Adventures with Linked Data

Tristan Roddis, Ben RubinsteinCogapp Open Studios, 2012

Agenda

• Whirlwind tour of linked data• Ingredients to build your own• Pros• Cons• Case studies• Questions

A brief history of data

• Relational• Hierarchical• Graph

XML example

Relational example

Linked data example

Anatomy of an RDF triple

• subject predicate object

• <http://example.org/family-tree#tristan> <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/firstName> "Tristan".

tree:tristan “Tristan”foaf:firstName

TTL

RDF-XML

N-triples

Linked Data ingredients

1. RDF triples2. Triple-store3. SPARQL endpoint4. (Inferencing engine)

Pros

• Flexible storage• Flexible querying• Evolution of data• Standard format and interface• Linking to the web of data

Cons

• Too much choice!• New• Different

Case study: Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Travel Guides

Case study: Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Travel Guides

Case study: Science Museum Connections

Problem: disparate data silos

Solution: convert everything to RDF

• collections data (RDBMS)• Image data (RDBMS)• Babbage archive (API)• CMS content (workflow 'hook')

Conclusions

• + Excitingly modern• + Interchangeable• + Powerful• - New• - Different