http://myopenlink.net/weblog/kidehen/
Kingsley Uyi Idehen's Weblog
Kingsley Idehen
kidehen@openlinksw.com
2008-08-29T04:11:45Z
Virtuoso Universal Server 05.07.3033
http://myopenlink.net/weblog/public/images/vbloglogo.gif
The Essence of the Matter re. Information Overload
http://myopenlink.net/weblog/kidehen/?id=1782
2008-08-28T12:17:55Z
<p>The title of this post is an expression of my gut reaction to the quotes below, which originate from <a href="http://leobard.twoday.net/" id="link-id104b2308">Leo Sauermann</a>'s post about the <a href="http://leobard.twoday.net/stories/5151765/" id="link-id1889d5d8">Nepomuk Semantic Desktop for KDE</a>:</p> <blockquote> <cite><strong>Ansgar Bernardi</strong>, deputy head of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id16d79970">Knowledge</a> Management Department at Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz (DFKI, or the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence) and Nepomuk's coordinator, explains, "The basic problem that we all face nowadays is how to handle vast amounts of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id13a01b58">information</a> at a sensible rate." According to Bernardi, Nepomuk takes a traditional approach by creating a meta-data layer with well-defined elements that services can be built upon to create and manipulate the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id102433e8">information</a>.</cite> </blockquote> <p> The comment above echoes my sentiments about the imminence of "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id0x572adde0">information</a> overload" due to the vast amounts of user generated content on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id139926b0">Internet</a> as a whole. We are going to need to process more an more data within a fixed 24 hour timeframe, while attempting to balance our professional and personal lives. Be rest assured, this is a very serious issue, and you cannot event begin to address it without a Web of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id188ebc20">Linked Data</a>.</p> <blockquote> <cite>"The first idea of building the semantic desktop arose from the fact that one of our colleagues could not remember the girlfriends of his friends," Bernard says, more than half-seriously. "Because they kept changing -- you know how it is. The point is, you have a vast amount of information on your desktop, hidden in files, hidden in emails, hidden in the names and structures of your folders. Nepomuk gives a standard way to handle such information."</cite> </blockquote> <p>If you get a personal <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id171dd2e0">URI</a> for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id18294318">Entity</a> "You", via a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id188a1b10">Linked Data</a> aware platform (e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id167ad840">OpenLink Data Spaces</a>) that virtualizes data across your existing Web data spaces (blogs, feed subscriptions, wikis, shared bookmarks, photo galleries, calendars, etc.), you then only have to remember your <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id171c3ef0">URI</a> whenever you need to "Find" something, imagine that!</p> <p>To conclude, "information overload" is the imminent challenge of our time, and the keys to challenge alleviation lie in our ability to construct and maintain (via solutions) few <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id1074ade0">context</a> lenses (URIs) that provide coherent conduits into the dense mesh of structured <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x578efb58">Linked Data</a> on the Web. </p>
Kingsley Idehen
kidehen@openlinksw.com
2008-08-28T16:16:16.000-04:00
Crunchbase & Semantic Web Interview (Remix - Update 1)
http://myopenlink.net/weblog/kidehen/?id=1781
2008-08-27T18:16:37Z
<p>After reading <a href="http://blog.crunchbase.com/2008/08/26/building-a-semantic-web-interview-with-benjamin-nowack/" id="link-id16b8e0e0">Bengee's interview with CrunchBase</a>, I decided to knock up a quick interview remix as part of my usual attempt to add to the developing discourse.</p> <blockquote> <cite><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/" id="link-id17c8e7b8">CrunchBase</a>: When we released the <a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/help/api" id="link-id16681f68">CrunchBase API</a>, you were one of the first developers to step up and quickly released a <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com's%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1395" id="link-id1016d5f0">CrunchBase Sponger Cartridge</a>. Can you explain what a CrunchBase Sponger Cartridge is?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id13243300">Me</a>: A Sponger Cartridge is a data access driver for Web Resources that plugs into our <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id17042f08">Virtuoso</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id1399b588">Universal Server</a> (DBMS and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id137fd188">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id100b23d8">Web</a> Server combo amongst other things). It uses the internal structure of a resource and/or a web service associated with a resource, to materialize an RDF based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id10418750">Linked Data graph</a> that essentially describes the resource via its properties (Attributes & Relationships). </blockquote> <br /> <img alt="Image" src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/images/ldp4.png" /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: And what inspired you to create it?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id12fa60c0">Me</a>: Bengee built a new space with your data, and we've built a space on the fly from your data which still resides in your domain. Either solution extols the virtues of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id101a8d28">Linked Data</a> i.e. the ability to explore relationships across data items with high degrees of serendipity (also colloquially known as: following-your-nose pattern in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id14a3ff30">Semantic Web</a> circles).</blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://cb.semsol.org/" id="link-id182a0170">Bengee</a> posted a notice to the <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData" id="link-id131e8d10">Linking Open Data Community</a>'s public <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-lod/2008Jul/0110.html" id="link-id11dd0720">mailing list announcing his effort</a>. Bearing in mind the fact that we've been using <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1144" id="link-id117cf6e8">middleware to mesh the realms of Web 2.0 and the Linked Data Web</a> for a while, it was a no-brainer to knock something up based on the conceptual similarities between <a href="http://wikicompany.org/wiki/Main_Page" id="link-id13b87a68">Wikicompany</a> and CrunchBase. In a sense, a quadrant of orthogonality is what immediately came to mind re. Wikicompany, CrunchBase, Bengee's RDFization efforts, and ours.</blockquote> <blockquote>Bengee created an RDF based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id133c8fc8">Linked Data</a> warehouse based on the data exposed by your API, which is exposed via the <a href="http://cb.semsol.org/" id="link-id1826f928">Semantic CrunchBase</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id102d8890">data space</a>. In our case we've taken the "RDFization on the fly" approach which produces a transient <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id16a0b8d0">Linked Data</a> View of the CrunchBase data exposed by your APIs. Our approach is in line with our world view: all resources on the Web are data sources, and the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1668e6c8">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id188e7da0">Web</a> is about incorporating HTTP into the naming scheme of these data sources so that the conventional <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id13490710">URL</a> based hyperlinking mechanism can be used to access a structured description of a resource, which is then transmitted using a range negotiable representation formats. In addition, based on the fact that we house and publish a lot of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id169aa568">Linked Data</a> on the Web (e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id10af10e8">DBpedia</a>, <a href="http://www.pingthesemanticweb.com/about/" id="link-id10a2b710">PingTheSemanticWeb</a>, and others), we've also automatically meshed Crunchbase data with related data in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id1403cd40">DBpedia</a> and Wikicompany data.