- From: Georgi Kobilarov <georgi.kobilarov@gmx.de>
- Date: Sat, 7 Feb 2009 16:20:51 +0100
- To: "Hugh Glaser" <hg@ecs.soton.ac.uk>, <public-lod@w3.org>
and you can test the auto-complete style search at http://lookup.dbpedia.org/autocomplete.aspx -- Georgi Kobilarov Freie Universität Berlin www.georgikobilarov.com > -----Original Message----- > From: Georgi Kobilarov > Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2009 4:19 PM > To: 'Hugh Glaser'; public-lod@w3.org > Subject: DBpedia Lookup RE: Can we lower the LD entry cost please (part > 1)? > > > dbpedia: wanted Tim again. After clicking on a few web pages, none of > > which > > seemed to provide a search facility, I resorted to my usual method:- > > look it > > up in wikipedia and then hack the URI and hope it works in dbpedia. > > (Sorry to name specific sites, guys, but I needed a few examples. > > And I am only asking for a little more, so that the fruits of your > > amazing > > labours can be more widely appreciated!) > > oh, it was my laziness that kept me from announcing it publically yet, > but since Hugh is complaining about the lack of URI search > functionality in DBpedia, here it is: > > http://lookup.dbpedia.org > > and web service at http://lookup.dbpedia.org/api/search.asmx > > KeywordSearch method is for searching full titles, PrefixSearch is for > auto-completion style search. If you want to use that in a productive > system (i.e. putting high load on my server), please drop me a message. > > Best, > Georgi > > -- > Georgi Kobilarov > Freie Universität Berlin > www.georgikobilarov.com > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: public-lod-request@w3.org [mailto:public-lod-request@w3.org] On > > Behalf Of Hugh Glaser > > Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2009 2:24 PM > > To: public-lod@w3.org > > Subject: Can we lower the LD entry cost please (part 1)? > > > > > > My proposal: > > *We should not permit any site to be a member of the Linked Data > cloud > > if it > > does not provide a simple way of finding URIs from natural language > > identifiers.* > > > > Rationale: > > One aspect of our Linking Data (not to mention our Linking Open Data) > > world > > is that we want people to link to our data - that is, I have > published > > some > > stuff about something, with a URI, and I want people to be able to > use > > that > > URI. > > > > So my question to you, the publisher, is: "How easy is it for me to > > find the > > URI your users want?" > > > > My experience suggests it is not always very easy. > > What is required at the minimum, I suggest, is a text search, so that > > if I > > have a (boring string version of a) name that refers in my mind to > > something, I can hope to find an (exciting Linked Data) URI of that > > thing. > > I call this a projection from the Web to the Semantic Web. > > rdfs:label or equivalent usually provides the other one. > > > > At the risk of being seen as critical of the amazing efforts of all > my > > colleagues (if not also myself), this is rarely an easy thing to do. > > > > Some recent experiences: > > OpenCalais: as in my previous message on this list, I tried hard to > > find a > > URI for Tim, but failed. > > dbtune: Saw a Twine message about dbtune, trundled over there, and > > tried to > > find a URI for a Telemann, but failed. > > dbpedia: wanted Tim again. After clicking on a few web pages, none of > > which > > seemed to provide a search facility, I resorted to my usual method:- > > look it > > up in wikipedia and then hack the URI and hope it works in dbpedia. > > (Sorry to name specific sites, guys, but I needed a few examples. > > And I am only asking for a little more, so that the fruits of your > > amazing > > labours can be more widely appreciated!) > > wordnet: [2] below > > > > So I have access to Linked Data sites that I know (or at least > strongly > > suspect) have URIs I might want, but I can't find them. > > How on earth do we expect your average punter to join this world? > > > > What have I missed? > > Searching, such as Sindice: Well yes, but should I really have to go > > off to > > a search engine to find a dbpedia URI? And when I look up "Telemann > > dbtune" > > I don't get any results. And I wanted the dbtune link, not some other > > link. > > Did I miss some links on web pages? Quite probably, but the basic > > problem > > still stands. > > SPARQL: Well, yes. But we cannot seriously expect our users to > > formulate a > > SPARQL query simply to find out the dbpedia URI for Tim. What is the > > regexp > > I need to put in? (see below [1]) > > A foaf file: Well Tim's dbpedia URI is probably in his foaf file > > (although > > possibly there are none of Tim's URIs in his foaf file), if I can > > actually > > find the file; but for some reason I can't seem to find Telemann's > foaf > > file. > > > > If you are still doubting me, try finding a URI for Telemann in > dbpedia > > without using an external link, just by following stuff from the home > > page. > > I managed to get a Telemann by using SPARQL without a regexp (it > times > > out > > on any regexp), but unfortunately I get the asteroid. > > > > Again, my proposal: > > *We should not permit any site to be a member of the Linked Data > cloud > > if it > > does not provide a simple way of finding URIs from natural language > > identifiers.* > > Otherwise we end up in a silo, and the world passes us by. > > > > Very best > > Hugh > > > > [And since we have to take our own medicine, I have added a "Just > > search" > > box right at the top level of all the rkbexplorer.com domains, such > as > > http://wordnet.rkbexplorer.com/ ] > > > > > > [1] > > Dbtune finding of Telemann: > > SELECT * WHERE {?s ?p ?name . > > FILTER regex(?name, "Telemann$") } > > > > I tried > > SELECT * WHERE {?s ?p ?name . > > FILTER regex(?name, "telemann$", "i") } > > first, but got no results - not sure why. > > > > [2] > > <rant> > > I cannot believe just how frustrating this stuff can be when you > really > > try > > to use it. > > Because I looked at Sindice for telemann, I know that it is a word in > > wordnet ( http://sindice.com/search?q=Telemann reports loads of > > http://wordnet.rkbexplorer.com/ links). > > Great, he thinks, I can get a wordnet link from a "proper" wordnet > > publisher > > (ie not me). > > Goes to > > > http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpen > > Data > > to find wordnet. > > The link there is dead. > > Strips off the last bit, to get to the home princeton wordnet page, > and > > clicks on the browser link I find - also dead. > > Go back and look on the > > > http://esw.w3.org/topic/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData/Da > > taSet > > s page, and find the link to http://esw.w3.org/topic/WordNet , but > that > > doesn't help. > > So finally, I do the obvious - google "wordnet rdf". > > Of course I get lots of pages saying how available it is, and how > > exciting > > it is that we have it, and how it was produced; and somewhere in > there > > I > > find a link: "Wordnet-RDF/RDDL Browser" at > > www.openhealth.org/RDDL/wnbrowse > > Almost unable to contain myself with excitement, I click on the link > to > > find > > a text box, and with trembling hands I type "Telemann" and click > > submit. > > If I show you what I got, you can come some way to imagining my > > devastation: > > "Using org.apache.xerces.parsers.SAXParser > > Exception net.sf.saxon.trans.DynamicError: > > org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: > > White spaces are required between publicId and systemId. > > org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: White spaces are required between > > publicId > > and systemId." > > > > Does the emperor have any clothes at all? > > </rant>
Received on Saturday, 7 February 2009 15:21:42 UTC