Re: Civic apps and Linked Data

[Kingsley Idehen]

On 6/26/13 6:12 PM, Alvaro Graves wrote:

Hi Frans,

I think there is a chicken-and-egg problem there. Governments won't 
release Linked Data since they don't see the value of doing so because 
nobody uses it (at least that's what employees from several government 
have told me).


I disagree with Kinsgley in terms that Linked Data is not complicated, 
it is more complex than releasing CSV files.


It doesn't have to be complicated. Of course, most assume it is, and 
sometimes for good reason.


My main point is that CSV is a more widely used and familiar interchange 
format than any interchange formats associated with RDF, that will be 
the case for a very long time.


Now, accepting that CSV is actually the popular format in the Open Data 
realm, why not use it as a bridge to Linked Data?


The evidence for me is the fact that very few governments have 
actually released LOD platforms :-)


Maybe, but CSV to Linked Data is a massive business opportunity for 
those with the skills associated with this conversion.


I think there is an intrinsic value of LOD that can't be obtained by 
releasing 3-star data, however in many of these situations people can 
make short term plans (i.e., release in whatever format you have, 
don't spend too much time on modeling, converting, etc.).


From the point of view of developers, I don't see as many tools to use 
LOD as for using CSV, JSON, etc. I think this is a critical point in 
encouraging the use and publication of LOD.


My fundamental point is this: build bridges. CSV is a great way to 
bridge and aid appreciation of Linked Data's virtues. There's also a lot 
of low hanging fruit business on that front too  :-)


Kingsley




Alvaro Graves-Fuenzalida
Web: http://graves.cl - Twitter: @alvarograves


On Wed, Jun 26, 2013 at 11:45 AM, Frans Knibbe | Geodan 
mailto:frans.kni...@geodan.nl>> wrote:


Hello Alvaro,

I think a big reason is the lack of data. I believe that if
governmental institutions in my country would publish their data
as five star data there would be a boom in development of civic
apps, and in the publication of other data sets as Linked Data
too. As things stand now, the core of national or regional data
that is published as Linked Data is so small that it can very
easily be ignored. There is no critical mass.

Regards,
Frans


On 26-6-2013 16:03, Alvaro Graves wrote:

Hello everyone,

A few days ago I attended ABRELATAM'13 an unconference focused on
Open Data in Latin America. I proposed a session about Open Data
+ Linked Data to discuss how semantics and LOD in general can
help government and civi organizations. I want to share the main
ideas that emerged from the conversation:

- SW/LOD sounds really cool and the direction where thing should
move.
- However there are many technical aspects that remain unsolved
- Since for many people having a relatively good solution using
CSV, JSON, etc. is easier, they don't want to use SW/LOD because
it is an overkill and too complicated.

So my question is: Why we don't see lots of civic apps using
Linked Data? Where are the SW activists? Why we haven't been able
to demonstrate to the hacker community the benefits of using
semantic technologies? Is it because they are hard to use? They
don't scale well in many cases (as a googled pointed out)? Are we
too busy working in academia/businesses?

I know very few civic apps using semantic technologies and I
don't think I have seen anyone that has made real impact in any
country. I would love if you can prove me wrong and if we can
discuss how can we involve more activists and hackers into the
SW/LOD community.


Alvaro Graves-Fuenzalida
Web: http://graves.cl - Twitter: @alvarograves



-- 
--

*Geodan*
President Kennedylaan 1
1079 MB Amsterdam (NL)

T +31 (0)20 - 5711 347 
E frans.kni...@geodan.nl 
www.geodan.nl  | disclaimer

--





--

Regards,

Kingsley Idehen 
Founder & CEO
OpenLink Software
Company Web: http://www.openlinksw.com
Personal Weblog: http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen
Twitter/Identi.ca handle: @kidehen
Google+ Profile: https://plus.google.com/112399767740508618350/about
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kidehen






smime.p7s
Description: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature

Re: Civic apps and Linked Data

[Dave Reynolds]

While one could debate the scale of impact I do see some successful 
civic apps here in the UK.


For example, the Environment Agency's (EA) publication of "real" time 
data on quality of water at bathing sites [1] has been quite successful.


As well as the nice explorer application provided with the data, 
sponsored directly by EA, a third party company came along and built a 
smartphone app for viewing the data, integrated with other information 
about the bathing sites.


We are finding that increasing numbers of local authorities are 
including the data via simple web widgets on their visitor web sites. 
Some have information screens at the beaches where visitors can see 
information on the water quality without having to have a smartphone.


