ANN: New book about Linked Data published

Hi all,

 

Tom Heath and I have been working on a book about Linked Data over the last
months. We are very happy to announce today that the PDF version of the book
is available from Morgan & Claypool Publishers.

 

The book gives an overview of the principles of Linked Data as well as the
Web of Data that has emerged through the application of these principles. It
discusses patterns for publishing Linked Data, describes deployed Linked
Data applications and examines their architecture.

 

The book is published by Morgan & Claypool in the series Synthesis Lectures
on the Semantic Web: Theory and Technology edited by James Hendler and Frank
van Harmelen. See:

 

http://www.morganclaypool.com/doi/abs/10.2200/S00334ED1V01Y201102WBE001

 

The PDF version of the book is currently accessible to members of
organizations that have licensed the Morgan & Claypool Synthesis Lectures
collection.  In addition, the PDF version of the book can be purchased for
30 US$ via the Morgan & Claypool website. 

 

Within the next two weeks, the print version of the book will be available
at Amazon. A bit later, the print version will be available via other
channels and can also be ordered directly from Morgan & Claypool. 

 

On March 1st, 2011, we will publish a free HTML version of the book at
http://linkeddatabook.com/

We are currently still busy with producing the HTML version, so please
excuse the delay. 

 

Please find the abstract and table of contents of the book below:

 

Abstract of the Book 

 

The World Wide Web has enabled the creation of a global information space
comprising linked documents. As the Web becomes ever more enmeshed with our
daily lives, there is a growing desire for direct access to raw data not
currently available on the Web or bound up in hypertext documents. Linked
Data provides a publishing paradigm in which not only documents, but also
data, can be a first class citizen of the Web, thereby enabling the
extension of the Web with a global data space based on open standards - the
Web of Data. In this Synthesis lecture we provide readers with a detailed
technical introduction to Linked Data. We begin by outlining the basic
principles of Linked Data, including coverage of relevant aspects of Web
architecture. The remainder of the text is based around two main themes -
the publication and consumption of Linked Data. Drawing on a practical
Linked Data scenario, we provide guidance and best practices on:
architectural approaches to publishing Linked Data; choosing URIs and
vocabularies to identify and describe resources; deciding what data to
return in a description of a resource on the Web; methods and frameworks for
automated linking of data sets; and testing and debugging approaches for
Linked Data deployments. We give an overview of existing Linked Data
applications and then examine the architectures that are used to consume
Linked Data from the Web, alongside existing tools and frameworks that
enable these. Readers can expect to gain a rich technical understanding of
Linked Data fundamentals, as the basis for application development, research
or further study. 

 

Table of Contents

 

1. Introduction 

 

1.1 The Data Deluge 

1.2 The Rationale for Linked Data

1.2.1 Structure Enables Sophisticated Processing 

1.2.2 Hyperlinks Connect Distributed Data 

1.3 From Data Islands to a Global Data Space 

 

2 Principles of Linked Data 

 

2.1 The Principles in a Nutshell 

2.2 Naming Things with URIs 

2.3 Making URIs Defererenceable 

2.3.1 303 URIs 

2.3.2 Hash URIs

2.3.3 Hash versus 303 

2.4 Providing Useful RDF Information

2.4.1 The RDF Data Model 

2.4.2 RDF Serialization Formats 

2.5 Including Links to other Things 

2.5.1 Relationship Links 

2.5.2 Identity Links 

2.5.3 Vocabulary Links 

2.6 Conclusions 

 

3 TheWeb of Data 

 

3.1 Bootstrapping theWeb of Data 

3.2 Topology of theWeb of Data 

3.2.1 Cross-Domain Data 

3.2.2 Geographic Data

3.2.3 Media Data 

3.2.4 Government Data 

3.2.5 Libraries and Education 

3.2.6 Life Sciences Data 

3.2.7 Retail and Commerce 

3.2.8 User Generated Content and Social Media 

3.3 Conclusions

 

4 Linked Data Design Considerations

 

