso to the public for the first time, in person). We bumped into each other and I told him about Virtuoso (at the time the big emphasis was SQL to XML and the vocabulary we had chosen re. SQL extension...), and he told me about his departure from Microsoft and the commencement of his new venture (CrossGain prior to his stint at BEA), what struck me even more was his interest in Linux and Open Source (bearing in mind this was about 3 or so week after he departed Microsoft.)</p> <p>If you are encountering Virtuoso for the first time via this post or Jon's, please make time to read the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSHistory/">product history</a> article on the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/">Virtuoso Wiki</a> (which is one of many Virtuoso based applications that make up our soon to be released OpenLink DataSpace offering).</p> <p>That said, I better go listen to the podcast :-)</p>
My podcast conversation with Jon Udell
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-04-28#993
2006-04-28T14:43:12Z
2006-06-29T10:14:44.000001-04:00
<p>Jon and I had a recent chat yesterday that is now available in <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2006/04/28.html#a1437">Podcast</a> form.</p> <blockquote> <cite></cite> <p>"In my <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/gems/ju_idehen.mp3">fourth Friday podcast</a> we hear from Kingsley Idehen, CEO of <a href="http://openlinksw.com/">OpenLink Software</a>. I wrote about OpenLink's universal database and app server, Virtuoso, back in <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/02/04/12/020415plvirtuoso_1.html">2002</a> and <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/03/21/12virtuoso_1.html">2003</a>. Earlier this month Virtuoso became the first mature SQL/XML hybrid to make the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/?id=951">transition to open source</a>. The latest incarnation of the product also adds SPARQL (a semantic web query language) to its repertoire. <b>...</b>"</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/">Jon's Radio</a>.)</p> </blockquote> I would like to make an important clarification re. the GData Protocol and what is popularly dubbed as "<a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/006687.html">Adam Bosworth's fingerprints.</a>" I do not believe in a one solution (a simple one for the sake of simplicity) to a deceptively complex problem. Virtuoso supports Atom 1.0 (syndication only at the current time) and Atom 0.3 (syndication and publication which have been in place for years). <blockquote>BTW - the GData Protocol and Atom 1.0 publishing support will be delivered in both the Open Source and Commercial Edition updates to Virtuoso next week (very little work due to what's already in place).</blockquote> <p>I make the clarification above to eliminate the possibility of assuming mutual exclusivity of my perspective/vison and Adam's (Jon also makes this important point when he speaks about our opinions being on either side of a spectrum/continuum). I simply want to broaden the scope of this discussion. I am a profound believer in the Semantic Web / Data Web vision, and I predict that we will be querying the Googlebase via SPARQL in the not to distant future (this doesn't mean that netizens will be forced to master SPARQL, absolutely not! But there will be conduit technologies that deal with matter).</p> <p>Side note: I actually last spoke with Adam at the NY Hilton in 2000 (the day I unveiled Virtuoso to the public for the first time, in person). We bumped into each other and I told him about Virtuoso (at the time the big emphasis was SQL to XML and the vocabulary we had chosen re. SQL extension...), and he told me about his departure from Microsoft and the commencement of his new venture (CrossGain prior to his stint at BEA), what struck me even more was his interest in Linux and Open Source (bearing in mind this was about 3 or so week after he departed Microsoft.)</p> <p>If you are encountering Virtuoso for the first time via this post or Jon's, please make time to read the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSHistory">product history</a> article on the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/">Virtuoso Wiki</a> (which is one of many Virtuoso based applications that make up our soon to be released OpenLink DataSpace offering).</p> <p>That said, I better go listen to the podcast :-)</p>
