A 4 hour hands on linked data workshop held at ELAG 2013 - http://elag2013.org/ws2-very-gentle-linked-data/. Resources at http://data.archiveshub.ac.uk/workshops/elag2013/

1. ELAG 2013 Workshop. Ghent, 29–30th May
2013
Adrian Stevenson and Jane Stevenson
Mimas, University of Manchester, UK
@adrianstevenson @janestevenson
Very Gentle Linked Data

2. Workshop Resources
• All workshop resources available from:
http://bit.ly/verygentle
• Web address for resources in footer of each
slide
Workshop resources at http://bit.ly/verygentle 2

3. Day 1
Workshop resources at http://bit.ly/verygentle 3

4. The goal of Linked Data is to
enable people to share
structured data on the Web
as easily as they can share
documents today.
Bizer/Cyganiak/Heath Linked Data Tutorial, linkeddata.org

5. RDF Modelling – Pride and Prejudice
Workshop resources at http://bit.ly/verygentle 5

6. Linked Data Design Issues
• URIs
• LD Design Issues
• Triples
http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html

7. Triples
• Triples statements
– ‘Things’ have ‘properties’ with ‘values’
– Subject – Predicate - Object
• Triples are the basis of RDF and Linked
Data
Archival
Resource
Repository Provides Access To
Pride and
Prejudice
Jane Austen Is Author Of

8. Archival
Resource
Finding
Aid
EAD
Document
Biographical
History
Agent
FamilyPerson Place
Concept
Genre Function
Organisation
maintainedBy/
maintains
origination
associatedWith
accessProvidedBy/
providesAccessTo
topic/
page
hasPart/
partOf
hasPart/
partOf
encodedAs/
encodes
Repository
(Agent)
Book
Place
topic/
page
Language
Level
administeredBy/
administers
hasBiogHist/
isBiogHistFor
foaf:focus Is-a associatedWith
level
Is-a
language
Concept
Scheme
inScheme
Object
representedBy
Postcode
Unit
Extent
Creation
Birth Death
extent
participates in
Temporal
Entity
Temporal
Entity
at time
at time
product of
in
Archives Hub Model

9. Workshop resources at http://bit.ly/verygentle 9

10. URIs, Vocabs, Ontologies
• Need HTTP URIs for things to make links
• Objects can be literal values – text, numbers
• It’s important to state the type of resource
– RDF Syntax provides rdf:type
– Rdf:type used with classes e.g. bibo:Book,
– dct:BibliographicResource
• Labels are very useful!
– RDF Schema provides rdfs:label, rdfs:comment
Workshop resources at http://bit.ly/verygentle 10

11. Paper to machine - Serialisation
• Storing RDF in files is serialisation
• Various forms for serialisation
– N-triples, Turtle and RDF/XML
– Notation 3 (N3) and RDFa
• Today we’ll be looking at n-triples and Turtle
• RDF/XML quite complex and hard to read, but
tools available to convert between formats
Workshop resources at http://bit.ly/verygentle 11

12. Turtle
• Semicolon - another predicate and object
coming for the same subject. The final object
needs a dot (period) after it.
• Comma - the next triple has the same subject
and predicate. The final object needs a dot
(period) after it.
Workshop resources at http://bit.ly/verygentle 12

13. Hands on session writing n-triples and
Turtle
Workshop resources at http://bit.ly/verygentle 13

14. Real Life Linked Data
• Transformation
– Often using XSLT
–MARC to RDF, MODS to RDF, EAD to RDF
• Matching Tools
– SILK Framework
• http://wifo5-03.informatik.uni-
mannheim.de/bizer/silk/
Workshop resources at http://bit.ly/verygentle 14

15. Day 2
Workshop resources at http://bit.ly/verygentle 15

16. Storing RDF - Triple Stores
• What? - a store for your triples!
• Why? - efficiency – indexing
• Useful for producing Linked Data views
• Provides SPARQL endpoint that accepts queries
and returns results over HTTP (i.e. the Web!).
• Results usually returned in ‘SPARQL Query
Results’ XML format
• Many stores present results in user friendly form
Workshop resources at http://bit.ly/verygentle 16

17. Running Fuseki Triple Store
• Now we’ll aim to run a Fuseki triple store on
your laptops
• If wifi working, all SPARQL examples should
work with the British Library SPARQL
endpoint:
– http://bnb.data.bl.uk/sparql
• …BUT! You’ll need to LIMIT your queries
Workshop resources at http://bit.ly/verygentle 17

18. Querying RDF - SPARQL
• A SPARQL query comprises, in order:
– Prefix declarations, for abbreviating URIs
– A result clause, identifying what information to
return from the query
– The query pattern, specifying what to query for in
the underlying dataset
– Query modifiers, slicing, ordering, and otherwise
rearranging query results
Workshop resources at http://bit.ly/verygentle 18

19. SPARQL Query
• # prefix declarations
PREFIX dct: <http://purl.org/terms/dc> ...
# result clause
SELECT ...
# query pattern
WHERE { ... }
# query modifiers
ORDER BY ...
Workshop resources at http://bit.ly/verygentle 19

20. Hands on SPARQL Session
Workshop resources at http://bit.ly/verygentle 20

21. Linked Data Views
• Can use tools to provide Linked Data Views
– Pubby
• http://wifo5-03.informatik.uni-mannheim.de/pubby/
– ELDA
• https://code.google.com/p/elda/
• Views important for making Linked Data de-
referenceable and crawlable.
Workshop resources at http://bit.ly/verygentle 21

22. Workshop resources at http://bit.ly/verygentle 22

23. Workshop resources at http://bit.ly/verygentle 23

24. Building Applications on Linked Data
• We have explained today how to publish RDF
and Linked Data
• The next step is to build applications using it
• BBC is probably the best example
• We’ve been working on Linking Lives project
– http://archiveshub.ac.uk/linkinglives/
Workshop resources at http://bit.ly/verygentle 24

25. Martha Beatrice Webb
Place of birth:
Gloucester, England
Place of death:
Liphook, Hampshire, Englan
d
Life dates: 1858-1943
Epithet: social reformer and
historian
Family name: Webb
Image
from: Beatrice Webb letters
Beatrice Webb (1858 - 1943). Fabian Socialist, social reformer, writer,
historian, diarist. Wife, collaborator and assistant of Sidney Webb,
later Lord Passfield. Together they contributed to the radical ideology
first of the Liberal Party and later of the Labour Party.
from: Beatrice Webb, A summer holiday in Scotland, 1884.
Beatrice Webb (1858-1943), nee Potter, social reformer and diarist.
Married to Sidney Webb, pioneers of social science. She was involved
in many spheres of political and social activity including the Labour
Party, Fabianism, social observation, investigations into poverty,
development of socialism, the foundation of the National Health
Service and post war welfare state, the London School of
Biographical Notes
Works
Our Partnership
My Apprenticeship
The case for the factory acts
Beatrice Webb’s diaries; edited by Margaret Cole
The Diary
Knows
http://dbpedia.org/page/George_Bernard_Shaw
http://dbpedia.org/page/Sidney_Webb,_1st_Bar
on_Passfield

26. Contacts
26
Adrian Stevenson and Jane Stevenson
Mimas, University of Manchester, UK
adrian.stevenson@manchester.ac.uk
Jane.stevenson@manchester.ac.uk
www.mimas.ac.uk
www.twitter.com/adrianstevenson
www.twitter.com/janestevenson
Workshop resources at http://bit.ly/verygentle

27. CC License
This presentation available under creative commons Non
Commercial-Share Alike:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/
Workshop resources at http://bit.ly/verygentle 27