I think the key here was:

1. Having data which is actually of interest in a civic context (how 
safe is it to go swimming?).


2. The publisher providing a compelling example of what can be done with 
the data.


3. Publisher commitment to maintaining the data up to date.

4. Having a simple API so that web developers could get initial access 
without needing to learn SPARQL or RDF. The Linked Data API [2] means 
that you can filter the data to get the part you want and have it 
delivered in easy to consume JSON or XML.


Arup, who developed the smartphone app, initially just used the API 
never having worked with RDF. Then from that gained an understanding of 
what this Linked Data stuff is all about. From there started to look at 
what other data sets could be linked into the bathing site reference data.


I feel it is repeating patterns like this that's the way to go. Build up 
value steadily by more and more data sets and more and more locally 
useful applications. None of them need be revolutionary. It is the 
incrementally growing value of the data ecosystem, which is a long game 
to play.  Don't hold out for "we changed the world" killer apps, just 
deliver value.


Dave

[1] http://environment.data.gov.uk/
[2] https://code.google.com/p/linked-data-api/

On 26/06/13 15:03, Alvaro Graves wrote:

Hello everyone,

A few days ago I attended ABRELATAM'13 an unconference focused on Open
Data in Latin America. I proposed a session about Open Data + Linked
Data to discuss how semantics and LOD in general can help government and
civi organizations. I want to share the main ideas that emerged from the
conversation:

- SW/LOD sounds really cool and the direction where thing should move.
- However there are many technical aspects that remain unsolved
- Since for many people having a relatively good solution using CSV,
JSON, etc. is easier, they don't want to use SW/LOD because it is an
overkill and too complicated.

So my question is: Why we don't see lots of civic apps using Linked
Data? Where are the SW activists? Why we haven't been able to
demonstrate to the hacker community the benefits of using semantic
technologies? Is it because they are hard to use? They don't scale well
in many cases (as a googled pointed out)? Are we too busy working in
academia/businesses?

I know very few civic apps using semantic technologies and I don't think
I have seen anyone that has made real impact in any country. I would
love if you can prove me wrong and if we can discuss how can we involve
more activists and hackers into the SW/LOD community.


Alvaro Graves-Fuenzalida
Web: http://graves.cl - Twitter: @alvarograves

Re: Civic apps and Linked Data

[Alvaro Graves]

Hi Frans,

I think there is a chicken-and-egg problem there. Governments won't release
Linked Data since they don't see the value of doing so because nobody uses
it (at least that's what employees from several government have told me).

I disagree with Kinsgley in terms that Linked Data is not complicated, it
is more complex than releasing CSV files. The evidence for me is the fact
that very few governments have actually released LOD platforms :-) I think
there is an intrinsic value of LOD that can't be obtained by releasing
3-star data, however in many of these situations people can make short term
plans (i.e., release in whatever format you have, don't spend too much time
on modeling, converting, etc.).

>From the point of view of developers, I don't see as many tools to use LOD
as for using CSV, JSON, etc. I think this is a critical point in
encouraging the use and publication of LOD.



Alvaro Graves-Fuenzalida
Web: http://graves.cl - Twitter: @alvarograves


On Wed, Jun 26, 2013 at 11:45 AM, Frans Knibbe | Geodan <
frans.kni...@geodan.nl> wrote:

>  Hello Alvaro,
>
> I think a big reason is the lack of data. I believe that if governmental
> institutions in my country would publish their data as five star data there
> would be a boom in development of civic apps, and in the publication of
> other data sets as Linked Data too. As things stand now, the core of
> national or regional data that is published as Linked Data is so small that
> it can very easily be ignored. There is no critical mass.
>
> Regards,
> Frans
>
>
> On 26-6-2013 16:03, Alvaro Graves wrote:
>
>  Hello everyone,
>
>  A few days ago I attended ABRELATAM'13 an unconference focused on Open
> Data in Latin America. I proposed a session about Open Data + Linked Data
> to discuss how semantics and LOD in general can help government and civi
> organizations. I want to share the main ideas that emerged from the
> conversation:
>
>  - SW/LOD sounds really cool and the direction where thing should move.
> - However there are many technical aspects that remain unsolved
> - Since for many people having a relatively good solution using CSV, JSON,
> etc. is easier, they don't want to use SW/LOD because it is an overkill and
> too complicated.
>
>  So my question is: Why we don't see lots of civic apps using Linked
> Data? Where are the SW activists? Why we haven't been able to demonstrate
> to the hacker community the benefits of using semantic technologies? Is it
> because they are hard to use? They don't scale well in many cases (as a
> googled pointed out)? Are we too busy working in academia/businesses?
>
>  I know very few civic apps using semantic technologies and I don't think
> I have seen anyone that has made real impact in any country. I would love
> if you can prove me wrong and if we can discuss how can we involve more
> activists and hackers into the SW/LOD community.
>
>
>  Alvaro Graves-Fuenzalida
> Web: http://graves.cl - Twitter: @alvarograves
>
>
>
> --
> --
> *Geodan*
> President Kennedylaan 1
> 1079 MB Amsterdam (NL)
>
> T +31 (0)20 - 5711 347
> E frans.kni...@geodan.nl
> www.geodan.nl | disclaimer 
> --
>

