Over recent years the Linked Open
Data paradigm has gained momentum as a lightweight approach of
publishing data resources to and reusing data from the web - be it
for commercial or commons-oriented purposes.
PUBLINK is the Linked Open Data
Consultancy backed by the
consortia of the EU-FP7 LOD2 (Integrated
Project) and LATC (Support
Action) projects. In order to lower the entrance barrier for potential
data publishers, the LOD2 and LATC consortia offer the free
PUBLINK
Linked Open Data Consultancy to up to 5 selected organizations
supporting them with the publishing of Linked Open Data with an
overall effort of 10-20 days of support from highly skilled Linked
Data professionals.
- Are you a government or government-related organization (administration, research center, agency, …) and in possession of large amounts of data?
- Is your organization obliged to publish data?
- Do you have valuable data but lack the financial or technical means to distribute it?
- Are you convinced that linking, merging or mapping your data with other data sources will increase its value?
- Do you face inter-organizational data integration challenges?
- Do you want or need your data to be re-used?
- Do you already publish tons of data in HTML, spreadsheets, PDFs or proprietary formats?
If you answered
YES! to two or more of these questions, you have to continue
reading.
What is Linked Open Data?
The Internet as we
know it is merely a virtual library where documents are linked to
each other, it is a web of documents for humans to read. The
W3C-hosted Linking Open Data initiative (LOD,
http://esw.w3.org/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData)
now aims to extend the 'web of documents'
with a 'web of data' by publishing and interlinking open data
sources on the Web based on well-established standards such as RDF
and URIs.
A web comprising
linked data in addition to linked documents brings the advantage
that the content becomes machine-readable. Computer and software
can interpret the meaning of web content instead of just offering
it to the user to read. As a result, more intelligent search
engines can combine information from different sources, mash-ups
integrating heterogeneous information can be more easily built and
many more, currently unforeseen creative uses of information on the
web become possible.
With more than 20
billion facts already published as Linked Open Data (LOD) the Data
Web is not just a vision, but becoming reality right now. For
example, all BBC programming, Wikipedia as a structured knowledge
base (DBpedia) and statistical information from Eurostat and the
US census are, in addition to hundred of other datasets, readily
available on the Web of Data.
Why become a Linked Open Data Starter?
The Linked Open
Data Starter Service:
- Is the basis for data integration/mapping/linking on the Internet.
- Puts you in pole position for data publishing.
- Empowers the world around you.
- Is the ultimate extension of your role as knowledge center, regulator, publisher.
- Guarantees a huge leap forward in your data distribution strategy without any risks.
You will benefit
from the technological, juridical, marketing, project and
communication experience of the multi-disciplinary LOD2 and LATC
teams to make your first steps into the linked open data space a
success.
What is the PUBLINK Linked Open Data Consultancy?
It is a service provided by the EU-supported projects LOD2 and LATC. The ultimate aim of both projects is to lift the emerging Web of Data to the next level. Besides research, development and deployment in the areas linked data management, interlinking, enrichment as well as browsing and authoring LOD2 and LATC aim to substantially extend the publication and use of Linked Data within and beyond the focus domains of E-Government, Media and Enterprise Data. PUBLINK is a service designed to give you maximum value with a minimum of risks. Through a standardized phased approach it allows you to migrate your data to the Internet in a smooth way at your pace.
PUBLINK Pathfinder
In a one-day
workshop the LOD2/LATC team will crawl through your data together
with you. You should have your data or samples of it available and
a rough idea of what you want to do with it. At the end of the day
the LOD2 team will, together with you, have:
- Defined a high-level specification
- Defined a high-level plan for next steps,
- Defined a high-level technical architecture,
- Assessed risks and challenges,
- Identified possible non-technical issues to work on (copyright, privacy, security, …).
PUBLINK Kickstart
In a 2-to-5-day
mini-project the LOD2/LATC team will support you to bring your data
to the internet as linked open data. Basically, you have
two options here and you can either select one of them or
both:
- PUBLINK RDF: Linked Data at its core is in fact nothing more than the data published as RDF and then linked to each other.
- PUBLINK
SPARQL
endpoint: SPARQL is the query
language for RDF data, like SQL for relational data bases. SPARQL
is designed to answer technical queries for RDF data.
To query an RDF Store, a SPARQL endpoint is needed. This is the gateway to the RDF Store through which queries are executed. The web service accepts other formats as well and transforms them into SPARQL.
The SPARQL endpoint provides a means for machine-to-machine communication so that the public presence of ESCO data can be fully exploited, and foresees the needs of future web applications.
Here are examples of existing SPARQL endpoints: http://esw.w3.org/topic/SparqlEndpoints
Target
organizations for Linked Open Data Starters
include (but are not limited
to):
- Government administrations or agencies, regional, national or European
- Knowledge center (health, infrastructure, chemical, tax, financial, social, economic, biological, education, labour, …)
- Bureau for statistics
- Research centers
- Enterprises aiming to publish Linked Data
How to apply for the PUBLINK?
In order to apply
for PUBLINK, please send the following information (max. 2 pages)
to publink@lod2.eu:
- Brief profile of your organization
- Description of the data you aim to publish (quality, quantity, current format)
- Potential stakeholders benefiting from publishing your data
- Envisioned involvement from your side
- will you designate staff for supporting the PUBLINK project and
being responsible for the maintenance of the data when the PUBLINK
project will have terminated
- Envisioned licensing model (in general PUBLINK is aimed at publishing under open licenses, see http://opendefinition.org)
After assessment
of your application and a possible discussion with you on the value
and feasibility of your application, we will select up to five
PUBLINK projects for execution.
Timeline
- Application deadline: December 20th, 2010
- Notification of acceptance: January 30th, 2011
- PUBLINK pathfinder period: February & March 2011
- PUBLINK kickstart period: April till June 2011
For successful
PUBLINK projects we will, of course, offer individually negotiable
options for a continuing collaboration between (members of) the
LOD2 / LATC consortia and your organization.
Why work with the LOD2/LATC team?
The LOD2 and LATC teams are comprised of key individuals
instrumental to the creation and bootstrap of Linked Open Data
community. These teams have
presence across many European countries. Naturally, they combine years of hands-on experience
with regards to development
and deployment of industrial
strength solutions covering:
- Linked Open Data
- Semantic Technology
- Publishing
- Search
- Advanced database
technology