Virtuoso & SPARQL Demo
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-04-12#953
2006-04-12T19:56:01Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>The W3C RDF Data Access Workgroup's (DAWG) SPARQL query language is one of the many interesting aspects of the recent Virtuoso Open-Source release. </p> <p>To assist with the general understanding of <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/sparql_demo/">Virtuoso's SPARQL Implementation</a>, we have released an online version of the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-dawg-uc/">RDF DAWG SPARQL Test Suite</a> (hosted by a live <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/tutorial/">Virtuoso Demo & Tutorial Instance</a>).</p>
Virtuoso is Officially Open Source!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-04-11#951
2006-04-11T18:01:44Z
2006-07-21T07:22:20.000001-04:00
<p>I am pleased to unveil (officially) the fact that <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-11-2006/0004338324&EDATE=">Virtuoso is now available in Open Source form</a>.</p> <p></p> <h4>What Is Virtuoso?</h4> <p>A powerful next generation server product that implements otherwise distinct server functionality within a single server product. Think of Virtuoso as the server software analog of a dual core processor where each core represents a traditional server functionality realm.</p> <p></p> <h4>Where did it come from?</h4> <p>The <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSHistory">Virtuoso History page</a> tells the whole story.</p> <p></p> <h4>What Functionality Does It Provide?</h4> The following: <ul> 1. Object-Relational DBMS Engine (ORDBMS like PostgreSQL and DBMS engine like MySQL) </ul> <ul> 2. XML Data Management (with support for XQuery, XPath, XSLT, and XML Schema) </ul> <ul> 3. RDF Triple Store (or Database) that supports SPARQL (Query Language, Transport Protocol, and XML Results Serialization format) </ul> <ul> 4. Service Oriented Architecture (it combines a BPEL Engine with an ESB) </ul> <ul> 5. Web Application Server (supports HTTP/WebDAV) </ul> <ul> 6. NNTP compliant Discussion Server </ul> And more. (see: <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com">Virtuoso Web Site</a>) <p> 90% of the aforementioned functionality has been available in Virtuoso since 2000 with the RDF Triple Store being the only 2006 item.</p> <p></p> <h4>What Platforms are Supported</h4> <p> The Virtuoso build scripts have been successfully tested on Mac OS X (Universal Binary Target), Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris (AIX, HP-UX, and True64 UNIX will follow soon). A Windows Visual Studio project file is also in the works (ETA some time this week).</p> <p></p> <h4>Why Open Source?</h4> <p>Simple, there is no value in a product of this magnitude remaining the "best kept secret". That status works well for our competitors, but absolutely works against the legions of new generation developers, systems integrators, and knowledge workers that need to be aware of what is actually achievable today with the right server architecture.</p> <p></p> <h4>What Open Source License is it under?</h4> <p>GPL version 2.</p> <p></p> <h4>What's the business model?</h4> <p>Dual licensing.</p> <p>The Open Source version of Virtuoso includes all of the functionality listed above. While the Virtual Database (distributed heterogeneous join engine) and Replication Engine (across heterogeneous data sources) functionality will only be available in the commercial version. </p> <p></p> <h4>Where is the Project Hosted?</h4> <p>On <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtuoso">SourceForge.</a> </p> <p></p> <h4>Is there a product Blog?</h4> <p>Of course! </p> <p>Up until this point, the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/blog/">Virtuoso Product Blog</a> has been a covert live demonstration of some aspects of Virtuoso (Content Management). My Personal Blog and the Virtuoso Product Blog are actual Virtuoso instances, and have been so since I started blogging in 2003.</p> <p>Is There a product Wiki?</p> <p>Sure! <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/">The Virtuoso Product Wiki</a> is also an instance of Virtuoso demonstrating another aspect of the Content Management prowess of Virtuoso.