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: Do you know of any apps that are using CrunchBase Cartridge to enhance their functionality?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id177d24c8">Me</a>: Yes, the <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10725ca0">OpenLink Data Explorer</a> which provides CrunchBase site visitors with the option to explore the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id17dedea8">Linked Data</a> in the CrunchBase <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id13f02a00">data space</a>. It also allows them to "Mesh" (rather than "Mash") CrunchBase data with other <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11fb3ba0">Linked Data</a> sources on the Web without writing a single line of code. </blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: You have been immersed in the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id12e18a00">Semantic Web</a> movement for a while now. How did you first get interested in the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id15132110">Semantic Web</a>?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id0x5d4c7fc8">Me</a>: We saw the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id188b3330">Semantic Web</a> as a vehicle for standardizing conceptual views of heterogeneous data sources via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id10350978">context</a> lenses (URIs). In 1998 as part of our strategy to expand our business beyond the development and deployment of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id171d6798">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id138120a0">JDBC</a>, and OLE-DB data providers, we decided to build a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtual_Database" id="link-id13ea6618">Virtual Database</a> Engine (see: <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VOSHistory" id="link-id11a4fa30">Virtuoso History</a>), and in doing so we sought a standards based mechanism for the conceptual output of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Federated_database_system" id="link-id101a1248">data virtualization</a> effort. As of the time of the <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Semantic.html" id="link-id18882cf8">seminal unveiling of the Semantic Web in 1998</a> we were clear about two things, in relation to the effects of the Web and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id12fa2c58">Internet</a> data management infrastructure inflections: 1) Existing DBMS technology had reached it limits 2) Web Servers would ultimately hit their functional limits. These fundamental realities compelled us to develop <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id102b09a0">Virtuoso</a> with an eye to leveraging the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id11984d98">Semantic Web</a> as a vehicle from completing its technical roadmap.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: Can you put into layman’s terms exactly what RDF and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1066dcf0">SPARQL</a> are and why they are important? Do they only matter for developers or will they extend past developers at some point and be used by website visitors as well?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>Me: RDF (Resource Description Framework) is a Graph based Data Model that facilitates resource description using the <a href="http://www.eslincanada.com/englishlesson2.html" id="link-id178b94a8">Subject, Predicate, and Object principle</a>. Associated with the core data model, as part of the overall framework, are a number of markup languages for expressing your descriptions (just as you express presentation markup semantics in HTML or document structure semantics in XML) that include: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id188db0a8">RDFa</a> (simple extension of HTML markup for embedding descriptions of things in a page), N3 (a human friendly markup for describing resources), RDF/XML (a machine friendly markup for describing resources).</blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id188c2030">SPARQL</a> is the query language associated with the RDF Data Model, just as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id13f0ffe0">SQL</a> is a query language associated with the Relational Database Model. Thus, when you have RDF based structured and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id166874d0">linked data</a> on the Web, you can query against Web using <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1016cc98">SPARQL</a> just as you would against an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Oracle_Database" id="link-id101c9708">Oracle</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id11cb0b18">SQL</a> Server/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IBM_DB2" id="link-id10760ec0">DB2</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IBM_Informix" id="link-id1066c8c0">Informix</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ingres" id="link-id18894f40">Ingres</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MySQL" id="link-iddc9ebb0">MySQL</a>/etc.. DBMS using <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id1030d120">SQL</a>. That's it in a nutshell.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: On your website you wrote that “RDF and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id168e9ad0">SPARQL</a> as productivity boosters in everyday web development”. Can you elaborate on why you believe that to be true?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>Me: I think the ability to discern a formal description of anything via its discrete properties is of immense value re. productivity, especially when the capability in question results in a graph of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0xbfc5220">Linked Data</a> that isn't confined to a specific host operating system, database engine, application or service, programming language, or development framework. RDF Linked Data is about infrastructure for the true materialization of the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id13e475b8">Information</a> at Your Fingertips" vision of yore. Even though it's taken the emergence of RDF Linked Data to make the aforementioned vision tractable, the comprehension of the vision's intrinsic value have been clear for a very long time. Most organizations and/or individuals are quite familiar with the adage: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id13e38a30">Knowledge</a> is Power, well there isn't any <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id188b7348">knowledge</a> without accessible <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id140415d0">Information</a>, and there isn't any accessible <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id11a976e8">Information</a> without accessible Data. The Web has always be grounded in accessibility to data (albeit via compound container documents called Web Pages).