Open Data: Digital Fuel or Raw Material?

I have been reading with interest ‘Digital Fuel of the 21st Century: Innovation through Open Data and the Network Effect’ by Vivek Kundra. Well worth a read to place the current [Digital] Revolution we are somewhere in the middle of, in relation to preceding revolutions and the ages that they begat.

OK So Who Noticed the SOPA Blackout

All in all, I believe the campaign has been surprisingly effective on the visible web. However, what prompted this post was trying to ascertain how effective it was on the Data Web, which almost by definition is the invisible web. Ahead of the dark day, a move started on the Semantic Web and Linked Open Data mailing lists to replicate what Wikipedia was doing by going dark on Dbpedia

What Is Your Data’s Star Rating(s)?

The Linked Data movement was kicked off in mid 2006 when Tim Berners-Lee published his now famous Linked Data Design Issues document. Many had been promoting the approach of using W3C Semantic Web standards to achieve the effect and benefits, but it was his document and the use of the term Linked Data that crystallised it, gave it focus, and a label.

In 2010 Tim updated his document to include the Linked Open Data 5 Star Scheme

Ambitious Technology Plan Emerges From Stanford Linked Data Workshop

Although there has been a half year lag between the the workshop held at Stanford University, at the end of June 2011, and the Stanford Linked Data Workshop Technology Plan [pdf] published on December 31st, the folks behind it obviously have not been twiddling their thumbs.

W3C Library Linked Data Final Report Published

The W3C Library Linked Data Incubator Group has published it’s Final Report after a year of deliberation. The mission of the Library Linked Data Incubator Group was to help increase the global interoperability of library data on the Web by focusing on the potential role of Linked Data technologies. This report contains several messages that are not just interesting and relevant for the Linked Data enthusiast in the library community. It contains some home truths for those in libraries who think that a slight tweak to the status quo, such as adopting RDA, will be sufficient to keep libraries [data]

Schema.org Déjà vu

The Web has been around for getting on for a couple of decades now, and massive industries have grown up around the magic of making it work for you and your organisation.  Some of it, it has to be said, can be considered snake-oil.  Much of it is the output of some of the best brains on the planet.  Where, on the hit parade of technological revolutions to influence mankind, the Web is placed is oft disputed, but it is definitely up there with fire, steam, electricity, computing, and of course the wheel.  Similar debates, are and will virtually rage,

Web, Semantic Web, SEO, SERP and Linked Data

Like many of my posts, this one comes from the threads of several disparate conversations coming together in my mind, in an almost astrological conjunction. One thread stems from my recent Should SEO Focus in on Linked Data? post, in which I was concluding that the group, loosely described as the SEO community, could usefully focus in on the benefits of Linked Data in their quest to improve the business of the sites and organisations they support. Following the post I received an email looking for clarification of something I said. I am interested in understanding better the allusion you

Should SEO Focus in on Linked Data?

It is well known, the business of SEO is all about influencing SERPs, or is it?  Let me open up those acronyms: Those engaged in the business of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) focus much of their efforts on influencing Search Engine Result Pages (SERP), or more specifically the relevance and representation of their targeted items upon those pages.  As many a guide to SEO will tell you, some of this is simple – understanding the basics of how search engines operate, or even just purchasing the right advertising links on the SERP.  Quite simple in objective, but in reality an