</p> <p></p> <h4>What About Online Documentation?</h4> <p>Yep! <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/">Virtuoso Online Documentation</a> is hosted via yet another Virtuoso instance. This particular instance also attempts to demonstrate Free Text search combined with the ability to repurpose well formed content in a myriad of forms (Atom, RSS, RDF, OPML, and OCS).</p> <p></p> <h4>What about Tutorials and Demos?</h4> <p>The <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/tutorial/">Virtuoso Online Tutorial</a> Site has operated as a live demonstration and tutorial portal for a numbers of years. During the same timeframe (circa. 2001) we also assembled a few Screencast style demos (their look feel certainly show their age; updates are in the works).</p> <p>BTW - We have also updated the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/FAQ/">Virtuoso FAQ</a> and also released a number of missing <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/">Virtuoso White Papers</a> (amongst many long overdue action items).</p>
This Week’s Semantic Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-14#902
2005-11-14T19:44:03Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>(Via <a href="http://dannyayers.com">Danny Ayers</a>.):</p> <p><a href="http://dannyayers.com/archives/2005/11/13/this-weeks-semantic-web/">This Weekâs Semantic Web</a>: </p><p>"Ok, my first attempt at a round-up (in response to Philâs observation of <a href="http://weblog.philringnalda.com/?p=1008">Planetary damage</a>). Thanks to the conference thereâs loads more here than thereâs likely to be subsequent weeks, although itâs still only a fairly random sample and some of the links here are to heaps of other resourcesâ¦<br /> <em>Incidentally, if anyoneâs got a list/links for SemWeb-related blogs that arenât on <a href="http://planetrdf.com">Planet RDF</a>, Iâd be grateful for a pointer. PS. Ok, I forget⦠are there any blogs that arenât on Daveâs <a href="http://journal.dajobe.org/journal/2003/07/semblogs/">list</a> yet..?</em></p> <p>Quote of the week:</p> <blockquote><p> In the Semantic Web, it is not the Semantic which is new, it is the Web which is new. </p></blockquote> <p>- <a href="http://www.research.ibm.com/people/w/welty/">Chris Welty</a>, IBM (lifted from TimBLâs <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-iswc-tbl/">slides</a>)</p> <h4>Events</h4> <ul> <li><a href="http://iswc2005.semanticweb.org/">4th International Semantic Web Conference</a> - happened this week, see : <a href="http://simile.mit.edu/conference/iswc2005/">ISWC2005 Semantic Bank</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.gnowsis.org/Events/HackBerlin2005">Semantic Desktop Workshop</a>, 9-13 December 2005, Berlin</li> <li><a href="http://trinity.dit.unitn.it/vikef/swap2005/">Semantic Web Applications and Perspectives/Workshop</a> (SWAP2005), 14-16 December, 2005</li> <li><a href="http://jena.hpl.hp.com/juc2006"> Jena User Conference</a> - May 10-11 2006, Bristol UK</li> </ul> <h4>Docs etc</h4> <ul> <li> Conference highlights on the #swig chump: <a href="http://swig.xmlhack.com/2005/11/06/2005-11-06.html">2005-11-06</a>, <a href="http://swig.xmlhack.com/2005/11/06/2005-11-07.html">-07</a>, <a href="http://swig.xmlhack.com/2005/11/06/2005-11-08.html">-08</a>, <a href="http://swig.xmlhack.com/2005/11/06/2005-11-09.html">-09</a>, <a href="http://swig.xmlhack.com/2005/11/06/2005-11-10.html">-10</a>; Ianâs <a href="http://internetalchemy.org/tag/iswc2005">notes</a>; Johnâs <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/2005/11/06/iswc-2005/">resources</a>; Leoâs <a href="http://leobard.twoday.net/topics/SemWeb">stories</a>; Uldisâ <a href="http://captsolo.net/info/blog_a.php/2005/11/12/iswc_2005_do_the_right_thing">call to action</a>; <a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/iswc2005">del.icio.us/iswc2005</a>; <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/iswc2005/">flickr/iswc2005</a>; <a href="http://www.foaf-project.org/2004/media/date/2005/11/">foaf-moblog</a>. </li> <li>Slides from Sir TimBLâs conference keynotes: <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1107-iswc-tbl/">Semantic Web for the Industry</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-iswc-tbl/">Putting