Re: Civic apps and Linked Data

[Kingsley Idehen]

On 6/26/13 11:02 AM, Sands Alden Fish wrote:

Alvaro, it's a very good question!

At MIT Libraries, we're currently working on a proof of concept to 
model geotagged accesses to our research and how it connects with the 
parts of the world the research is about (to see if the people who can 
benefit from it are reading it, and hopefully improve that connection).


See here  for some of my very 
early attempts at modeling Africa from LOD sources (using GeoNames 
lookup as a start).


And this is a high level summary 
 and short interview about our 
goals.


We want to use LOD about the countries in question to pull in more 
context about both the areas that are seeing research as well as 
enriching the metadata around research with the same data.  Of course 
we would like to go further than this and be able to link more and 
more relevant entities to this graph and ideally have an LOD source 
that describes specific issues around the globe.


Remember, you can make much cleaner and purpose specific data in a 
spreadsheet that's merged with the LOD cloud via Google's Open Refine. 
Of course, you can also do this by hand etc..


This is just another good Linked Data dog-fooding exercise where 
existing productivity tools aid the process. It's really quite an easy 
and pleasurable exercise :-)




I would love to hear from anyone who knows of data sets that may help. 
 I am also, like you, curious to hear any other civic use cases for 
the use of this technology.


What do you want to know about Africa? I ask because "I'm currently 
embarking on an EDA project to build a graph of currently relevant data 
about the African continent, it's countries and cities." doesn't make 
the details clear enough etc..


Links:

1. 
https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?docid=1uRVwifs4Roy6rj0OEDAPwpaUVAWMpx2BpCbFfPQ 
-- Google Fusion Table (which you import into a Google Spreadshet en 
route to Google Refine re. LOD cloud meshing)


2. http://bit.ly/17eOuHi -- PivotViewer report based on DBpedia-Live 
(this can evolve inline with additional Linked Data about African 
countries etc..).



Kingsley



- Sands Fish
- Senior Software Engineer / Data Scientist
- MIT Libraries
- sa...@mit.edu



*From:* alvaro.gra...@gmail.com [alvaro.gra...@gmail.com] on behalf of 
Alvaro Graves [alv...@graves.cl]

*Sent:* Wednesday, June 26, 2013 10:03 AM
*To:* Linked Data community
*Subject:* Civic apps and Linked Data

Hello everyone,

A few days ago I attended ABRELATAM'13 an unconference focused on Open 
Data in Latin America. I proposed a session about Open Data + Linked 
Data to discuss how semantics and LOD in general can help government 
and civi organizations. I want to share the main ideas that emerged 
from the conversation:


- SW/LOD sounds really cool and the direction where thing should move.
- However there are many technical aspects that remain unsolved
- Since for many people having a relatively good solution using CSV, 
JSON, etc. is easier, they don't want to use SW/LOD because it is an 
overkill and too complicated.


So my question is: Why we don't see lots of civic apps using Linked 
Data? Where are the SW activists? Why we haven't been able to 
demonstrate to the hacker community the benefits of using semantic 
technologies? Is it because they are hard to use? They don't scale 
well in many cases (as a googled pointed out)? Are we too busy working 
in academia/businesses?


I know very few civic apps using semantic technologies and I don't 
think I have seen anyone that has made real impact in any country. I 
would love if you can prove me wrong and if we can discuss how can we 
involve more activists and hackers into the SW/LOD community.



Alvaro Graves-Fuenzalida
Web: http://graves.cl - Twitter: @alvarograves



--

Regards,

Kingsley Idehen 
Founder & CEO
OpenLink Software
Company Web: http://www.openlinksw.com
Personal Weblog: http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen
Twitter/Identi.ca handle: @kidehen
Google+ Profile: https://plus.google.com/112399767740508618350/about
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kidehen






smime.p7s
Description: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature

Re: Civic apps and Linked Data

[Gannon Dick]

I would love to hear from anyone who knows of data sets that may help.  I am 
also, like you, curious to hear any other civic use cases for the use of this 
technology.