</blockquote> <blockquote>Bottom line, RDF based Linked Data is about Open <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Reference_(computer_science)" id="link-id1206bfb8">Data access by reference</a> using URIs (HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-idfaa6ce0">Entity</a> IDs / Data Object IDs / Data Source Names), and as I said earlier, the intrinsic value is pretty obvious bearing in mind the costs associated with integrating disparate and heterogeneous data sources -- across intranets, extranets, and the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id188ecc68">Internet</a>.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: In his definition of Web 3.0, Nova Spivack proposes that the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id12e2d968">Semantic Web</a>, or Semanti<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C_(programming_language)" id="link-id105744c0">c</a> Web technologies, will be force behind much of the innovation that will occur during Web 3.0. Do you agree with Nova Spivack? What role, if any, do you feel the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id13fa4218">Semantic Web</a> will play in Web 3.0?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>Me: I agree with Nova. But I see Web 3.0 as a phase within the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id188c9000">Semantic Web</a> innovation continuum. Web 3.0 exists because Web 2.0 exists. Both of these Web versions express usage and technology focus patterns. Web 2.0 is about the use of Open Source technologies to fashion Web Services that are ultimately used to drive proprietary Software as Service (SaaS) style solutions. Web 3.0 is about the use of "Smart Data Access" to fashion a new generation of Linked Data aware Web Services and solutions that exploit the federated nature of the Web to maximum effect; proprietary branding will simply be conveyed via quality of data (cleanliness, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id188d2ef8">context</a> fidelity, and comprehension of privacy) exposed by URIs.</blockquote> <p>Here are some examples of the CrunchBase Linked Data <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id122756f8">Space</a>, as projected via our CruncBase Sponger Cartridge:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser2/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchbase.com%2Fcompany%2Famazon" id="link-id13e0fd18">Amazon.com</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser2/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchbase.com%2Fcompany%2Fmicrosoft" id="link-id13eef9e0">Microsoft</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser2/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchbase.com%2Fcompany%2Fgoogle" id="link-id13fe47a0">Google</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser2/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchbase.com%2Fcompany%2Fapple" id="link-id170c73b8">Apple</a> </li> </ol>
Kingsley Idehen
kidehen@openlinksw.com
2008-08-27T20:35:20.000-04:00
Nice Quote about Information Architecture & World Wide Web
http://myopenlink.net/weblog/kidehen/?id=1780
2008-08-27T14:47:12Z
<p>Even with the marginal degrees of serendipitous discovery that the current document oriented Web offers, it's still possible to stumble across poignant gems such as this statement from <a href="http://www.inspireux.com/" id="link-id12432e10">InspireUX</a> :</p> <img alt="Image" src="http://www.inspireux.com/wp-content/uploads/67.gif" /> <br /> <br /> <p>The statement above resonates with a lot of my fundamental views about the essence of Web. It also drives right at the core of what we are trying to address with the <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com" id="link-id121118f8">OpenLink Data Explorer</a> (ODE) which isn't simply about visualization of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x5c239820">Linked Data</a>, but about the combination of visualization, user interaction, and unobtrusive exposure and exploitation of Linked Data. Through the use of extensible RDFizers, ODE can bring this powerful combination to bear on Linked Data Entities culled from across the existing Web of Linked Documents.</p> <p>Do remember, "mission-critical" is no longer a corporate / enterprise theme. The lines of demarcation between the individual and enterprise are blurring at warp speed.</p>
Kingsley Idehen
kidehen@openlinksw.com
2008-08-27T15:31:51.000-04:00
Virtuoso, Linked Data, and Linq2Rdf (Update 1)
http://myopenlink.net/weblog/kidehen/?id=1776
2008-08-26T12:36:05Z
<p>There are many challenges that have dogged attempts to mesh the DBMS & Object Technology realms for years, critical issues include:</p> <ol> <li>data access & manipulation impedance arising from Model mismatches between Relational Databases and Object Oriented & Object based Languages</li> <li> Record / Data Object Referencing by ID. </li> </ol> <p>The big deal about <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resourcei/Language_Integrated_Query" id="link-id101df2c0">LINQ</a> has been the singular focus on addressing point 1, in particular.</p> <p>I've already written about the Linq2Rdf effort that meshes the best of .NET with the virtues of the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10193ae8">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id17143870">Web</a>". </p> <p>Here is an architecture diagram that seeks to illustrate the powerful data access and manipulation options that the combination of Linq2RDF and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10595ce0">Linked Data</a> deliver:</p> <br /> <img alt="Image" src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/linqtordf/linqtordf2.png" /> <p>What may not have been obvious to most in the past, is the fact that Mapping from Object Models to Relational Models wasn't really the solution to the problem at hand. Instead, the mapping should have been the other way around i.e., Relational to Object Model mapping. The emergence of RDF and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id11e5a240">RDBMS</a> to RDF mapping technology is what makes this age-old headache addressable in very novel ways.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/RDF_Mapping_Presentation_W3C_workshop3/RDF_Mapping_Presentation_W3C_workshop3.html" id="link-id10a9aa08">RDBMS to RDF Mapping</a> - W3C Workshop Presentation </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Virtuoso_Relational_to_RDF_Mapping/Virtuoso_Relational_to_RDF_Mapping.html" id="link-id16d47330">Virtuoso RDBMS to RDF Mapping</a> - W3C Rdb2Rdf Incubator Group Presentation </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Virtuoso_RDF_Views/Virtuoso_RDF_Views_1.html" id="link-id1403c4c8">Creating RDF Views over SQL Data Sources</a> - Technology Tutorial</li> </ol>
Kingsley Idehen
kidehen@openlinksw.com
2008-08-27T08:10:51.000-04:00
DBpedia Architecture
http://myopenlink.net/weblog/kidehen/?id=1761
2008-08-22T02:50:07Z
<p>Here is a pictorial of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id0x6c6ce310">DBpedia</a>'s <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x69091bd8">Linked Data</a> Deployment & Data Management architecture:</p> <p> <br /> <img alt="Image" style="max-width: 800px;" src="http://wiki.dbpedia.org/files/virtuoso_linked_data_deployment.png" /> </p> <p>Key points:</p> <p> <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com:80/virtuoso/rdfapiandsql.html" id="link-id13dcfb98">SPASQL</a> (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x6c416fb8">SPARQL</a> extension for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id0x695215e0">SQL</a>) enables the intelligent resource representation request handling and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0x69511608">URI</a> dereferencing, that underlies "Linked Data" (i.e., <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x6fe659a8">Hyperdata</a> Linking) to occur in-process.<br /> </p>
Kingsley Idehen
kidehen@openlinksw.com
2008-08-21T23:10:17.000-04:00
The Future of the Desktop
http://myopenlink.net/weblog/kidehen/?id=1759
2008-08-21T15:26:18Z
