This document discusses using linked open data and semantic web technologies to improve scientific knowledge management systems. It outlines how linking distributed data sources using common web standards allows data to be queried and analyzed across datasets in new ways. This enables researchers to discover relationships in the data that individual datasets did not anticipate. It advocates assigning stable, dereferenceable web identifiers to entities to facilitate linking data both within and across sources.

1. Linked Open
Data
and
Scientific
knowledge
management
systems
Gregor Hagedorn,
Museum für Naturkunde
Berlin© U.Kils, CC BY-SA 3.0; from Wikimedia Commons

4. 1. Scientist
reads in the
Web browser
2. Data-
federation
/-indexing

5. Links are not
yet operational

6. GBIF Datenfederation
Data from
Thailand?
Fungal
Cultures
CBS
Herbarium
München
Insect
Collection
MfN
Bird data
Germany
after Dave Remsen, GBIF, TDWG 2011
Bird data
Austria
Insect
Collection
NHM, UK

7. © i4Life

8. Some linking (R. Page)

12. Linking is usually
DB-internal = local

13. This is inefficient.

14. - Stable Links
- Return data

15. Identifiers

16. Specimen
Collection
Datenbase
Botanical
Nomenclatural
Database
Classical Identifiers

17. Specimen
Collection
Datenbase
Taxon = urn:uuid:
6e8bc430-9c3a-
11d9-9669-
0800200c9a66
Botanical
Nomenclatural
Database
Taxon = urn:uuid:
6e8bc430-9c3a-
11d9-9669-
0800200c9a66
Classical Identifiers

18. Specimen
Collection
Datenbase
Taxon = urn:uuid:
6e8bc430-9c3a-
11d9-9669-
0800200c9a66
Botanical
Nomenclatural
Database
Taxon = urn:uuid:
6e8bc430-9c3a-
11d9-9669-
0800200c9a66
Classical IdentifiersIf
this
found:
And
this
found:
Then
relation
detected:

19. Specimen
Collection
Datenbase
Taxon = http://
id.pesi.org/tax/6
e8bc430-9c3a-
11d9-9669-
0800200c9a66
Botanical
Nomenclatural
Database
@ http://
id.pesi.org/tax/6
e8bc430-9c3a-
11d9-9669-
0800200c9a66
Semantic Web

20. Specimen
Collection
Datenbase
Taxon = http://
id.pesi.org/tax/6
e8bc430-9c3a-
11d9-9669-
0800200c9a66
Botanical
Nomenclatural
Database
@ http://
id.pesi.org/tax/6
e8bc430-9c3a-
11d9-9669-
0800200c9a66
Semantic WebIf
this
found:
Then
relation
derefenced

21. Specimen
Collection
Datenbase
Taxon = http://
id.pesi.org/tax/6
e8bc430-9c3a-
11d9-9669-
0800200c9a66
Botanical
Nomenclatural
Database
@ http://
id.pesi.org/tax/6
e8bc430-9c3a-
11d9-9669-
0800200c9a66
Semantic Web
Micro-
citation
of data!

22. Semantic Web
B C
Thing
A D E
= typed links (properties)
Thing
Thing
Thing
Thing
Thing Thing
Thing
Thing
Thing

23. Linked Open Data Cloud (LOD 2011)

24. Linked Open Data Cloud (LOD 2011)

25. Why Linked Open Data?
– Distributed Web Model
• using W3C standards (xml, rdf, owl)
• Machine usable data (automatic analysis & reasoning)
• Web pages at same identifier (content negotiation)

26. Why Linked Open Data?
– Distributed Web Model
• using W3C standards (xml, rdf, owl)
• Machine usable data (automatic analysis & reasoning)
• Web pages at same identifier (content negotiation)
– Anyone can say anything about anything, anywhere
• Usages that the data providers never anticipated
• Third parties connect concepts between data sets
• Particular needs contribute to global achievement

27. Why Linked Open Data?
– Distributed Web Model
• using W3C standards (xml, rdf, owl)
• Machine usable data (automatic analysis & reasoning)
• Web pages at same identifier (content negotiation)
– Anyone can say anything about anything, anywhere
• Usages that the data providers never anticipated
• Third parties connect concepts between data sets
• Particular needs contribute to global achievement
– Flexible to adapt to almost any form of data
– Information managed at source plus annotated globally

28. Why Linked Open Data?
– Distributed Web Model
• using W3C standards (xml, rdf, owl)
• Machine usable data (automatic analysis & reasoning)
• Web pages at same identifier (content negotiation)
– Anyone can say anything about anything, anywhere
• Usages that the data providers never anticipated
• Third parties connect concepts between data sets
• Particular needs contribute to global achievement
– Flexible to adapt to almost any form of data
– Information managed at source plus annotated globally
– Queries and other analysis can combine arbitrary sets of
data, anywhere and owned by anyone
– Common and diverse vocabularies can be used together
and related to each other (creativity, science!)

29. Strategy:
1. Stable Identifiers Now
(Semantic Web compatible,
http-dereferenceable)
2. Semantic Web Later ...

30. Identifier patterns?
–http://objects. myorg.edu/id/1C4EDC178
AD79DD7F1A5AB856E8C5BCA#treatment
or
–http://concepts.myorg.edu/id/123#treatment
or
–http://id.plazi.org/specimen/123#label

31. Stability is a
management
decision!

32. Scientific
knowledge
management
systems?

33. Discoverable
Distributed
Dissent &
Discourse

34. Fine-granular
knowledge
curation?

36. LOD is not
solution to all.

37. Infrastructure to build on top of it

38. Collaboration
must become
more efficient