Really, Sands, you Librarians are taking all the fun out of world domination :-)
First, you could use the Library of Congress Linked Data Service 
(http://id.loc.gov/).  Sadly, that takes all the fun out of wheel reinvention 
too.
Second, and this is a bit counter-intuitive, you could consult the coding 
systens used in the CIA World Factbook 
(https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/) or UN-LOCODES 
(http://www.unece.org/cefact/codesfortrade/codes_index.html).  The 
counter-intuitive part is: of course the CIA and the UN are "pushing adjendas", 
just not the adjendas you think.  They have no use for "virtual" worlds, one is 
complicated enough.
Third, if you like, the IANA Root Zone can be used 
(http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db), although you will find out that the 
counter-intuitive restraints of the CIA and the UN are a good thing after all.
Last, the web is good for wildly inflationary greedy matches.  That is not so 
good for a Librarian's career.  If you want to do it yourself, stay safe: c.f. 
http://www.rustprivacy.org/2012/roadmap/olympics/
--Gannon


- Sands Fish
- Senior Software Engineer / Data Scientist
- MIT Libraries
- sa...@mit.edu





 
From: alvaro.gra...@gmail.com [alvaro.gra...@gmail.com] on behalf of Alvaro 
Graves [alv...@graves.cl]
Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2013 10:03 AM
To: Linked Data community
Subject: Civic apps and Linked Data


Hello everyone,

A few days ago I attended ABRELATAM'13 an unconference focused on Open Data in 
Latin America. I proposed a session about Open Data + Linked Data to discuss 
how semantics and LOD in general can help government and civi organizations. I 
want to share the main ideas that emerged from the conversation:

- SW/LOD sounds really cool and the direction where thing should move.
- However there are many technical aspects that remain unsolved
- Since for many people having a relatively good solution using CSV, JSON, etc. 
is easier, they don't want to use SW/LOD because it is an overkill and too 
complicated.

So my question is: Why we don't see lots of civic apps using Linked Data? Where 
are the SW activists? Why we haven't been able to demonstrate to the hacker 
community the benefits of using semantic technologies? Is it because they are 
hard to use? They don't scale well in many cases (as a googled pointed out)? 
Are we too busy working in academia/businesses?

I know very few civic apps using semantic technologies and I don't think I have 
seen anyone that has made real impact in any country. I would love if you can 
prove me wrong and if we can discuss how can we involve more activists and 
hackers into the SW/LOD community.


Alvaro Graves-Fuenzalida
Web: http://graves.cl - Twitter: @alvarograves

RE: Civic apps and Linked Data

[Sands Alden Fish]

Alvaro, it's a very good question!

At MIT Libraries, we're currently working on a proof of concept to model 
geotagged accesses to our research and how it connects with the parts of the 
world the research is about (to see if the people who can benefit from it are 
reading it, and hopefully improve that connection).

See here for some of my very early 
attempts at modeling Africa from LOD sources (using GeoNames lookup as a start).

And this is a high level summary and 
short interview about our goals.

We want to use LOD about the countries in question to pull in more context 
about both the areas that are seeing research as well as enriching the metadata 
around research with the same data.  Of course we would like to go further than 
this and be able to link more and more relevant entities to this graph and 
ideally have an LOD source that describes specific issues around the globe.

I would love to hear from anyone who knows of data sets that may help.  I am 
also, like you, curious to hear any other civic use cases for the use of this 
technology.


- Sands Fish
- Senior Software Engineer / Data Scientist
- MIT Libraries
- sa...@mit.edu



From: alvaro.gra...@gmail.com [alvaro.gra...@gmail.com] on behalf of Alvaro 
Graves [alv...@graves.cl]
Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2013 10:03 AM
To: Linked Data community
Subject: Civic apps and Linked Data

Hello everyone,

A few days ago I attended ABRELATAM'13 an unconference focused on Open Data in 
Latin America. I proposed a session about Open Data + Linked Data to discuss 
how semantics and LOD in general can help government and civi organizations. I 
want to share the main ideas that emerged from the conversation:

- SW/LOD sounds really cool and the direction where thing should move.
- However there are many technical aspects that remain unsolved
- Since for many people having a relatively good solution using CSV, JSON, etc. 
is easier, they don't want to use SW/LOD because it is an overkill and too 
complicated.

