Re: please help define Web of Data

Hi guys,

FWIW I think there is a key distinction between a "Web of Data" and
"data on the Web". Much as I wanted to love Microformats (to pick one
example), when I tried to use them in anger I became frustrated at the
seeming lack of the 'linkiness' we need to truly connect data records
on the Web (or strictly speaking 'connect things described by data
records on the Web). Linked Data addresses this, which is one of the
reasons I'm such a fan.

That said, I'm not sure of the real need for a shared definition.
Isn't this a case of "each to their own" - something the Web is really
good for? Everyone is welcome to their own interpretation, and if
Sindice takes a very inclusive attitude to different data
formats/models then that's your free choice. Ultimately though, aren't
we all just better off getting on and building a Web of Data, whatever
definition we choose, than spending our precious time debating the
term?

Cheers,

Tom.

On 19 April 2011 12:04, Giovanni Tummarello
<giovanni.tummarello@deri.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am writing here since i came across a few recent "foundational
> style" publications on the topic that give a definition  of "web of
> data" basically as SameAs of LOD - also specifying, in avoidance of
> doubt, that the LOD community started the web of data.
>
> I wish to preserve and make clear the difference between "Web of Data"
> approaches such as Sindice.com (or anyone dealing with web markup
> really, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Goodrelations ecommerce etc) and the
> technicalities that LOD considers fundamental requisites.
>
> In our definition . (e.g. see the very beginning of the video at
> http://sig.ma ). the Web of Data,is the web made of pages that exposes
> machine processable content definited according to some metadata
> standard. So RDF, RDFa, Microformats, but also XML using notable
> schemas. Of course LOD is part of it.
>
> In our view the *all these formats* do indeed serve the purpose of web
> scale data interoperability and aggregation. All these allow shared
> understandings thanks to shared vocabularies, so the differences are
> mostly syntactic and can easily be converted and integrated with
> similar, general tools.  [1] discusses a bit more the vision, though
> not specifically about this.
>
> This is clearly outside LOD (it is indeed a vast superset). But i
> really apologize if we have used this term wrong so far.
>
> I will appreciate and change the term if there is vaste feeling htat
> there would be no web of data without lod.
> Otherwise maybe those who mean LOD can call  it LOD?  :)
>
> please advice.
>
> thanks in advance.
> Gio & Renaud
>
> [1]  "Publishing Data that Links Itself: A Conjecture" by G. Tummarello R.Delbru
> http://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/SSS/SSS10/paper/download/1189/1467
>
>



-- 
Dr Tom Heath
Lead Researcher
Talis Systems Ltd
W: http://www.talis.com/
W: http://tomheath.com/id/me

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Received on Wednesday, 20 April 2011 11:13:39 UTC