Semantic Future for Libraries – Martin Malmsten Talks with Talis

Originally posted on August 19, 2008 in the Talis Panlibus blog.

Martin Malmsten is from the LIBRIS department of the Royal Library of Sweden – LIBRIS being the discovery interface for the library.

Since joining as a software developer has been absorbed in to the world of library search and discovery. He played a major part in the build and launch of the latest LIBRIS search interface which has introduced under the surface some Semantic Web and Linked Data features.

We discuss his career, the use of User Centered Design & Iterative Development methodologies, the Semantic Web techniques and technologies he used, and their future applicability to the library domain.

Items discussed in our conversation:

• LIBRIS
• User-centered design and the next generation OPAC – a perfect match?
• RDF / Linked Data representations of cataloged data via LIBRIS:
  • URI for the Royal Library - http://libris.kb.se/resource/library/S
  • URI for the subject heading "Mödrar" (Mothers in English) - http://libris.kb.se/resource/auth/154863
  • URI for August Strindberg - http://libris.kb.se/resource/auth/94541
  • URI for the book "The difference Engine" - http://libris.kb.se/resource/bib/5060570
  • The book "The difference Engine" in OpenLink RDF browser - http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html?uri=http%3A%2F%2Flibris.kb.se%2Fresource%2Fbib%2F5060570
• Cool URIs for the Semantic Web

Ed Summers Talks with Talis

Originally posted on June 30, 2008 on the Talis Panlibus blog.

Ed Summers has recently been active in exposing Library of Congress Subject Heading data as Linked Data using Semantic Web technologies and RDF, through his experimental service at lcsh.info.

In this conversation we find out how Ed’s career, not always on a traditional library path, has led him to his work in the Library of Congress, his pragmatic interest in things Semantic Web, and why he has needed to experiment outside of the LoC.

In this conversation we reference:

• code4lib
• Library of Congress
• National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP)
• National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP)
• Chronicling America
• The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
• The BagIt File Package Format
• Simple Web-service Offering Repository Deposit (SWORD)
• Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS)
• LCSH, SKOS and Linked Data
• lcsh.info
• Cool URIs for the Semantic Web
• How to Publish Linked Data on the Web
• Ed Summers’ web site: Inkdroid

Talking With Talis :: Tim Berners-Lee

Originally posted on Talking With Talis on February 27, 2008.

In our latest podcast interview I talk with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and now Director of the World Wide Web Consortium. We discuss the Semantic Web's readiness for mainstream adoption, and explore a wide range of issues from Linked Data to the writing of new books for developers.

For further discussion of the interview's content, see this post on ZDNet's latest blog, The Semantic Web.

Download MP3 [63 mins, 30Mb]. Read transcript

During the conversation, we refer to numerous resources. These are linked from the transcript, and reproduced below;

• Sir Tim Berners-Lee
• DBpedia
• FOAF
• Giant Global Graph
• GRDDL
• Linked Data Planet
• Linked Data Project
• Linked Open Data Workshop
• Musicbrainz
• N3
• OpenAuth
• OWL
• RDF
• 'The Semantic Web', Scientific American 2001
• Semantic Web Interest Group
• SPARQL
• Swoogle
• Tabulator
• Weaving the Web
• World Wide Web Consortium

Talking With Talis :: Richard Cyganiak

Originally posted on Talking With Talis on March 13, 2008.

Latest recording on technical matters is a chat with Richard Cyganiak, who's currently working on the Sindice Semantic Web search engine, though is probably best known for his leading role in the Linking Open Data project (maintaining the cloud diagram :-)

In the podcast Richard describes various technical details of these projects, and talks about the nature of data on the Web in the wild, as RDF, microformats and increasingly RDFa. He also discusses some of the practical issues in mapping existing databases to the Semantic Web (the kind of techniques Tim Berners-Lee mentioned in his podcast with Paul a few weeks ago).

Richard naturally mentions the principles of Linked Data :

1. Use URIs as names for things
2. Use HTTP URIs so that people can look up those names.
3. When someone looks up a URI, provide useful information.
4. Include links to other URIs. so that they can discover more things.

Download MP3 [47 mins, 44Mb]

• DERI Galway
• Richard @ Freie Universität Berlin (via D2R)
• HP Labs Semantic Web Research
• Sindice Semantic Web search engine/API
• Giovanni Tummarello
• microformats, RDFa
• TagSoup liberal HTML parser
• foaf:knows
• Give yourself a URI, Cool URIs for the Semantic Web
• LinkingOpenData W3C SWEO Community Project
• Chris Bizer
• DBpedia
• Joshua Tauberer
• rdfabout.com (including a billion-triples dataset of U.S. Census statistics)
• RKB Explorer
• Hugh Glaser @ Scientific Commons
• Linking Open Data mailing list, The Linking Open Data dataset cloud
• Linked Data (Tim Berners-Lee Design Issue note)
• RDF/XML, Turtle - Terse RDF Triple Language[see also : Why RDF is more than XML]
• Tabulator Semantic Web browser
• SPARQL
• last.fm
• W3C RDB2RDF Incubator Group
• D2RQ - Treating Non-RDF Databases as Virtual RDF Graphs
• Tim Berners-Lee podcast

Talking With Talis :: Tom Morris

Originally posted on Nodalities on March 8, 2008.