So my question is: Why we don't see lots of civic apps using Linked Data? Where 
are the SW activists? Why we haven't been able to demonstrate to the hacker 
community the benefits of using semantic technologies? Is it because they are 
hard to use? They don't scale well in many cases (as a googled pointed out)? 
Are we too busy working in academia/businesses?

I know very few civic apps using semantic technologies and I don't think I have 
seen anyone that has made real impact in any country. I would love if you can 
prove me wrong and if we can discuss how can we involve more activists and 
hackers into the SW/LOD community.


Alvaro Graves-Fuenzalida
Web: http://graves.cl - Twitter: @alvarograves

Re: Civic apps and Linked Data

[ProjectParadigm-ICT-Program]

Dear Alvaro,

The activists and hackers are already there. But for now they have different 
agendas. When you talk about activists and hackers which categories in 
particular do you refer to? Activists dealing with human rights, environmental 
issues, fighting corruption, promoting freedom of information, open access, 
civil rights etc. all typically are too busy dealing with other things than ICT.

Civic apps as you call them are just now appearing and Transparency 
International recently listed a few apps being used in the good fight.

SW/L(O)D for now remains the domain of ICT specialists. My organization deals 
with ICT for development as a platform for enabling technologies.

Outfits like NTEN and IdealWare do a good job of cataloging ICT in non-profits 
which would cover most activists.

ICT is not a forte of non-profits, and since the financial crisis of 2008 
onwards has greatly impacted availability of third party funding for 
non-profits, ICT usage is taking a back seat.

Regards


 
Milton Ponson
GSM: +297 747 8280
PO Box 1154, Oranjestad
Aruba, Dutch Caribbean
Project Paradigm: A structured approach to bringing the tools for sustainable 
development to all stakeholders worldwide by creating ICT tools for NGOs 
worldwide and: providing online access to web sites and repositories of data 
and information for sustainable development

This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended 
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you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This 
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disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.




 From: Alvaro Graves 
To: Linked Data community  
Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2013 10:03 AM
Subject: Civic apps and Linked Data
 


Hello everyone,

A few days ago I attended ABRELATAM'13 an unconference focused on Open Data in 
Latin America. I proposed a session about Open Data + Linked Data to discuss 
how semantics and LOD in general can help government and civi organizations. I 
want to share the main ideas that emerged from the conversation:

- SW/LOD sounds really cool and the direction where thing should move.
- However there are many technical aspects that remain unsolved
- Since for many people having a relatively good solution using CSV, JSON, etc. 
is easier, they don't want to use SW/LOD because it is an overkill and too 
complicated.

So my question is: Why we don't see lots of civic apps using Linked Data? Where 
are the SW activists? Why we haven't been able to demonstrate to the hacker 
community the benefits of using semantic technologies? Is it because they are 
hard to use? They don't scale well in many cases (as a googled pointed out)? 
Are we too busy working in academia/businesses?

I know very few civic apps using semantic technologies and I don't think I have 
seen anyone that has made real impact in any country. I would love if you can 
prove me wrong and if we can discuss how can we involve more activists and 
hackers into the SW/LOD community.


Alvaro Graves-Fuenzalida
Web: http://graves.cl - Twitter: @alvarograves

Re: Rendering RDF in interactive html forms

[Dominic Oldman]

Many thanks for all the suggestions on this. I really appreciate it.

I will get back to everyone when I have been through them all.

Cheers,

Dominic

Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

Re: Civic apps and Linked Data

[Kingsley Idehen]

On 6/26/13 10:03 AM, Alvaro Graves wrote:

Hello everyone,

A few days ago I attended ABRELATAM'13 an unconference focused on Open 
Data in Latin America. I proposed a session about Open Data + Linked 
Data to discuss how semantics and LOD in general can help government 
and civi organizations. I want to share the main ideas that emerged 
from the conversation:


- SW/LOD sounds really cool and the direction where thing should move.
- However there are many technical aspects that remain unsolved
- Since for many people having a relatively good solution using CSV, 
JSON, etc. is easier, they don't want to use SW/LOD because it is an 
overkill and too complicated.


The "overkill and complicated" misconception is something you tackle by 
demonstrating the dexterity of Linked Data, RDF based Linked Data, and 
the Semantic Web stack, in progressive steps. For instance, here is how 
I work with folks that are familiar with CSV:


1. get them to show me what's processing the CSV -- typically this is 
some cool visualization app.
2. present them with a URL that produces similar CSV output (but I also 
include Linked Data URIs in this output)

3. show them how their CSV consumer still works without change.