<p> <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/" id="link-id13ba6d90">Jason Kolb</a> (who <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2008/08/the-future-of-t.html" id="link-id1524e210">initially</a> nudged me to chime in), and then <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/future_of_the_desktop.php" id="link-id13a182c0">ReadWriteWeb</a>, and of course <a href="http://www.twine.com/item/11bshgkbr-1k5/the-future-of-the-desktop" id="link-id13f1e1f0">Nova's Twine about the topic</a>, have collectively started an interesting discussion about Web.vNext (3.0 and beyond) under the heading: The Future of the Desktop.</p> <p>My contribution to the developing discourse takes the form of a Q&A session. I've taken the questions posed and provided answers that express my particular points of view: </p> <blockquote> <cite>Q: Is the desktop of the future going to just be a web-hosted version of the same old-fashioned desktop metaphors we have today?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: No, it's going to be a more <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/webarch/" id="link-id1524d4a0">Web Architecture</a> aware and compliant variant exposed by appropriate metaphors.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The desktop of the future is going to be a hosted web service</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: A vessel for exploiting the virtues of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10827ad0">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id155bc698">Web</a>.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The Browser is Going to Swallow Up the Desktop</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: Literally, of course not! Metaphorically, of course! And then the Browser metaphor will decomposes into function specific bits of Web interaction amenable to orchestration by its users.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The focus of the desktop will shift from <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id1667e2e0">information</a> to attention</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: No! <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id104bb9c8">Knowledge</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id1524dd48">Information</a>, and Data sharing courtesy of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10723640">Hyperdata</a> & Hypertext Linking.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: Users are going to shift from acting as librarians to acting as daytraders</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: They were Librarians at Web 1.0, Journalist at Web 2.0, and Analysts in Web 3.0 (i.e, analyze structured and interlinked data), and CEOs in Web 4.0 (i.e. get Agents to do stuff intelligently en route to making decisions).</blockquote> <blockquote> <br /> <cite>Q: The Webtop will be more social and will leverage and integrate collective intelligence</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13a01ed0">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id106343a8">Web</a> vessel will only require you to fill in your profile (once) and then serendipitous discovery and meshing of relevant data will simply happen (the serendipity quotient will grow in line with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10560050">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id100f4940">Web</a> density).</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The desktop of the future is going to have powerful semantic search and social search capabilities built-in</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: It is going to be able to "Find" rather than "Search" for stuff courtesy of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10a18a70">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10a976f0">Web</a>.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite> Q: Interactive shared spaces will replace folders</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: Data Spaces and their URIs (Data Source Names) replace everything. You simply choose the exploration metaphor that best suits you space interaction needs.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The Portable Desktop</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: Ubiquitous Desktop i.e. do the same thing (all answers above) on any device connected to the Web.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The Smart Desktop</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: Vessels with access to Smart Data (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1666e4e8">Linked Data</a> + Action driven <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id171d1ff0">Context</a> sprinklings).</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: Federated, open policies and permissions</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: More federation for sure, XMPP will become a lot more important, and OAuth will enable resurgence of the federated aspects of the Web and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id100a66a8">Internet</a>.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The personal cloud</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id104ba580">Personal Data Spaces</a> plugged into Clouds (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Intranet" id="link-id15bbb970">Intranet</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Extranet" id="link-id1026d6b0">Extranet</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id140508c8">Internet</a>).</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The WebOS</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: An operating system endowed with traditional Database and Host Operating system functionality such as: RDF Data Model, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-idd86f48">SPARQL</a> Query Language, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id13f47268">URI</a> based <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointer" id="link-id1055bc78">Pointer mechanism</a>, and HTTP based message Bus.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: Who is most likely to own the future desktop?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: You! And all you need is a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id106b79e8">URI</a> (an ID or Data Source Name for "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id133c88a0">Entity</a> You") and a Profile Page (a place where "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id15fa8060">Entity</a> You" is Describe by You).</blockquote> <h3>One Last Thing</h3> <p>You can get a feel for the future desktop by <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com/#Download" id="link-id165ec048">downloading</a> and then installing the <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com/" id="link-id13baba38">OpenLink Data Explorer</a> plugin for Firefox, which allows you to switch viewing modes between Web Page and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13f12410">Linked Data</a> behind the page. :-)</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id12496e48">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/GetAPersonalURIIn5MinutesOrLess" id="link-id1027f060">Get Yourself a URI in 5 Minutes or Less</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/DataPortability_and_DataSpaces/DataPortability_and_DataSpaces.html" id="link-id10890f70">Linked Data Spaces & Data Portability</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2_TimBL_v3.html" id="link-id137efdf8">Linked Data Conference Keynote</a> (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id1239d300">RDFa</a> based remix edition that includes vital bits from <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id1317a048">TimBL</a>'s <a href="http://www.linkeddataplanet.com/" id="link-id165f57c8">Linked Data Planet presentation</a>).</li> </ul>
Kingsley Idehen
kidehen@openlinksw.com
2008-08-21T16:17:05.000-04:00
Yahoo! and the Linked Data Web in a Nutshell (Updated)
http://myopenlink.net/weblog/kidehen/?id=1758
2008-08-19T19:43:00Z