Today's verbal delight features Semantic Web hacker (and philosopher) Tom Morris, initially talking about using XML to describe real-world things, mentioning the advantages of RDF. He then describes his experiences with the Ruby programming language, and offers thoughts on practical aspects of working in the distributed environment of the Web. Tom tells of ideas he has around using Bluetooth with RDF, before giving his opinion of platforms like Facebook, and related novel aspects of online gaming. He concludes by talking about his recent experience of organizing SemanticCamp London, and encouraging other people to try the BarCamp approach to conferences.

Download MP3 [52 mins, 48Mb]

During the conversation, we refer to the following resources:

• Tom Morris (blog)
• OPML 2.0, RelaxNG
• Google Contacts Data API
• tommorris / rena
• Rake (Ruby make), RSpec (Behaviour Driven Development framework for Ruby)
• Jena, rdflib
• NSFW: Not Safe For Work
• microformats, GRDDL
• Tim Berners-Lee
• git, github
• "Fork (software development)" on Wikipedia
• ID3 (Rhythm and blues/Contemporary R&B on Wikipedia)
• Colorado Benefits Management System
• SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System)
• SHA hash functions
• BlogTalk WebCamp SocialNetworkPortability
• LightBlue (cross-platform Python Bluetooth API)
• BlueFOAF: discover nearby friends with Bluetooth
• Dan Brickley, Dave Beckett, Matt Biddulph
• danbri's MacBook Air
• Growl
• Inverse Functional Property
• SubEthaEdit
• Facebook, MySpace, OpenSocial
• AOL, CompuServe, Prodigy (Wikipedia links)
• Twitter, Dopplr
• Rails, Amazon EC2
• Pownce, Heroku
• Drupal and the opportunity of RDF, video
• EVE Online
• The profile attribute and GRDDL
• Dan Connolly
• URI-Based Extensibility
• Web 3.0 has checked into buzzword hotel...
• Semantic Web Aliases
• SemanticCamp, BarCamp, BarCampParis, BarCampBrighton
• SWIG (Semantic Web Interest Group), mailing list
• N3, DBpedia, Linking Open Data
• #swig on irc.freenode.net

Talking with Talis :: Daniel Lewis on the Social and Semantic Webs

Originally posted on Talking with Talis on November 24, 2007.

In our latest Talking with Talis podcast, I talk with Daniel Lewis. We discuss some of his ideas about the 'Social Web', and the relationship between this and the ideas and technologies of the Semantic Web.

During the conversation, we refer to the following resources;

• APML
• FOAF
• Knowledge Media Institute
• Linking Open Data
• Microformats
• OAuth
• Open Social
• Open Socket in Facebook
• Oxford Brookes University
• Oxford Geek Nights
• Oxfordshire Semantic Web Interest Group
• Revyu.com
• Six Apart's Livejournal
• SKOS
• Wordpress
• XFN

Talking with Talis :: Danny Ayers on the Semantic Web

Originally posted on Talking with Talis on 14 March 2007.

In our latest Talking with Talis podcast, I talk with Semantic Web developer and evangelist, Danny Ayers. We discuss the Semantic Web and the notion of Linked Data, before touching briefly upon Metaweb's Freebase, which had just been released at the time.

Download MP3 [52 mins, 36 Mb]

During the conversation, we refer to the following resources

• Disco Semantic Web browser
• Last.fm
• Longwell
• Metaweb
• Cory Doctorow on Metacrap
• Musicbrainz
• OpenID
• PICS
• Semantic Mediawiki
• Semantic Web
• Semantic Web layercake diagram
• Semantic Wikipedia
• SWEO
• SWEO Community Projects
• Wikipedia
• Yahoo! Pipes

Talking With Talis :: Peter Murray-Rust on Open Access, Open Data, Science, and the Semantic Web

Originally posted on Talking With Talis on May 31, 2007.

In our latest Talking with Talis podcast, Paul Miller talks with Professor Peter Murray-Rust of the Unilever Centre for Molecular Sciences Informatics at the University of Cambridge.

In a wide-ranging conversation, we look at the changing nature of academic publishing, the importance of primary data to the process, and the remarkable potential of the Semantic Web in both streamlining and enriching the endeavour.

Listen Now Download MP3 [70 mins, 48 Mb]

During the conversation, we refer to the following resources:

• Artistic License
• Bioinformatics
• Biomed Central
• Cancer Research UK
• Chemistry Central
• Creative Commons' Attribution License
• dbpedia
• GNU GPL License
• Journal of the American Chemical Society
• JUMBO
• UK Medical Research Council (MRC)
• Peter Murray-Rust's blog
• Nature
• UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
• Open Access on Wikipedia
• Open Data panel at WWW2007
• Open Data on Wikipedia
• OpenID
• OpenLink's Virtuoso
• PLoS ONE
• Science
• Science and Technology Committee of the House of Commons report, Scientific Publications: Free for All?, plus documented responses in 2004 and 2005.
• Science Commons
• SPECTRa-T
• vCard
• The Wellcome Trust
• Wikipedia

EDUCAUSE CONNECT :: An Interview with Christopher Blackall

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz (EDUCAUSE) on December 18, 2006.

In this 19 minute recording, we'll hear from the National Portfolio Coordinator of the Australian National University, Christopher Blackall. Listen in as he shares thoughts on institutional repositories, standards, and more.

This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2006 Fall Task Force Meeting. The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.