the Web back in Semantic Web</a></li> <li>Daniel Weitznerâs keynote: <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-p4-semweb-iswc/">Privacy, Provenance, Property and Personhood</a></li> <li>Long-time SW researcher <a href="http://www.stefandecker.org">Stefan Decker</a> now has a blog, inspirationally entitled <a href="http://www.stefandecker.org/blog/">Stefan Decker on the Semantic Web</a>. (Stefanâs one of the head honchos at <a href="http://www.deri.ie/">DERI</a>). Sample snippet:<br /> <blockquote><p> I just noticed the article from Dan Zambonini â<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/8013?CMP=OTC-TY3388567169">Is Web 2.0 killing the Semantic Web?</a>â. From my perspective the article shows a misconception that people seems to have around the Semantic Web: the Semantic Web effort itself is not provide applications (like the <a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html">Web 2.0 meme</a> indicates) - it rather provides standards to interlink applications. </p></blockquote> </li> <li>Leigh Dodds has two pieces demonstrating neat facilities offered by <a href="http://jena.sourceforge.net/ARQ">ARQ</a> the SPARQL query API for Java: <a href="http://www.ldodds.com/blog/archives/000251.html">parameterised queries</a> and <a href="http://www.ldodds.com/blog/archives/000252.html">extension functions</a>. </li> <li>A new W3C Working Group has been chartered: <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/rules/wg/charter">Rule Interchange Format WG</a> - <em>â to produce a core rule language plus extensions which together allow rules to be translated between rule languages and thus transferred between rule systems.â</em>. As noted by <a href="http://journal.dajobe.org/journal/">dajobe</a>, phase 1 includes making a new XML syntax for RDFâ¦</li> <li><a href="http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/resource/html/id/94/">UMBC Semantic Web Reference Card</a> <em>- if you only print one thing this yearâ¦or did you already do the <a href="http://www.dajobe.org/2005/04-sparql/">SPARQL Reference card</a>..?</em></li> <li><a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/WebDescription">WebDescription</a> - root wiki page for collecting notes on web description languages (ESW Wiki, <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-web-http-desc/2005Nov/0000.html">announcement</a>)</li> <li><a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/Bot">Bot</a> - IRC/Jabber chat bots that are either in use by Semantic Web developers or use Semantic Web technologies (ESW Wiki)</li> <li><a href="http://microformats.org/wiki/faqs-for-rdf">microformat FAQs for RDF fans</a> (ESW Wiki)</li> <li> W3C working draft : <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/wsdl20-rdf/">WSDL 2.0 - RDF Mapping</a></li> <li>SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organisation System) updated drafts: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/swbp-skos-core-spec">SKOS Core Vocabulary Specification</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/swbp-skos-core-guide">SKOS Core Guide</a></li> <li>working draft: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/sprot11/">SPARQL Protocol for RDF Using WSDL 1.1</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2005/HPL-2005-170.html">A relational algebra for SPARQL</a>, <a href="http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2005/HPL-2005-171.html">Note on database layouts for SPARQL datastores</a> (PDFs, Richard Cyganiak, HP)</li> <li><a href="http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/11042/">Amateur Fiction Online</a> - The Web of Community Trust A Case Study in Community Focused Design for the SemanticWeb (<a href="http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/11042/01/case_study.pdf">PDF</a>)</li> <li><a href="http://dsonline.computer.org/portal/site/dsonline/menuitem.9ed3d9924aeb0dcd82ccc6716bbe36ec/index.jsp?&pName=dso_level1&path=dsonline/0511&file=x5sem.xml&xsl=article.xsl">Building a Semantic Wiki</a> - IEEE article. See also: <a href="http://m3pe.org/semperwiki/">SemperWiki - Semantic Personal Wiki</a>, <a href="http://wiki.navigable.info/"> WikSAR - Towards a Semantic Wiki Experience</a> <br /> </li> </ul> <h4>Software and stuff</h4> <ul> <li><a href="http://challenge.semanticweb.org/">Semantic Web Challenge</a> applications (winner: <a href="http://www.confoto.org/">CONFOTO</a> - congrats bengee!)