Once the beachead above is established, I go into "may I now show you 
this little enhancement" mode whereby I show the effect of the Linked 
Data URIs included in the tweaked CSV payload. Following that, I may 
start peeling back the onion showing that the CSV was delivered via a 
URL and that said URL is a natural feature of SPARQL etc..




So my question is: Why we don't see lots of civic apps using Linked Data?


Maybe because we sometimes forget to build bridges en route to 
establishing rapport with this audience profile. You can take the 
approach I outlined above or you can tell them how wrong whatever it is 
they are doing because they haven't learned and mastered RDF etc..



Where are the SW activists? Why we haven't been able to demonstrate to 
the hacker community the benefits of using semantic technologies?


Because, in my experience, the approach I just outlined isn't the norm. 
This is all about integrating with what exists rather than building afresh.



Is it because they are hard to use?


A misconception compounded by taking the wrong route to establishing 
rapport.



They don't scale well in many cases (as a googled pointed out)?


No.


Are we too busy working in academia/businesses?


No.

We just need to be varied in our approaches i.e., let the audience set 
the context into which we unleash the dexterity of Linked Data, RDF, and 
the Semantic Web stack. That means, learning to tell the same story in 
different ways. Take every opportunity like this to test and refine 
anecdotes and demos that complement your narrative. Resist to urge to 
say "because X said so" or because "its a standard mandated by Y"  etc..




I know very few civic apps using semantic technologies and I don't 
think I have seen anyone that has made real impact in any country.


You can change that quickly !

I would love if you can prove me wrong and if we can discuss how can 
we involve more activists and hackers into the SW/LOD community.


Maybe a thread titled Linked Data for the CSV savvy could be a nice 
bootstrap aiding thread :-)


Links:

1. http://bit.ly/18axeTP -- CSV browser powered by SPARQL-FED from UK 
Ordnance Survey Linked Data

2. http://bit.ly/ZxSUnc -- ditto using Health.Data.Gov data
3. http://bit.ly/170lBPg -- Google Spreadheet based crowd-sourcing teaser
4. http://bit.ly/QhGBXY -- importing Linked Data into a Google 
Spreadsheet (which is also about SPARQL URLs that return CSV output)

5. http://bit.ly/NP8uWv -- ditto using Excel.





Alvaro Graves-Fuenzalida
Web: http://graves.cl - Twitter: @alvarograves



--

Regards,

Kingsley Idehen 
Founder & CEO
OpenLink Software
Company Web: http://www.openlinksw.com
Personal Weblog: http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen
Twitter/Identi.ca handle: @kidehen
Google+ Profile: https://plus.google.com/112399767740508618350/about
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kidehen







smime.p7s
Description: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature

Re: Rendering RDF in interactive html forms

[☮ elf Pavlik ☮]

Excerpts from Dominic Oldman's message of 2013-06-26 10:46:55 +:
> 
> I am aware of RForms (https://code.google.com/p/rforms/) but are there also 
> other RDF template systems that support normal html form features.

maybe this one: http://viejs.org/widgets/forms/

Re: Civic apps and Linked Data

[Frans Knibbe | Geodan]

Hello Alvaro,

I think a big reason is the lack of data. I believe that if governmental 
institutions in my country would publish their data as five star data 
there would be a boom in development of civic apps, and in the 
publication of other data sets as Linked Data too. As things stand now, 
the core of national or regional data that is published as Linked Data 
is so small that it can very easily be ignored. There is no critical mass.


Regards,
Frans

On 26-6-2013 16:03, Alvaro Graves wrote:

Hello everyone,

A few days ago I attended ABRELATAM'13 an unconference focused on Open 
Data in Latin America. I proposed a session about Open Data + Linked 
Data to discuss how semantics and LOD in general can help government 
and civi organizations. I want to share the main ideas that emerged 
from the conversation:


- SW/LOD sounds really cool and the direction where thing should move.
- However there are many technical aspects that remain unsolved
- Since for many people having a relatively good solution using CSV, 
JSON, etc. is easier, they don't want to use SW/LOD because it is an 
overkill and too complicated.


So my question is: Why we don't see lots of civic apps using Linked 
Data? Where are the SW activists? Why we haven't been able to 
demonstrate to the hacker community the benefits of using semantic 
technologies? Is it because they are hard to use? They don't scale 
well in many cases (as a googled pointed out)? Are we too busy working 
in academia/businesses?


I know very few civic apps using semantic technologies and I don't 
think I have seen anyone that has made real impact in any country. I 
would love if you can prove me wrong and if we can discuss how can we 
involve more activists and hackers into the SW/LOD community.



