Ethan, it looks to me like it depends on who you are and who is your
target. In the schema.org clan there is still a majority using
microdata, but my impression is that these are the online sales sites
whose primary interest is SEO. RDFa lite is moving up generally [0], yet
I haven't seen a clear statement that the search engines consider it =
microdata (even though the two are very close). Perhaps they do?
Recently it was announced that JSON-LD is now an "official" schema.org
markup. The advantage of JSON-LD is that it separates the display from
the mark-up so there is less of a formatting issue. However, it also
opens it all up to scamming - well, to easier scamming than with the
other two formats.
Meanwhile, as more and more folks discover schema.org there is more and
more demand for additions to what was originally an extremely simple set
of properties. Some predict that it will crumble under its own
disorderliness, a metadata tower of Babel.
Regardless of that, I still think that the web is the place for linked
data, even though there are quite a few enterprise implementations of ld
that do not present a public face. I'd prefer to have some idea of what
we want to link to, why, and how it will help users. There are some
examples, like FAO's Open Agris [1], but I'd like to see more. (And I'm
not sure what LIBRIS [2] is doing with their catalog, which is reported
to be a triple-store.)
kc
[0] http://webdatacommons.org/
[1] http://agris.fao.org/openagris/
[2] http://libris.kb.se/?language=en
On 11/19/13 8:28 AM, Ethan Gruber wrote:
Hasn't the pendulum swung back toward RDFa Lite (
http://www.w3.org/TR/rdfa-lite/) recently? They are fairly equivalent, but
I'm not sure about all the politics involved.
On Tue, Nov 19, 2013 at 11:09 AM, Karen Coyle <li...@kcoyle.net> wrote:
Eric, if you want to leap into the linked data world in the fastest,
easiest way possible, then I suggest looking at microdata markup, e.g.
schema.org.[1] Schema.org does not require you to transform your data at
all: it only requires mark-up of your online displays. This makes sense
because as long as your data is in local databases, it's not visible to the
linked data universe anyway; so why not take the easy way out and just add
linked data to your public online displays? This doesn't require a
transformation of your entire record (some of which may not be suitable as
linked data in any case), only those "things" that are likely to link
usefully. This latter generally means "things for which you have an
identifier." And you make no changes to your database, only to display.
OCLC is already producing this markup in WorldCat records [2]-- not
perfectly, of course, lots of warts, but it is a first step. However, it is
a first step that makes more sense to me than *transforming* or
*cross-walking* current metadata. It also, I believe, will help us
understand what bits of our current metadata will make the transition to
linked data, and what bits should remain as accessible documents that users
can reach through linked data.
kc
[1] http://schema.org, and look at the work going on to add bibliographic
properties at http://www.w3.org/community/schemabibex/wiki/Main_Page
[2] look at the "linked data" section of any WorldCat page for a single
item, such ashttp://www.worldcat.org/title/selection-of-early-
statistical-papers-of-j-neyman/oclc/527725&referer=brief_results
On 11/19/13 7:54 AM, Eric Lease Morgan wrote:
On Nov 19, 2013, at 9:41 AM, Karen Coyle <li...@kcoyle.net> wrote:
Eric, I think this skips a step - which is the design step in which you
create a domain model that uses linked data as its basis. RDF is not a
serialization; it actually may require you to re-think the basic
structure of your metadata. The reason for that is that it provides
capabilities that record-based data models do not. Rather than starting
with current metadata, you need to take a step back and ask: what does
my information world look like as linked data?
I respectfully disagree. I do not think it necessary to create a domain
model ahead of time; I do not think it is necessary for us to re-think our
metadata structures. There already exists tools enabling us — cultural
heritage institutions — to manifest our metadata as RDF. The manifestations
may not be perfect, but “we need to learn to walk before we run” and the
metadata structures we have right now will work for right now. As we mature
we can refine our processes. I do not advocate “stepping back and asking”.
I advocate looking forward and doing. —Eric Morgan
--
Karen Coyle
kco...@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
m: 1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet
--
Karen Coyle
kco...@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
m: 1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet
