linked data at isaw: how and why

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Linked Data at ISAW: How and Why

Tom ElliottAssociate Director for Digital Programs and Senior Research Scholar

http://www.paregorios.org

Theodor MommsenPhoto of unknown date, but prior to Mommsen’s death in 1903. Public domain. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:T-mommsen-2.jpg

Why linked data for ISAW?

• There is a person named “Daniel T. Potts”.– There is a person. That person is named “Daniel T. Potts”.

Describing an ISAW faculty member

• RDF = Resource Description Frameworkhttp://www.w3.org/RDF/

“a general-purpose language for representing information in the Web”

• triple: the most basic RDF expression, consisting of a subject, predicate (verb), and object (property). Each triple represents a statement of a relationship between the things denoted by the nodes that it links. A triple can be represented as a node-arc-node link diagram.”

• A set of triples is called an RDF graph, a term derived from mathematics and computer science denoting a set of objects (or data structures) in which pairs of objects are connected by links.

Terms: “RDF Triples”

• Turtle = Terse RDF Triple Languagehttp://www.w3.org/TR/turtle/

“a textual syntax for RDF called Turtle that allows RDF graphs to be completely written in a compact and natural text form, with abbreviations for common usage patterns and datatypes.”

The media type of Turtle is text/turtle. The content encoding of Turtle content is always UTF-8.

• subject predicate object .

Writing RDF Triples in Turtle

There is a person. That person is named “Daniel T. Potts”.

There is a person.• subject predicate object .• subject:[X] verb:[is] predicate:[a person] .

What we need:– Subject, Predicate (verb), Object (property)– Uniform Resource Identifiers corresponding to each– Key question: mint or reuse

Describing an ISAW faculty member in Turtle

• Modern authors (i.e., many scholars, like George):– Virtual International Authority File (VIAF)

http://viaf.org/

• Basic characteristics and activities of persons, and relationships between them and things on the web:– FOAF Vocabulary (“Friend of a Friend”)

http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/

Finding URIs to re-use

There is a person. That person is named “Daniel T. Potts”.

There is a person.• subject predicate object .• subject:[X] verb:[is] predicate:[a person] .

<http://viaf.org/viaf/17238976> a <http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/#term_Person> .

Describing an ISAW faculty member in Turtle

There is a person. That person is named “Daniel T. Potts”.

There is a person.• subject predicate object .• subject:[X] verb:[is] predicate:[a person] .

<http://viaf.org/viaf/17238976> a <http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/#term_Person> .

--------------------@prefix viaf: <http://viaf.org/viaf/> .@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/#term_> .

viaf:17238976 a foaf:Person .

Describing an ISAW faculty member in Turtle

There is a person. That person is named “Daniel T. Potts”.

@prefix viaf: <http://viaf.org/viaf/> .@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/#term_> .

viaf:17238976 a foaf:Person .viaf:17238976 foaf:name "Daniel T. Potts" .

--------------------viaf:17238976 a foaf:Person ;

foaf:name "Daniel T. Potts" .

Describing an ISAW faculty member in Turtle

@prefix viaf: <http://viaf.org/viaf/> .@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/#term_> .@prefix dc: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> .

viaf:17238976 a foaf:Person ;foaf:name "Daniel T. Potts" .

<http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/39303> dc:creator viaf:17238976 .

Linking an ISAW faculty member to a digital publication

@prefix viaf: <http://viaf.org/viaf/> .@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/#term_> .@prefix dc: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> .@prefix p: <http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/> .@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .

viaf:17238976 a foaf:Person ;foaf:name "Daniel T. Potts" .

<http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/39303> dc:creator viaf:17238976 ;

rdfs:label "Aksum","Auksome" ;

rdfs:comment "Present-day Aksum in Ethiopia. The center of the Aksumite Kingdom, a maritime trading power that flourished from the first to the tenth centuries AD. The city was listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980." .

Linking an ISAW faculty member to a digital publication

@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/#term_> .

<http://www.paregorios.org/me> a foaf:Person ;foaf:name "Tom Elliott" ;foaf:primaryTopicOf

<http://isaw.nyu.edu/people/staff/tom-elliott> ,<http://www.linkedin.com/in/paregorios> , <http://nyu.academia.edu/TomElliott> ,<https://plus.google.com/116427745746305527780/posts>

,<https://twitter.com/paregorios> , <http://www.paregorios.org/> .

@prefix awib: <http://isaw.nyu.edu/awib/> .@prefix dctypes: <http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/> .@prefix flickr: <http://www.flickr.com/> .@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/#term_> .

awib:image/2009060518070638 a dctypes:Image ;dcterms:creator <http://www.paregorios.org/me> ;dcterms:date "1996-06-13" ;foaf:primaryTopicOf flickr:photos/isawnyu/4910372563 .

flickr:photos/isawnyu/4910372563 a dctypes:Text ;dcterms:format "text/html".

Openness

Photo of façade of the Museum of Early Trades and Crafts, Madison, NJPhotographed by Tom Elliott, 29 May 2013