tea on the_rapids

An Architectural Approach to Linked Open Data

dhenry, 04/19/2013

Welcome. I am David Henry and this is Eric Brown. We are from the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis Missouri and we are here to talk about are experiences using linked open data and the architecture we are developing to manage linked open data. Since you need to have a basic understanding of linked open data before wen can proceed with the presentation, I want to show a short clip from Europeanna that does a great job of defining linked open data.

“The Missouri History Museum will facilitate

Why Linked Open Data Matters To Us

From our Mission:

public examination of the past to engender mutual appreciation of differing points of view,

discovery of shared meaning

and expansion of the common ground and shared future that bind us.”

dhenry, 04/19/2013

I confess that I've drunk the Kool Aid on linked open data. It has great potential and - at its core it is a simple idea. The video I just showed emphasized the benefits in terms of increasing traffic and prestige. Those benefits are important but - at least for our museum - linked open data can help us achieve our mission.

“Stories Matter”

In non-mission statement speak:

“If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” - Kipling

Why Linked Open Data Matters To Us

Stories are built from meaningful connections between

People,

Places,

Events,

& Ideas

… and – hopefully – you.

Why was St. Louis called ‘Mound City’?

dhenry, 04/01/2013

This print from our collection dates from 1873 shows St. Louis and refers to it as 'Mound City'. St. Louis was commonly referred to as 'Mound City' in the 19th century.

What happened to the mounds?

dhenry, 04/01/2013

Mounds from the Mississippi culture existed in the St. Louis area long before the arrival of any European settlers. Some were flat-topped temple mounds; others were rounded-top burial mounds.

Are there any mounds left?

dhenry, 04/01/2013

The mounds were systematically destroyed to make way for the growth of European settlers in St. Louis.The rapid desctruction of these mounds and the history they represent were important motivations for the founding of the Missouri Historical Society - now the Missouri History Museum.

Last Native American mound in St. Louis is visited by tribe that purchased site

From: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 19, 2013

dhenry, 04/01/2013

The Osage Nation purchased the land with the last known mound in St. Louis. Members of the Osage tribe visited the site in March. The Osage Nation plans to preserve the mound and build an education center there.

Title: Group of people standing on a partially destroyed Big Mound.Description: Group of people standing on a partially destroyed Big Mound.Place: Dates: 1869Type(s): photo, DaguerreotypeMaker/Creator: Thomas M. EasterlySubjects: Mississippian Culture, moundsIdentifier: PHO:17665Permalink: http://collections.mohistory.org/resource/9952

Who was Thomas M. Easterly?

What’s a daguerreotype?What’s a daguerreotype?

dhenry, 04/01/2013

Part of our mission is to facilitate shared meaning. It's these kind of meaningful links that allow us to do just that.After an intial investigation into the mound buikders in St. Louis a user may discover the extraordinary collection of Dagguereotypes by Thomas Easterly.

Name: Thomas M. Easterly

Birth Date: October 3, 1809

Death Date: March 12, 1882

Places of Residence: Guilford, Vermont Liberty, Missouri St. Louis, Missouri

Bio: Thomas M. Easterly was one of the leadingAmerican Dagguereotypists ….

During the 1860s, improvements in photographic development caused daguerreotypes to become out of fashion. Easterly refused to acknowledge these changes believing the highly detailed daguerreotypes were far superior in terms of beauty or permanence urging the public to "save your old daguerreotypes for you will never see their like again".

dhenry, 04/01/2013

The daguerreotype is a direct-positive process, creating a highly detailed image on a sheet of copper plated with a thin coat of silver without the use of a negative.

Thomas Forsyth, Mountain Spy - 1847

dhenry, 04/01/2013

The Missouri History Museum has over 600 dagguereotype plates by Thomas Easterly.

Keokuk - 1847

Unidentified Woman – date unknown

http://collections.mohistory.org/resource/9952

http://collections.mohistory.org/vocab/daguerreotype

rdf:type

1869

dc:date

“Thomas M. Easterly”

rdfs:label


dc:createdBy

“Mississippian Culture”


dc:subject

dhenry, 04/01/2013

By assigning unique IDs to people, places, events, and concepts; and by linking those things with meaningful, controlled 'predicates', it's possible to build linkages the present the basic structure of a story.

But what about

PERMANENCE?

dhenry, 04/01/2013

Linkrot is a huge problem. One study found that links have a 'half-life' of ten years. For a set of links published in 'D-Lib' magazine, only half of them were still working afetr 10 years.

In Linked Open Data, links have meaning …

… and may be the foundation of a story.

Linkrot can be disastrous for Linked Open DataLinkrot can be disastrous for Linked Open Data

Since permanence is essential toLinked Open Data …

How do we maintain permanence on a system (THE WEB) thatis constantly – and rapidly – changing?

… it’s not so easy.

On the Web ..

… change seems like the only constant.

http://www.evolutionoftheweb.com/

Hang on to the HTTP Protocol

Everything else is just a passing wave

Use HTTP dereferencable URIs

Keep URIs ‘opaque’ to maintain permanence

Minting Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI)

Assign resource IDs to everything

Architectural Strategy

• Publish an ‘open’ license (normally that means in the public domain)

• Publish in Resource Description Framework

• Identify resources HTTP accessible URIs

• Provide one or more SPARQL endpoints

HTTP GET – accept: application/rdf+xml http://collections.mohistory.org/resource/1234

HTTP 303 See Other http://collections.mohistory.org/resource/1234.rdf

HTTP GET – accept: application/rdf+xml http://collections.mohistory.org/resource/1234.rdf

HTTP 200 OK

<?xml version="1.0"?><rdf:RDFxmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:rdfs="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:mhm="http://collections.mohistory.org/resource/"xmlns:mhmvocab="http://collections.mohistory.org/vocab/">

<rdf:Descriptionrdf:about="http://collections.mohistory.org/resource/78543"> <rdfs:label>Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association</rdfs:label> <rdf:type rdf:resource="mhmvocab:business"/> <dc:created>1879</dc:created> <mhmvocab:establishedIn>1879</mhmvocab:establishedIn> <mhmvocab:locatedIn rdf:resource="mhm:92142"/> …

<?xml version="1.0"?><rdf:RDFxmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:rdfs="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:mhm="http://collections.mohistory.org/resource/"xmlns:mhmvocab="http://collections.mohistory.org/vocab/">

<rdf:Descriptionrdf:about="http://collections.mohistory.org/resource/78543"> <rdfs:label>Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association</rdfs:label> <rdf:type rdf:resource="mhmvocab:business"/> <dc:created>1879</dc:created> <mhmvocab:establishedIn>1879</mhmvocab:establishedIn> <mhmvocab:locatedIn rdf:resource="mhm:92142"/> …

ResourceDB

RDFRepository

SOLR

Permanent Changeable

Linked Data ResolverLinked Data Resolver

• Determine extension from Accept Header

• Return ‘See Other’ URI

Resource Type ClassResource Type Class

• Checks available representations

Resource ManagerResource Manager• Loads Resource Record

• Instantiates Resource Type Render class

• Gets Type representation

• Returns representation

• Checks access

• Renders representation based on requested format

Apa

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UR

L R

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ules

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