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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

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General

What is Linked Data?

The Web enables us to link related documents. Similarly it enables us to link related data. The term Linked Data refers to a set of best practices for publishing and connecting structured data on the Web. Key technologies that support Linked Data are URIs (a generic means to identify entities or concepts in the world), HTTP (a simple yet universal mechanism for retrieving resources, or descriptions of resources), and RDF (a generic graph-based data model with which to structure and link data that describes things in the world).
(Contributor: Tom Heath, including excerpts from Bizer, Heath and Berners-Lee (in press))

What is the relationship between Linked Data and the Semantic Web?

Opinions on this topic do differ somewhat, however a widely held view is that the Semantic Web is made up of Linked Data; i.e. the Semantic Web is the whole, while Linked Data is the parts. Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web and the person credited with coining the terms Semantic Web and Linked Data has frequently described Linked Data as "the Semantic Web done right", e.g. in these slides. The following blog posts (and comments) discuss these issues in more detail:

(Contributor: Tom Heath)

 

  • What is the relationship with RDFa?
  • What is the relationship with Microformats?
  • Does all Linked Data need to be Linked Open Data?
  • How is Linked Data different from Web 2.0 mashups?

Creating Linked Data

How do I create Linked Data?

If you want to get started creating and publishing Linked Data, the definitive introductory resource is the tutorial How to Publish Linked Data on the Web, by Chris Bizer, Richard Cyganiak and Tom Heath.

  • Does everything in my dataset need a URI?
  • How do I create URIs for things in my dataset?
  • Should I reuse existing URIs or create my own and set sameAs links?
  • Should I make my URIs human readable?
  • How do I discover URIs for a thing?
  • Which URI should I choose if several are available?
  • Which vocabularies should I use for describing my dataset?
  • Where do I find vocabularies?
  • How should I choose between two or more existing vocabularies for describing my dataset?
  • Where do I find vocabularies?
  • How do I make a vocabulary?
  • Should I use RDFS or OWL?
  • How do I create links between datasets?
  • Do links need to be bidirectional?
  • What is the role of rdfs:seeAlso?

Publishing Linked Data

How do I publish Linked Data?

See How do I create Linked Data? above...

  • Should I replace my Relational Database with a native Triple Store?
  • Which is the best RDF serialization for publishing RDF?
  • How do I publish Linked Data from existing tools such as MediaWiki, Drupal, Wordpress, etc?
  • How can I validate that my Linked Data is published correctly?
  • Which organizations publish Linked Data?
  • How do I express licensing terms of a dataset?
  • What are the incentives for publishing Linked Data?

Datasets

  • How many datasets are in the Linked Data cloud?
  • How many are published by the dataset owners?
  • How do you know that a dataset is reliable and trust?
  • How do I discover a dataset on a particular topic?
  • How do I know what links a dataset has?

Consuming Linked Data

In The Web, one huge database ... you'll find a screen-cast and examples how to consume linked data with SPARQL.

  • How do I consume Linked Data?
  • Can I combine Linked Open Data with private or closed data?

Linked Data Applications

In case you want to get an overview and introduction have a look at the Technical Report Linked Data Applications - The Genesis and the Challenges of Using Linked Data on the Web. There is also a maintained, live list of linked data apps available via ESW Wiki.

  • What existing applications use Linked Data?

Business with Linked Data

  • What is the business value of Linked Data?