<p>This automated mail from Yahoo! speaks for itself re. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id133de628">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id1404ff40">Web</a> incomprehension!</p> <blockquote> <cite><p> Greetings! </p> <p> This is an automated email from Yahoo! Application Gallery. Please do not reply to this email message. We regret to inform you that your application '<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id1056e6e0">Blog</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id170bde38">Data Space</a>' has been rejected. You can view all your applications <a href="http://gallery.yahoo.com/mypage" id="link-id1045f988">here</a>. Moderator Comments: insufficient info </p> <p> Regards, </p> <p> The Yahoo! Application Gallery Team </p> <p> Your use of Yahoo! Application Gallery is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ </p> </cite> </blockquote> <h3>Message to Yahoo!:</h3> <p> Why bother? You clearly see the Web in a totally different light to the rest of us.</p> <p>If you want to private label the Web, then fine, just don't park your vehicle in the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id100a8000">Linked Data</a>" or "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id1085c490">Semantic Web</a>" spots.</p> <p>The Web doesn't need any subjectivity bootstraps or booster-shots, it just needs open access to Structured and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x97ede0c8">Linked Data</a> via URIs.</p> <h3>Kind of Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThinkingSpace/~3/369221488/age-of-google-4-future.html" id="link-id128d6fd8">Yihong Ding's Age of Google (4)</a> </li> </ul>
Kingsley Idehen
kidehen@openlinksw.com
2008-08-19T18:14:40.000-04:00
Response to: Whole Data Post (Update 3)
http://myopenlink.net/weblog/kidehen/?id=1757
2008-08-15T13:06:12Z
<p>This post is in response to <a href="http://www.furia.com" id="link-id107907b8">Glenn McDonald</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://www.furia.com/page.cgi?type=log&id=308" id="link-id13dcf2d0">Whole Data</a>, where he highlights a number of issues relating to "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id1016c1f0">Semantic Web</a>" marketing communications and overall messaging, from his perspective.</p> <p> By coincidence, Glenn and I presented at this month's Cambridge <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-idd526f48">Semantic Web</a> Gathering.</p> <p>I've provided a dump of Glenn's issues and my responses below:</p> <h3>Issue - RDF</h3> <ul> <li>Ingenious data decomposition idea, but: </li> <li>too low-level; the assembly language of data, where we need Java or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ruby_programming_language" id="link-id103f3dd0">Ruby</a> </li> <li>"resource" is not the issue; there's no such thing as "metadata", it's all data; "meta" is a perspective </li> <li>lists need to be effortless, not painful and obscure </li> <li>nodes need to be represented, not just implied; they need types and literals in a more pervasive, integrated way. </li> </ul> <h4>Response:</h4> <cite><p>RDF is a Graph based Data Model it stands for Resource Description Framework. The Metadata data angle comes from it's <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Meta_Content_Framework" id="link-id1690df60">Meta Content Framework (MCF)</a> origins. You can express and serialize data based on the RDF Data Model using: Turtle, N3, TriX, N-Triples, and RDF/XML.</p> </cite> <h3>Issue - <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id10234b38">SPARQL</a> (and Freebase's MQL)</h3> <p>These are just appeasement: <br />- old query paradigm: fishing in dark water with superstitiously tied lures; only works well in carefully stocked lakes <br />- we don't ask questions by defining answer shapes and then hoping they're dredged up whole.</p> <h4>Response:</h4> <cite><p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id16e45e50">SPARQL</a>, <a href="http://www.freebase.com/view/freebase/api" id="link-id13e7d468">MQL</a>, and <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb387145.aspx" id="link-id1516fbd8">Entity-SQL</a> are Graph Model oriented Query Languages. Query Languages always accompany Database Engines. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id13f8c100">SQL</a> is the Relational Model equivalent. </p> </cite> <h3>Issue - <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id171dee68">Linked Data</a> </h3> <p>Noble attempt to ground the abstract, but: <br />- <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id1576d5f8">URI</a> dereferencing/namespace/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_world_assumption" id="link-id15f50180">open-world</a> issues focus too much technical attention on cross-source cases where the human issues dwarf the technical ones anyway <br />- <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id105df458">FOAF</a> query over the people in this room? forget it. <br />- link asymmetry doesn't scale <br />- identity doesn't scale <br />- generating RDF from non-graph sources: more appeasement, right where the win from actually converting could be biggest! </p> <h4>Response:</h4> <cite><p>Innovative use of HTTP to deliver "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Reference_%28computer_science%29" id="link-id13eeab20">Data Access by Reference</a>" to the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13492610">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id105dfc10">Web</a>.</p> <p>When you have a Data Model, Database Engine, and Query Language, the next thing you need is a Data Access mechanism that provides "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Reference_(computer_science)" id="link-id100ef2c0">Data Access by Reference</a>". <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id16692e88">ODBC</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id1699b970">JDBC</a> (amongst others) provide "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Reference_(computer_science)" id="link-id16034b48">Data Access by Reference</a>" via Data Source Names. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id16690118">Linked Data</a> is about the same thing (URIs are Data Source Names) with the following differences:</p> </cite> <ul> <li>Naming is scoped to the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1195dc48">entity</a> level rather than container level</li> <li>HTTP's use within the data source naming scheme expands the referencability of the Named <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id10485760">Entity</a> Descriptions beyond traditional confines such as applications, operating systems, and database engines. </li> </ul> <h3> Issue - <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id104684d0">Giant Global Graph</a> </h3> <p>Hugely motivating and powerful idea, worthy of a superhero (Graphius!), but: <br />- giant and global parts are too hard, and starting global makes every problem harder <br />- local projects become unmanageable in global <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id12497088">context</a> (Cyc, Freebase data-modeling lists...). And my thus my plea, again. Forget "semantic" and "web", let's fix the database tech first: <br />- node/arc data-model, path-based exploratory query-model <br />- data-graph applications built easily on top of this common model; building them has to be easy, because if it's hard, they'll be bad <br />- given good database tech, good web data-publishing tech will be trivial! <br />- given good tools for graphs, the problems of uniting them will be only as hard as they have to be.</p> <h4>Response:</h4> <p> <cite><a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id144466d8">Giant Global Graph</a> is just another moniker for a "Web of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id15c2c738">Linked Data</a>" or "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14e73520">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10aef200">Web</a>".