1. Global communities and open
cultural data: towards linked open
data in libraries, archives and
museums
Mia Ridge
Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
October 2012
3. Outline
• What problems can linked open data solve?
• Definitions
• Why is open cultural data important?
• History of open cultural data and role of
communities
4. ‘James Cook’ = maritime explorer?
• Computers are think in strings, people think in
‘things’.
• ‘James Cook’ == ‘Captain Cook’? Only if you’re
human.
• Linking both to
http://dbpedia.org/page/James_Cook helps a
computer know who you mean
5. Types of data
• Metadata: who, what, where, when, material,
size, location - the basic ‘tombstone’ data
• Data: the full collections record including
descriptions, interpretive themes, narratives,
etc
• Digital surrogates: e.g. images of the object,
transcribed text of book or document, 3D
printer files, etc
6. APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are a way for
one machine to talk to another:
‘Hi Bob, I’d like a list of objects from you, and hey, Alice,
could you draw me a timeline to put the objects on?’
7. ‘open’
• Open data is freely available for use and
redistribution by anyone for any purpose
– Licensors might require attribution
– Licensors might require users to re-share under
the same licence
8. Open licences
• Attribution: 'You must attribute the work in the
manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in
any way that suggests that they endorse you or your
use of the work)’.
• Sharealike: 'If you alter, transform, or build upon this
work, you may distribute the resulting work only under
the same or similar license to this one.’
• Non-commercial: prohibits uses that are ‘primarily
intended for or directed toward commercial advantage
or private monetary compensation’.
• No derivatives: 'You may not alter, transform, or build
upon this work.’
9. Linked data
• “data published on the Web in such a way that
it is machine-readable, its meaning is explicitly
defined, it is linked to other external data sets,
and can in turn be linked to from external data
sets”.
Source: ‘Linked Data - The Story So Far’
10. 5 stars
make your stuff available on the web
★
(whatever format)
make it available as structured data (e.g.
★★
excel instead of image scan of a table)
non-proprietary format (e.g. csv instead
★★★
of excel)
use URLs to identify things, so that
★★★★
people can point at your stuff
link your data to other people’s data to
★★★★★
provide context
15. What is linked open data?
• ‘data or metadata made freely available on
the World Wide Web with a standard markup
format’
– linked (and linkable): technical requirements
– open: licencing requirements
• Enabling connections and collaboration
through interoperability
16. Open cultural data
• Data from cultural institutions that is made
available for use in a machine-readable format
under an open licence.
• Linkable: if published at a permanent URL, can
be linked to from other projects
• Partial data releases e.g. low-resolution
images, metadata-o nly releases
17. Why is open cultural data important?
• Helps achieve organisational goals, mission
• Can vastly increase access to content
• Can vastly increase engagement with content
• Can create ‘network effect’ with related
institutions
28. 2006: Semantic Web Think Tank
Image credit: jon pratty, all rights reserved
29. 2007
• BBC: “a web identifier, with associated HTML
pages and machine-readable feeds (RDF/XML,
JSON and XML), for every programme the BBC
broadcasts—allowing other teams within the
BBC to incorporate those pages into new and
existing programme support sites, TV Channel
and Radio Station sites, and cross programme
genre sites such as food, music and natural
history”
Source:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2010/02/case_study_use_of_semantic_web.html
42. The role of communities
• Online community via social networks, wikis,
discussion lists
• Events and meetups important
• Use hashtag like #lodlam for open,
international conversation
43. What is LODLAM?
• 100 international attendees, Linked Open Data
in Libraries, Archives, and Museums Summit
• San Francisco, June 2011
• Organised by Jon Voss (@jonvoss) with Kris
Carpenter Negulescu, Internet Archive
• Sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation,
National Endowment for the Humanities and
the Internet Archive
45. 4 stars
Attribution Share-Alike License (CC-BY-
★
SA/ODC-ODbL)
Attribution License (CC-BY / ODC-BY)
★★
with another form of attribution
Attribution License (CC-BY / ODC-BY)
★★★ when the licensor considers linkbacks to
meet the attribution requirement
Public Domain (CC0 / ODC PDDL / Public
★★★★
Domain Mark)
46. LODLAM 2013 Challenge
• highlight data visualizations, tools, mashups,
meshups, and all types of use cases for Linked
Open Data in libraries, archives, and museums.
Teams will register to submit in one and/or two
heats during the fall and the spring.
• Submit: video presentation (no longer than 5
min), title, short description, long description
(can include images, photos, mockups, etc), FAQ
section by 1 December 2012 or 1 May 2013
47. LODLAM 2013
• June 2013, Montreal
• Your ideas can win!
• Challenge prize: 2 delegate seats at the
Summit and $2,000USD in travel stipends.
• Grand prize $2,000USD.
48. LODLAM Challenge Criteria
• can be private/public partnerships, academic teams, individuals,
private companies, non-profits, just about anyone.
• can be prototypes, mockups, design specs, working models
• can be tools or processes for a broad GLAM community
• can innovative ideas that will advance the entire community
• must have a clearly articulated project goal
• must utilize open data sets
• must include a statement about how it’s distributed, what is the IP
and how is it held (does not have to be open)
• will be judged partially on how well the idea is pitched and
visualized, just like in kickstarter: idea + marketing, ie. points for
style
• must clearly describe the problem you’re trying to solve
• must answer the question: if you win, what is your next step?
