Using Facebook Data Objects to illuminate Linked Data add-on re. structured data

All,

Facebook offers a data space (of the silo variety). Every Object has an 
Address (URL) from which you can access its actual Representation in 
JSON format.

Example using the URL: http://graph.facebook.com/kidehen:

{
    "id": "605980750",
    "name": "Kingsley Uyi Idehen",
    "first_name": "Kingsley",
    "middle_name": "Uyi",
    "last_name": "Idehen",
    "link": "https://www.facebook.com/kidehen",
    "username": "kidehen",
    "gender": "male",
    "locale": "en_US"
}

Some observations:

"id" attribute has value "605980750", this value means little on its own 
outside Facebook's data space.

Now imagine we tweaked this graph like so:


{
    "id": "https://www.facebook.com/kidehen#this"
    "name": "Kingsley Uyi Idehen",
    "first_name": "Kingsley",
    "middle_name": "Uyi",
    "last_name": "Idehen",
    "link": "https://www.facebook.com/kidehen",
    "username": "kidehen",
    "gender": "male",
    "locale": "en_US"
}

All of a sudden, I've used a HTTP scheme based hyperlink to introduce a 
tiny degree of introspection.

I repeat this exercise for the attributes i.e., Name then using HTTP 
scheme URIs, and likewise for values best served by HTTP scheme URIs for 
boundlessly extending the object above, courtesy of the InterWeb.

Even if Facebook doesn't buy into my world view re. data objects, my 
worldview remains satisfied since I can ingest the FB data objects and 
then endow them with the fidelity I via use of URI based Names.

Example Linked Data Resource URL: 
http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/html/http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/entity/http/graph.facebook.com/kidehen 
.

Example Object Name from My Data Space: 
http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/entity/http/graph.facebook.com/kidehen 
.

A little structured data goes a long way to making what we all seek 
happen. Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! etc.. have committed to 
producing structured data. This commitment is massive and it should be 
celebrated since it makes life much easier for everyone that's 
interested in Linked Data or the broader Semantic Web vision. They 
aren't claiming to deliver anything more than structured data. At this 
time, their fundamental goal is to leave Semantic Fidelity matters to 
those who are interested in such pursuits, appropriately skilled, and so 
motivated.


-- 

Regards,

Kingsley Idehen	
President&  CEO
OpenLink Software
Web: http://www.openlinksw.com
Weblog: http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen
Twitter/Identi.ca: kidehen

Received on Sunday, 12 June 2011 21:05:43 UTC