Re: Federated directory of social services - could Façade-X help?

Hi Benjamin,

> The plan is to convert the heterogeneous sources (we expect a mix of APIs with JSON output, HTML scraping, CSV files, etc.) into one RDF schema.

This is exactly the scenario for which facade-x was made. At the moment, the reference open-source implementation is SPARQL Anything (but I am aware of several proprietary implementations in the works). To complement what Justin said, you can also look at these tutorials [1], which include examples of Web APIs and HTML scraping (such as the IMMA museum website).

Finally, feel free to join the group. We also welcome case studies relevant to the standardisation process we are working on, including suggestions for improving facade-x or the available mappings.

Best wishes,

Enrico


[1] https://sparql-anything.readthedocs.io/stable/TUTORIALS/




--
Enrico Daga, PhD
Senior Research Fellow
Knowledge Media Institute
The Open University
http://enridaga.net<http://enridaga.net/>
http://sparql-anything.cc<http://sparql-anything.cc/>


________________________________
From: Justin Dowdy <thejustman85@gmail.com>
Sent: 26 March 2026 13:12
To: Benjamin Degenhart <benjamin.degenhart@foerderfunke.org>
Cc: public-facade-x@w3.org <public-facade-x@w3.org>
Subject: Re: Federated directory of social services - could Façade-X help?


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SPARQL Anything is an ideal tool for producing RDF from structured data.
Take a look at the quick start section to see an example of how that is done for a CSV file:
https://github.com/SPARQL-Anything/sparql.anything?tab=readme-ov-file#quickstart


On Thu, Mar 26, 2026, 7:47 AM Benjamin Degenhart <benjamin.degenhart@foerderfunke.org<mailto:benjamin.degenhart@foerderfunke.org>> wrote:
Dear Data Façades Community Group,

I am following your work with curiosity and wanted to reach out regarding an upcoming project. As a freelance software developer I will be working with the Civic Data Lab, a Ministry-funded NGO in Germany. The goal is to create a federated directory of social counseling services in Germany. We will fetch data from the databases of various organisations that already maintain parts of this directory. The plan is to convert the heterogeneous sources (we expect a mix of APIs with JSON output, HTML scraping, CSV files, etc.) into one RDF schema. This schema will build on existing vocabulary (e.g. the Core Public Organisation Vocabulary from SEMIC) and gradually mature as we solve the challenges of integrating all these sources while simultaneously working on the usage scenarios of this new federated directory. So our challenge will be exactly as you put it: a "homogeneous view over heterogeneous data sources."

Is the Façade-X method something I could use here? What approaches would you recommend? Which libraries are already usable?
I'd really appreciate your thoughts and advice on this.

Best regards
Benjamin Degenhart
www.linkedin.com/in/bdegenhart<http://www.linkedin.com/in/bdegenhart>