4.1 Using URIs as Names for Things 

4.1.1 Minting HTTP URIs 

4.1.2 Guidelines for Creating Cool URIs 

4.1.3 Example URIs 

4.2 Describing Things with RDF

4.2.1 Literal Triples and Outgoing Links 

4.2.2 Incoming Links 

4.2.3 Triples that Describe Related Resources 

4.2.4 Triples that Describe the Description 

4.3 Publishing Data about Data 

4.3.1 Describing a Data Set 

4.3.2 Provenance Metadata 

4.3.3 Licenses,Waivers and Norms for Data 

4.4 Choosing and Using Vocabularies to Describe Data 

4.4.1 SKOS, RDFS and OWL

4.4.2 RDFS Basics 

4.4.3 A Little OWL 

4.4.4 Reusing Existing Terms

4.4.5 Selecting Vocabularies 

4.4.6 Defining Terms 

4.5 Making Links with RDF

4.5.1 Making Links within a Data Set 

4.5.2 Making Links with External Data Sources 

4.5.3 Setting RDF Links Manually 

4.5.4 Auto-generating RDF Links

 

5 Recipes for Publishing Linked Data 

 

5.1 Linked Data Publishing Patterns

5.1.1 Patterns in a Nutshell 

5.1.2 Additional Considerations 

5.2 The Recipes

5.2.1 Serving Linked Data as Static RDF/XML Files 

5.2.2 Serving Linked Data as RDF Embedded in HTML Files 

5.2.3 Serving RDF and HTML with Custom Server-Side Scripts 

5.2.4 Serving Linked Data from Relational Databases 

5.2.5 Serving Linked Data from RDF Triple Stores 

5.2.6 Serving RDF byWrapping Existing Application orWeb APIs 

5.3 Additional Approaches to Publishing Linked Data

5.4 Testing and Debugging Linked Data 

5.5 Linked Data Publishing Checklist 

 

6 Consuming Linked Data 

 

6.1 Deployed Linked Data Applications 

6.1.1 Generic Applications 

6.1.2 Domain-specific Applications 

6.2 Developing a Linked Data Mashup 

6.2.1 Software Requirements 

6.2.2 Accessing Linked Data URIs 

6.2.3 Representing Data Locally using Named Graphs 

6.2.4 Querying Local Data with SPARQL 

6.3 Architecture of Linked Data Applications 

6.3.1 Accessing theWeb of Data 

6.3.2 Vocabulary Mapping 

6.3.3 Identity Resolution 

6.3.4 Provenance Tracking 

6.3.5 Data Quality Assessment 

6.3.6 CachingWeb Data Locally 

6.3.7 UsingWeb Data in the Application Context 

6.4 Effort Distribution between Publishers, Consumers and Third Parties 

 

7 Summary andOutlook 

 

Bibliography 

Authors' Biographies 

 

We would like to thank the series editors Jim Hendler and Frank van Harmelen
for giving us the opportunity and the impetus to write this book.
Summarizing the state of the art in Linked Data was a job that needed doing
-- we are glad they asked us. It has been a long process, throughout which
Mike Morgan of Morgan & Claypool has shown the patience of a saint, for
which we are extremely grateful. Richard Cyganiak wrote a significant
portion of the 2007 tutorial How to Publish Linked Data on the Web, which
inspired a number of sections of this book -- thank you Richard. Mike
Bergman, Dan Brickley, Fabio Ciravegna, Ian Dickinson, John Goodwin, Harry
Halpin, Frank van Harmelen, Olaf Hartig, Andreas Harth, Michael Hausenblas,
Jim Hendler, Bernadette Hyland, Toby Inkster, Anja Jentzsch, Libby Miller,
Yves Raimond, Matthew Rowe, Daniel Schwabe, Denny Vrandecic, and David Wood
reviewed drafts of the book and provided valuable feedback when we needed
fresh pairs of eyes -- they deserve our gratitude. We also thank the
European Commission for supporting the creation of this book by funding the
LATC -- LOD Around The Clock project (Ref. No. 256975). Lastly, we would
like to thank the developers of LaTeX and Subversion, without which this
exercise in remote, collaborative authoring would not have been possible.

 

Have fun reading the book J

 

Tom Heath and Christian Bizer

 

 

--

Prof. Dr. Christian Bizer

Web-based Systems Group

Freie Universität Berlin

+49 30 838 55509

 <http://www.bizer.de> http://www.bizer.de

 <mailto:chris@bizer.de> chris@bizer.de