Hi Hugh,
Note sure I follow your argument, as LOD or DBpedia in this specific
case is free ... if you either:
1. Access the live service hosted by OpenLink at http://dbpedia.org
2. Setup your own DBpedia instance locally as detailed at:
http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/
rdfperformancetuning.html#rdfperfloadingdbpedia
Note we are also going to provide a DBpedia installer to make the
setting up of a local instance an easier process.
If you want to use the Virtuoso DBpedia EC2 AMI, then as with other
services in the Amazon Cloud you pay for Data transfer and/or a
subscription fee to the application owner, which by the way is for
the Virtuoso Server Instance hosting the DBpedia data and not DBpedia
itself.
Also, "open" does not necessarily imply "free" in my opinion, as I
see it more as referring to the means of accessing the data being via
"open" standards ...
Best Regards
Hugh Williams
Professional Services
OpenLink Software
Web: http://www.openlinksw.com
Support: http://support.openlinksw.com
Forums: http://boards.openlinksw.com/support
On 6 Dec 2008, at 21:11, Hugh Glaser wrote:
Sorry, but you probably knew this was coming...
The esw page starts by saying:
"The Open Data Movement aims at making data freely available to
everyone."
This is the context for the LOD activity.
Personally I am quite happy with an LD world and a LOD world, but I
think
that some people have a deep commitment to the Open.
At the very least, we should be quite clear about whether we are
talking LOD
or LD.
So the recent postings suggesting the questions and answers for an
FAQ (well
done guys!) need to be (more?) careful about the Open. This is
especially
true because the data providers will have very genuine concerns
about the
work Open when we talk LOD.
I wonder if it would be better, for these purposes to drop the Open
most of
the time, and just talk LD?
But to get back to the Amazon world.
It looks to me like it is being proposed as a LOD facility.
I think it is a wonderful thing to do, but it is hard for me to
consider it
Open in any real sense.
If I was to grab lots of linked data and then start to offer it to the
community, but say to you that you needed to rent some server space
from me
in order to use it, I think there would be a lot of complaints that
I should
not be using the word Open at all.
The Amazon situation, as far as I can see, is no different.
And I would say that the idea they are being "generous" in letting
people
host data is simply part of a hard-nosed business model, where they
will
draw people into their (paid-for) world, which is fine, but hardly
Open.
So I am very happy for this activity to be badged as Linked Data,
and I hope
it is very successful.
But from my point of view, please don't call anything part of the
LOD world
unless it offers me free access over http.
I am happy to be told I am alone in these concerns, or have
misunderstood
the terms of use of the Amazon cloud, and if so will then modify my
perceptions accordingly.
Best
Hugh