Alvaro Graves-Fuenzalida
Web: http://graves.cl - Twitter: @alvarograves



--
--
*Geodan*
President Kennedylaan 1
1079 MB Amsterdam (NL)

T +31 (0)20 - 5711 347
E frans.kni...@geodan.nl
www.geodan.nl  | disclaimer 


--

Re: Rendering RDF in interactive html forms

[David Wood]

Hi Dominic,

Callimachus (http://callimachusproject.org) includes a very capable template 
system based on XHTML5+RDF.  Forms are naturally supported to create, view and 
edit RDF graphs.  Documentation is available at:
  
http://callimachusproject.org/docs/1.1/callimachus-for-web-developers.docbook?view#Callimachus_templates

Regards,
Dave
--
http://about.me/david_wood



On Jun 26, 2013, at 06:46, Dominic Oldman  wrote:

> 
> I am aware of RForms (https://code.google.com/p/rforms/) but are there also 
> other RDF template systems that support normal html form features.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Dominic



smime.p7s
Description: S/MIME cryptographic signature

Civic apps and Linked Data

[Alvaro Graves]

Hello everyone,

A few days ago I attended ABRELATAM'13 an unconference focused on Open Data
in Latin America. I proposed a session about Open Data + Linked Data to
discuss how semantics and LOD in general can help government and civi
organizations. I want to share the main ideas that emerged from the
conversation:

- SW/LOD sounds really cool and the direction where thing should move.
- However there are many technical aspects that remain unsolved
- Since for many people having a relatively good solution using CSV, JSON,
etc. is easier, they don't want to use SW/LOD because it is an overkill and
too complicated.

So my question is: Why we don't see lots of civic apps using Linked Data?
Where are the SW activists? Why we haven't been able to demonstrate to the
hacker community the benefits of using semantic technologies? Is it because
they are hard to use? They don't scale well in many cases (as a googled
pointed out)? Are we too busy working in academia/businesses?

I know very few civic apps using semantic technologies and I don't think I
have seen anyone that has made real impact in any country. I would love if
you can prove me wrong and if we can discuss how can we involve more
activists and hackers into the SW/LOD community.


Alvaro Graves-Fuenzalida
Web: http://graves.cl - Twitter: @alvarograves

DC-2013 Special W3C-Sponsored Session on Vocabulary Preservation

[DCMI Announce]

* PLEASE EXCUSE THE CROSS-POSTING*

"Long-term Preservation and Governance of RDF Vocabularies"

Special session, DC-2013, Lisbon, 3 September

DC-2013 WEBSITE: http://purl.org/dcevents/dc-2013
DC-2013 DATES: 2-6 September 2013
DC-2013 PLACE: Lisbon, Portugal

=
SESSION SPONSOR: W3C & DCMI
SESSION DATE/TIME: 3 September, 11:30-1600
   (Day registration available on conference wesbite)
SESSION MODERATORS:
  -- Phil Archer, World Wide Web Consortium
  -- Thomas Baker, Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
  -- Ivan Herman, World Wide Web Consortium
  -- Pierre-Yves Vandenbussche, Fujitsu
  -- Bernard Vatant, Mondeca
=

The oldest RDF vocabularies in existence are just fifteen years old.  It is
time to look systematically at how ownership and responsibility for today's
vocabularies will pass to the next generation.  DCMI and W3C are sponsoring
a special session at the DC-2013 conference in Lisbon on 3 September about
the long-term preservation and governance of RDF vocabularies [1].

This session focuses on issues related to the usability of RDF vocabularies
in the long term (as defined in "decades") -- continued access to
documentation, inheritance of ownership and maintenance responsibility, and
the continued resolvability of domain names.  What role might memory
institutions play in the long-term preservation of vocabularies?

A discussion paper has been prepared as a starting point for this session
[2], and readers are welcome to post comments or suggestions on the
DC-VOCABULARY mailing list ([3], sign up at [4]).

[1] http://dcevents.dublincore.org/IntConf/index/pages/view/vocPres
[2]
http://wiki.dublincore.org/index.php/Vocabulary_Preservation_discussion_paper
[3] https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=DC-VOCABULARY
[4] https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=DC-VOCABULARY&A=1

Re: Big data applications for general users based on RDF - where are they?

[Michael Brunnbauer]

Hello Dominic,

thank you very much for your detailed reply which answers my questions.

Reading this brought up a new question that is not directly related to CIDOCCRM:

When mapping RDF vocabularies in practice, how often will I have to use rule 
based systems instead of reasoning because RDFS/OWL is not expressive enough 
for the mappings ?