</cite> </p> <cite><p>Multi-Model Database technology that meshes the best of the Graph & Relational Models exist. In a nutshell, this is what <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13492e10">Virtuoso</a> is all about and it's existed for a very long time :-)</p> </cite> <h3> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x18293db0">Virtuoso</a> Universal Sever (recap)</h3> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id105a4f58">Virtuoso</a> is also a Virtual DBMS engine (so you can see Heterogeneous Relational Data via Graph Model <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id15845110">Context</a> Lenses). Naturally, it is also a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id109e2c78">Linked Data</a> Deployment platform (or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1086d650">Linked Data</a> Sever). </p> <p>The issue isn't the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id107f1ba8">Semantic Web</a>" moniker per se., it's about how <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13f1dd68">Linked Data</a> (foundation layer of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id101dbf50">Semantic Web</a>) gets introduced to users. As I said during the MIT Gathering: "The Web is experienced via Web Browsers primarily, so any enhancement to the Web must be exposed via traditional Web Browsers", which is why we've opted to simply add "View <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x6f152708">Linked Data</a> Sources" to the existing set of common Browser options that includes:</p> <ol> <li>View page in rendered form (default)</li> <li>View page source (i.e., how you see the markup behind the page)</li> </ol> <p>By exposing the Linked Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id15a04b70">Web</a> option as described above, you enable the Web user to knowingly transition from the traditional Rendered (X)HTML page view to the Linked Data View (i.e., structured data behind the page). This simple "User Interaction" tweak makes the notion of exploiting a Structured Web becomes somewhat clearer.</p> <p>The Linked Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10a187d0">Web</a> isn't a panacea. It's just an addition to the existing Web that enrichens the things you can do with the Web. It's predominance, like any application feature, will be subject to the degrees to which it delivers tangible value or matrializes internal and external opportunity costs.</p> <p>Note: The Web isn't ubiquitous today becuase all it's users groked HTML Markup. It's ubquitity is a function of opportunity costs: there simply came a point in the Web boostrap when nobody could afford the opportunity costs associated with being off the Web. The same thing will play out with Linked Data and the broader <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id10a97330">Semantic Web</a> vision.</p> <b>Links:</b> <ol> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2_TimBL_v3.html(15)" id="link-id137fc560">Linked Data Journey part of my Linked Data Planet Presentation Remix</a>(from slides 15 to 22 - which include bits from <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id1048a968">TimBL</a>'s presentation)</li> <li> <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com" id="link-id1667df98">OpenLink Data Explorer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com/example.html" id="link-id137ee860">OpenLink Data Explorer Screenshots and examples</a>.</li> </ol>
Kingsley Idehen
kidehen@openlinksw.com
2008-08-15T19:11:07.000-04:00
DBpedia 3.1 is now Live!
http://myopenlink.net/weblog/kidehen/?id=1756
2008-08-13T17:54:31Z
<a href="http://dbpedia.org/About" id="link-id10afcac0">DBpedia</a> 3.1 is now live. The release highlights are as follows:<br /> <ul> <li>116,7 million triples (27% increase over prior release) </li> <li>better <a href="http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/%7Esuchanek/downloads/yago/" id="link-id14095ce0">YAGO</a> mapping (instances associated with YAGO classes)</li> <li>Geo extractor code has been improved and is now run for all 14 languages</li> <li>New (X)HTML based Resource/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1682b988">Entity</a> Description Page (Example:<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1045d8c0"> Linked Data</a>)</li> </ul>Enjoy!<br /> <br />
Kingsley Idehen
kidehen@openlinksw.com
2008-08-14T08:15:48.000-04:00
.NET, LINQ, and RDF based Linked Data (Update 2)
http://myopenlink.net/weblog/kidehen/?id=1755
2008-08-03T16:07:09Z
<p>At OpenLink, we've been investigating <a href="http://code.google.com/p/linqtordf/" id="link-id1296eb18">LinqToRdf</a>, an exciting project from <a href="http://aabs.wordpress.com/" id="link-id13e860a8">Andrew Matthews</a> that seeks to expose the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id105d84f8">Semantic Web</a> technology space to the large community of .NET developers. </p> <p>The LinqToRdf project is about binding LINQ to RDF. It sits atop <a href="http://razor.occams.info/" id="link-id102e3b10">Joshua Tauberer</a>'s <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C_(programming_language)" id="link-id1471b0d0">C</a># based <a href="http://razor.occams.info/code/semweb/" id="link-id14cb9030">Semantic Web/RDF library</a> which has been out there for a while and works across Microsoft .NET and it's open source variant "Mono".</p> <p>Historically, the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id13ee9f40">Semantic Web</a> realm has been dominated by RDF frameworks such as <a href="http://www.openrdf.org/" id="link-id109f8a68">Sesame</a>, <a href="http://jena.sourceforge.net/" id="link-id144c3210">Jena</a> and <a href="http://librdf.org/" id="link-id10600228">Redland</a>; which by their Open Source orientation, predominantly favor non-Windows platforms (Java and Linux). Conversely, Microsoft's .NET frameworks have sought to offer Conceptualization technology for heterogeneous Logical Data Sources via .NET's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADO.NET_Entity_Framework" id="link-id10726628">Entity Frameworks</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id13e7edd8">ADO.NET</a>, but without any actual bindings to RDF. </p> <p>Interestingly, believe it or not, .NET already has a data query language that shares a number of similarities with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1042f480">SPARQL</a>, called <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id105a46b0">Entity</a>-<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id1041d2e8">SQL</a>, and a very innovative programming language called LINQ; that offers a blend of constructs for natural data access and manipulation across relational (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id139f5848">SQL</a>), hierarchical (XML), and graph (Object) models without the traditional object language->database impedance tensions of the past.</p> <p>With regards to all of the above, we've just released a mini white paper that covers the exploitation of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/linqtordf/linqtordf1.htm" id="link-id14b2f138">RDF-based Linked Data using .NET via LINQ</a>. The paper offers a an overview of LinqToRdf, plus enhancements we've contributed to the project (available in <a href="http://aabs.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/announcing-linqtordf-v08/" id="link-id101defa8">LinqToRdf v0.8</a>.). The paper includes real-world examples that tap into a MusicBrainz powered <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id101ffd18">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id105cb858">Space</a>, the Music Ontology, the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13f55860">Virtuoso</a> RDF Quad Store, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id12826718">Virtuoso</a> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id1030cb60">Sponger</a> Middleware, and our RDfization Cartridges for Musicbrainz. </p> Enjoy!
