JISCExpo: Past, Present and Future of Linked data in Higher Education

Opening the day is Paul Miller who authored the Linked Data Horizon Scan.

The horizon scan was written in Q3/4 2009 to see what JISC needed to focus on in terms on Linked Data. It included 9 recommendations – 3 on web identifiers; 4 on data publishing; 2 support measures

Paul going to revisit these recommendations this morning…

“Learn from Cabinet Office Guidance on the creation of URIs”
Paul thinks this ‘is done’ – “almost unnecessary to say in 2011”
[I’m not as optimistic as Paul on this one – still feel huge battle to fight in terms of convincing people that URIs are identifiers not just web addresses]

“Identify a core set of widely used identifiers (JACS, instution codes, etc.) and assign HTTP URIs”
Paul says some progress I suppose – really should have been more though – this is the step that will make all of this stuff work across data sets”

Identify the ways that researchers identify themselves and link to instutional, professional, socail identities as appropriate”
Paul says – on the whol remains ad hoc, with individuals using self defined URLs (whether self-owned or twitter/linkedin/blog url) as surrogates. Paul asks – is this OK?

David Shotton (Oxford) mentions ORCID http://www.orcid.org/ – feeling from the room that it shows promise for solving the problem of identifying people in authoring contexts – but there is a larger problem, and the question of how multiple identifiers for people are matched up is also going to be problematic

“Look at OPSI Unlocking Service (http://www.opsi.gov.uk/unlocking-service/OPSIpage.aspx?page=UnlockIndex) and consider whether a similar approach might be used in helping the community identify data sets to prioritise”
Paul says – not really been looked at – do we still need to?

“Evaluate the effectiveness of Data Incubator etc as a way of marrying data to developers”
Paul says – some DevCSI activity on this but nothing systematic?
Also http://getthedata.org gets a mention, and ‘data without borders’ initiative http://jakeporway.com/2011/06/data-without-borders-an-exciting-first-day/

“Validate existing data licenses, and engage with government”
Not perfect by pretty good across Strategic Content Alliance (SCA http://sca.jiscinvolve.org/wp/), Discovery initiative (http://discovery.ac.uk), etc.

Paul feels we are moving to point where question is ‘why can this not be open’ rather than ‘why should this be open’

“Demonstrate the utility of embedding RDFa on institutional web pages”
Paul really suprised by the apparent lack of any serious progress in this area.. – debate from the floor – some question value of RDFa – why do it. If CMS doesn’t support then difficult to achieve. I raise issue we saw in Lucero of how Google et al actually present or use data published in RDFa

“Identify ways in which the community can consume and contribute to existing data services.”
? Missed Paul’s summary…

“Identify a focus for Linked Data activities”
This programme – #jiscexpo – so challenge now is how to share and get issues out.

Paul thinks on balance – good progress on 4, failed on 5

Paul says – we need to focus less on raw numbers more on real utility – and more links between resources – how do we achieve this? Very little interlinking going on – except small number of key resources such as Dbpedia. Need real linking beyond a single data set, beyond a single institution…

Debate from the floor – is ‘link more’ really relevant? Paul agrees – again just ‘lots of links’ is not the point – about valuable linking.

I make point about re-use of URIs – more difficult than coining URIs!

Paul says we need to share wisdom around – Where does Linked Data add real value – where is it merely possible and where is it ‘really stupid’…

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