</li> <li><a href="http://simile.mit.edu/piggy-bank/">Piggy Bank 2.1.1</a> released.</li> <li> <a href="http://www.openiris.org/">IRIS</a> is a semantic desktop application framework that enables users to create a âpersonal mapâ across their office-related information objects. IRIS includes a machine-learning platform to help automate this process. It provides âdashboardâ views, contextual navigation, and relationship-based structure across an extensible suite of office applications, including a calendar, web and file browser, e-mail client, and instant messaging client.<br /> <em>(open source release due Jan 2006)</em> </li> <li><a href="http://www.mksearch.mkdoc.org/">MKSearch</a> - <em>âA new kind of search engineâ</em> - RDF-backed (Sesame) with Web crawler, extracts and indexes metadata.</li> <li><a href="http://www.foafrealm.org">FOAFRealm</a> - Our goal is to design and implement D-FOAF, a distributed authentication and trust infrastructure without a centralised authority. D-FOAF will be a backbone for trust applications based on social relationships and will establish identity of users similar to the way we establish identify and trust in real life.</li> <li>Perl <a href="http://search.cpan.org/dist/Net-Flickr-RDF-1.1/">Net::Flickr::RDF</a></li> <li>WordPress <a href="http://rdfs.org">SIOC</a> (Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities) plugin updated (just copy <a href="http://sw.deri.org/svn/sw/2005/08/sioc/wordpress/wp-sioc.php">wp-sioc.php</a> into the root of your WP install and it <em>just works</em>)</li> <li><a href="http://ontomedia.ecs.soton.ac.uk/">OntoMedia</a> is intended for the representation of heterogenous media through description of the semantic content of that media. The representation may be limited to the description of some or all of the elements contained within the source or may include information regarding the narrative relationship that these elements have both to the media and to each other.</li> <li><a href="http://mspace.fm/">mSpace</a> is an interaction model to help explore relationships in information - <em>âImagine Google on iTunesâ</em></li> </ul> <p>Blog post title of the week: </p> <blockquote><p> <a href="http://copia.ogbuji.net/blog/2005-11-12/Don_t_give">Donât give me that monkey-ass Web 1.0, either</a> </p></blockquote> <p>- <a href="http://copia.ogbuji.net/blog/">Uche Ogbuji</a></p> <p>Alsoâ¦a new threat to Semantic Web developers has been discovered: <a href="http://planb.nicecupoftea.org/archives/001309.html">typhoid</a>!, and the key to the Webâs full potential isâ¦<a href="http://www.foaf-project.org/2004/media/2005/11/07/3448">Tetris</a>." </p>
Semantic Web Challenge Winners
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-10#898
2005-11-10T18:51:31Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p><a href="http://dannyayers.com/archives/2005/11/10/semantic-web-challenge-winners/">Semantic Web Challenge Winners</a>: "</p><p>Hot from the Galway <a href="http://chatlogs.planetrdf.com/swig/2005-11-10.html">sportsdesk</a>:</p><blockquote><p> 1. Prize: <a href="http://www.confoto.org/">CONFOTO</a>, appmosphere web applications, Germany<br /> 2. Prize: <a href="http://www.cs.concordia.ca/FungalWeb/">FungalWeb</a>, Concordia University, Canada<br /> 3. Prize: <a href="http://www.personal-reader.de/semwebchallenge/sw-challenge.html">Personal Publication Reader</a>, Universität Hannover, Germany </p></blockquote><p><a href="http://challenge.semanticweb.org/">challenge.semanticweb.org</a></p><blockquote><p><a href="http://www.confoto.org/">CONFOTO</a> is a browsing and annotation service for conference photos. It combines recent Web trends (tag-based categorization, interactive user interfaces, syndication) with the advantages of Semantic Web platforms (machine-understandable information, an extensible data model, the possibility to mix arbitrary RDF vocabularies). </p></blockquote><p>Congrats <a href="http://www.bnode.org/en-semweblog">bengee</a>!!</p><p>(Benjamin had a string of bad luck just prior to the conference, there may still be glitches in the app - <em>‘my sparql store exploded last week’</em>) </p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://dannyayers.com">Raw</a>.)</p>