Kingsley Idehen
kidehen@openlinksw.com
2008-08-08T08:54:09.000-04:00
Virtuoso's Universal Server Architecture (Conceptual & Technical)
http://myopenlink.net/weblog/kidehen/?id=1754
2008-08-03T13:07:12Z
As they say, a picture speaks a thousand words, so I am exposing two views of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13fe7df8">Virtuoso</a> that have been on the Web for while. <br /> <br />Remember, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13f53ed0">Virtuoso</a> offers data management, data access, web <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Application_server" id="link-id109f04b0">application server</a>, enterprise service bus, and virtualization of disparate and heterogeneous data sources, as part of a single, multi threaded, cross-platform server solution; hence it's description as a "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id104d2e48">Universal Server</a>".<br /> <br />Conceptual View:<br /> <br /> <img alt="Image" style="max-width: 800px;" src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/images/vconc650.jpg" /> <br /> <br />Technical View (kinda missing <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id10660110">PHP</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Perl" id="link-id1053d9b8">Perl</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Python_programming_language" id="link-id107bc9c0">Python</a> runtime hosting in the Virtual Application Sever realm):<br /> <br /> <img alt="Image" style="max-width: 800px;" src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/images/virtuoso3arch.gif" /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x3e5d5be8">Virtuoso</a>'s architecture is not a reaction to current trends. The diagrams above are pretty old (with minor touch ups in recent times). At <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id13e194c0">OpenLink Software</a>, we've have a consistent world-view re. standards and the vital role they play when it comes to developing software that enables the construction and exploitation of "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id133c84a8">Context</a> Lenses" that tap into a substrate of Virtualized Logical Data Sources (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id104d1c30">SQL</a>, XML, RDF, Web Services, Full Text etc.).<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />
Kingsley Idehen
kidehen@openlinksw.com
2008-08-05T18:27:10.000-04:00
Time for Context Lenses (Update)
http://myopenlink.net/weblog/kidehen/?id=1753
2008-08-02T19:06:57Z
As the <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id13dfe618">Linked Data meme</a> continues on it's quest to unravel the mysteries of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id10527b30">Semantic Web</a> vision, it's quite gratifying to see that <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Federated_database_system" id="link-id104f58b0">data virtualization</a> comprehension: creating "Conceptual Views" into logically organized "Disparate & Heterogeneous Data Sources" via "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id14a46998">Context</a> Lenses" is taking shape, as illustrated in the "<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Er/SemanticBusiness/%7E3/353668031/note-to-self-virtualconceptual-as-wwwsw.html" id="link-id13179dd8">note-to-self</a>" post by <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidprovost" id="link-id1403dc88">David Provost</a>.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Virtualization of heterogeneous data sources is only achievable if you have a dexterous data model based "Bus" into which the data sources are plugged. RDF has offered such a model for a long time.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <img alt="Image" style="max-width: 800px;" src="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/diagrams/sw-clients.png" /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />When heterogeneous data sources are plugged into an RDF based integration bus e.g., customer records sourced from a variety of tables, across a plethora of databases, you can only end up with true value if the emergent entities from such an effort are coherently linked and (de)referencable; which is what <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id12b06e20">Linked Data</a>'s fundamental preoccupation with dereferencable URIs is all about. Of course, Even when you have all of the above in place, you also need to be able to construct "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id103c2c80">Context</a> Lenses" i.e., <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id1037a260">context</a> driven views of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13e48ab8">Linked Data</a> Mesh (or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id101c7718">Linked Data</a> Spaces).<br /> <br /> <br />Additional Diagrams:<br /> <br /> <br />1. <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-iswc-tbl/#%2824%29" id="link-id10808cb8">Clients of the RDF Bus</a> <br />2. <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-iswc-tbl/#%2825%29" id="link-id11e5a300">RDF Bus Server plugins: Scripts that emit RDF</a> <br />3. <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-iswc-tbl/#%2826%29" id="link-id13ea46a0">RDF Bus Servers: RDF Data Managers (Triple or Quad Stores)</a> <br />4. <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-iswc-tbl/#%2827%29" id="link-id101d3470">RDF Bus Servers: Relational to RDF Mappers (RDF Views, Semantic Covers etc.)</a> <br />5. <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-iswc-tbl/#%2828%29" id="link-id1052c450">RDF Bus Server plugins: XML to RDF Mappers </a> <br />6. <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-iswc-tbl/#%2829%29" id="link-id10281ec0">RDF Bus Server plugins: GRDDL based XSLT stylesheets that emit RDF</a> <br />7. <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-iswc-tbl/#%2830%29" id="link-id1444faf0">RDF Bus Server plugins: Intelligent RDF Middleware</a> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />
Kingsley Idehen
kidehen@openlinksw.com
2008-08-04T11:44:55.3000-04:00
Linked Data, Meshups, Twitter, and Friendfeed
http://myopenlink.net/weblog/kidehen/?id=1751
2008-08-01T02:11:31Z