Regards,

Michael Brunnbauer

On Tue, Jun 25, 2013 at 07:10:32AM +0100, Dominic Oldman wrote:
> Hi Michael.
> 
> Thanks for the question. I am glad you asked :-) but sorry in advance for the 
> long answer.
> 
> 
> Before I go further though, a fundamental project objective is to make 
> mapping to the CRM straight forward and simple for organisations that 
> understand their own data and the CRM-SIG (Special Interest group) have 
> already made inroads. 
> 
> 
> The CIDOCCRM is an ontology formed in the 1990s and progressed to be an ISO 
> standard in 2006 and has therefore been around for a long time before many 
> other ontologies existed. In fact, the Europeana Data Model used for 
> aggregating both in Europe and the US and covering over 20 million items in 
> Europe borrows the concepts of time and place and people from the CRM despite 
> also borrowing from Dublin Core, SKOS and FOAF! The EDMdoesn't describe a 
> Museum object record being too general.
> 
> The CRM is used in the method I described in my other email without 
> specialisation but by vocabulary plugins that type the events and reify 
> properties. If we specialised them we would extend the CRM by another 200 
> properties and entities - and that would make it complicated.  ( see web as 
> literature presentation at  
> http://www.researchspace.org/project-updates/webasliterature-britishlibrary10thjune)
>  
> 
> 
> The ontology was created bottom up by examining hundreds of data models in 
> the cultural heritage world and abstracting an ontology that would harmonise 
> them. The reality is that museum and cultural heritage data is highly 
> complex. The CIDOCCRM instead of avoiding it addresses this complexity,  and 
> by mapping data to it provides an extremely accessible and easy way to search 
> rich data sets even when it is sourced from many different organisations. 
> While it is comprehensive in its treatment of cultural heritage (it is not 
> confined to museums) it has been careful not to over generalise like, for 
> example, dublin core. It is completely contextual and does not mandate a 
> common set of fields and thereby does not strip down data from its original 
> sources - it provides a complete knowledge representation. (see 
> http://www.oldman.me.uk/blog/costsofculturalheritage/ )
> 
> 
> Museums and other cultural heritage organisations all have collection 
> catalogues that may be based on standards but these standards are wide and 
> are in any event highly customised and employ very different vocabularies. In 
> this respect they probably represent one of the hardest use cases for linked 
> data. The British Museum have internal thesauri and authorities that cover 
> object types, materials, techniques, cultures, subjects, periods, languages 
> as well as bibliographies, biographies and places (both modern and archaic). 
> There are specialist thesauri for particular objects like 'wares' and clock 
> and watches. Moreover there are terminologies that describe processes that 
> are unique to the objects. The model itself reflects particular institutional 
> priorities, policies and customs formed over very many years and we have been 
> digitising the collection for over 30 years. All of this information is 
> important for data harmonisation purposes (particularly for
>  research).
> 
> 
> The processes involved in the production of an object could involve a large 
> number of different methods with different influences and with associations 
> with different groups (artistic or otherwise) and different types of 
> production environment. All these things are addressed differently in 
> different cultural heritage organisations. The use of dates and periods can 
> be particularly complicated for different object types and with different 
> opinions about what a period means and how an object fits within a period. 
> Our dating starts at 2 million years BC to the present day and date 
> classifications can be varied and non-standard.
> 
> 
> In reality the CRM is not a complicated ontology but merely generalises over 
> an extremely rich and complicated data environment to the extent that it can, 
> for example, harmonise the artificial objects of a museum of antiquities with 
> say a Natural History museum with natural objects and with classification 
> following a completely different set of standards. Equally it can be used for 
> HEI research (King's College have starting using it for their specialised 
> research like a prosopography). There are no other ontologies that describes 
> a British Museum object to the level at which it would be useful for research 
> as we

Re: Rendering RDF in interactive html forms

[Martynas Jusevičius]

RDF/POST Encoding for RDF: http://www.lsrn.org/semweb/rdfpost.html

Graphity includes a Jena-based RDF/POST parser.

Martynas
graphityhq.com

On Wed, Jun 26, 2013 at 1:46 PM, Dominic Oldman  wrote:
>
> I am aware of RForms (https://code.google.com/p/rforms/) but are there also
> other RDF template systems that support normal html form features.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Dominic

Rendering RDF in interactive html forms

[Dominic Oldman]

I am aware of RForms (https://code.google.com/p/rforms/) but are there also 
other RDF template systems that support normal html form features.


Thanks,

Dominic