<p>Here are some links from my Friendfeed and Twitter Data Spaces that expose a number of recent <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x5b09ee10">Linked Data</a> "Meshup" examples:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://friendfeed.com/kidehen" id="link-id101740a8">Friendfeed</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://twitter.com/kidehen" id="link-id104baa80">Twitter</a> </li> </ul> <p>Enjoy!</p>
Kingsley Idehen
kidehen@openlinksw.com
2008-07-31T22:37:33.000-04:00
WUPnP Cheatsheet
http://myopenlink.net/weblog/kidehen/?id=1750
2008-07-29T02:24:19Z
<p> <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2008/07/28/wupnp-cheatsheet/#comments" id="link-id133b9048">WUPnP Cheatsheet</a>: "</p> <p>The Web Universal Plug and Play (<acronym title="Web Universal Plug and Play">WUPnP</acronym>) Cheatsheet: </p> <p> <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/images/wupnparch.png" id="link-id107bbee8"><img src="http://vanirsystems.com/images/wupnparch.png" alt="Web Universal Plug and Play (WUPnP) Cheatsheet" width="50%" /> </a> </p> <p>Essentially, if you build an application and use the technologies suggested in the ‘glue section’ then your web application/service (whether it’s front-end or back-end) will fit into many many other web applications/services… and therefore also more manageable for the future! This is WUPnP.</p> <p>Key technologies for making your services/applications as sticky as possible:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dereferenceable_Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id1016cbd8">Dereferenceable URI’s</a> (which indicate <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id101d7790">HTTP</a> networking)</li> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenID" id="link-id12ea5e68">OpenID</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OAuth" id="link-id12e1acf0">OAuth</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARQL" id="link-id133d34e0">SPARQL</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linked_Data" id="link-id106a7040">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id1072d890">RDF</a> (or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RDFa" id="link-id14040c38">RDFa</a>) and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Ontology_Language" id="link-id1044dda8">OWL</a> </li> </ul> <p>Web-based plug and play fun!</p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog" id="link-id10a15838">Daniel Lewis</a>.)</p>
Kingsley Idehen
kidehen@openlinksw.com
2008-07-29T09:49:21.000-04:00
CrunchBase gets hooked up with the Linked Data Web!
http://myopenlink.net/weblog/kidehen/?id=1749
2008-07-25T14:01:01Z
<p>It's getting really hot in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id15eea8f8">Linked Data</a> land! Two days ago <a href="http://bnode.org/about" id="link-id107e2f70">Benjamin Nowack</a> pinged the <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id11b93670">LOD</a> community about his <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-lod/2008Jul/0110.html" id="link-id1022a270">RDFization of Crunchbase</a> (sample (X)HTML view: http://cb.semsol.org/company/opera-software) courtesy of Crounchbase releasing an API. As you know, I've always equated Web Service API to Database CLIs (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id16327528">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id1027f410">JDBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id10683850">ADO</a>.<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id13beb9b8">NET</a> etc.) as both offer code level hooks into Data Spaces.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <p>Naturally, we've decided to join the Crunchbase RDFization party, and have just completed a <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10282208">Virtuoso</a> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id10acf0f8">Sponger</a> Cartridge (an RDFizer) for Crouncbase. What we add in our particular cartridge is additional meshing with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id115e2a98">DBpedia</a> and Wikicompany <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id132f0568">Linked Data</a> Spaces, plus RDFizaton of the Crunchbase (X)HTML pages :-)</p> <p></p> <p></p> <p>As I've postulated for a while, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13304010">Linked Data</a> is about data "Meshing" and "Meshups". This isn't a buzzword play. I am pointing out an important distinction between "Mashups" and "Meshpus". Which goes as follows: "Mashups" are about code level joining devoid of structured modelling, hence the revelation of code as opposed to data when you look behind a "Mashup". "Meshups" on the other hand, are about joining disparate structured data sources across the Web. And when you look behind a "Meshup" you see structured data (preferably <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id143bdb68">Linked Data</a>) that enables further "Meshing".</p> <p></p> <p></p> <p>I truly believe that we are now inches away from critical mass re. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14829640">Linked Data</a>, and because we are dealing with data, the network-effect will be sky-high! I shudder to think about the state of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1040c820">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id133364e8">Web</a> in 12 months time. Yes, I am giving the explosion 12 months (or less). These are very exciting times.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <p>Demo Links:</p> <p></p> <p></p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/ode/?uri%5B%5D=http%3A%2F%2Fcb.semsol.org%2Fcompany%2Fopera-software&" id="link-id12fe1dc8">Opera Software via Benjee's Linked Data Space for Cunchbase</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/ode/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchbase.com%2Fcompany%2Fopera-software" id="link-id10739a18">Opera Software via our Linked Data Space for Crunchbas</a> </li> </ul> <p></p> <p></p> <p>For best experience I encourage you to look at the <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8062" id="link-id1499a0f8">OpenLink Data Explorer extension</a> for Firefox (2.x - 3.x). This enables you to go to Crunchbase (X)HTML pages (and other sites on the Web of course), and then simply use the "View | Linked Data Sources" main or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id10051b50">context</a> menu sequence to unveil the Linked Data Sources associated with any Web Page.</p> <p></p> <p>Of course there is much more to come!</p>
Kingsley Idehen
kidehen@openlinksw.com
2008-07-29T21:43:31.000-04:00