Presentation delivered at the Linked Ancient World Data Institute, Drew University, 30 May 2013. Copyright 2013 New York University. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en_US Funding for the preparation and presentation of this presentation and the workshop at which it was presented was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this presentation do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

1. Copyright 2013 New York University.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en_US
Funding for the preparation and presentation of this presentation and the workshop at which it was presented was
provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations
expressed in this presentation do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Linked Data at ISAW: How and Why
Tom Elliott
Associate Director for Digital Programs and Senior Research Scholar
http://www.paregorios.org

2. Theodor Mommsen
Photo of unknown date, but prior to Mommsen’s death in 1903. Public domain. Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:T-mommsen-2.jpg

3. Why linked data for ISAW?

4. • There is a person named “Daniel T. Potts”.
– There is a person. That person is named “Daniel T. Potts”.
Describing an ISAW faculty member

5. • RDF = Resource Description Framework
http://www.w3.org/RDF/
“a general-purpose language for representing information in the
Web”
• triple: the most basic RDF expression, consisting of a
subject, predicate (verb), and object (property). Each triple
represents a statement of a relationship between the things
denoted by the nodes that it links. A triple can be represented as a
node-arc-node link diagram.”
• A set of triples is called an RDF graph, a term derived from
mathematics and computer science denoting a set of objects (or
data structures) in which pairs of objects are connected by links.
Terms: “RDF Triples”
Subject Object
Predicate

6. • Turtle = Terse RDF Triple Language
http://www.w3.org/TR/turtle/
“a textual syntax for RDF called Turtle that allows RDF graphs to be
completely written in a compact and natural text form, with
abbreviations for common usage patterns and datatypes.”
The media type of Turtle is text/turtle. The content encoding of
Turtle content is always UTF-8.
• subject predicate object .
Writing RDF Triples in Turtle

7. There is a person. That person is named “Daniel T. Potts”.
There is a person.
• subject predicate object .
• subject:[X] verb:[is] predicate:[a person] .
What we need:
– Subject, Predicate (verb), Object (property)
– Uniform Resource Identifiers corresponding to each
– Key question: mint or reuse
Describing an ISAW faculty member in Turtle

8. • Modern authors (i.e., many scholars, like George):
– Virtual International Authority File (VIAF)
http://viaf.org/
• Basic characteristics and activities of persons, and relationships
between them and things on the web:
– FOAF Vocabulary (“Friend of a Friend”)
http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/
Finding URIs to re-use

9. There is a person. That person is named “Daniel T. Potts”.
There is a person.
• subject predicate object .
• subject:[X] verb:[is] predicate:[a person] .
<http://viaf.org/viaf/17238976> a
<http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/#term_Person> .
Describing an ISAW faculty member in Turtle

10. There is a person. That person is named “Daniel T. Potts”.
There is a person.
• subject predicate object .
• subject:[X] verb:[is] predicate:[a person] .
<http://viaf.org/viaf/17238976> a
<http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/#term_Person> .
--------------------
@prefix viaf: <http://viaf.org/viaf/> .
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/#term_> .
viaf:17238976 a foaf:Person .
Describing an ISAW faculty member in Turtle

11. There is a person. That person is named “Daniel T. Potts”.
@prefix viaf: <http://viaf.org/viaf/> .
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/#term_> .
viaf:17238976 a foaf:Person .
viaf:17238976 foaf:name "Daniel T. Potts" .
--------------------
viaf:17238976 a foaf:Person ;
foaf:name "Daniel T. Potts" .
Describing an ISAW faculty member in Turtle

12. viaf:17238976
foaf:Person
"Daniel T. Potts"
foaf:name
(is) a

13. @prefix viaf: <http://viaf.org/viaf/> .
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/#term_> .
@prefix dc: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> .
viaf:17238976 a foaf:Person ;
foaf:name "Daniel T. Potts" .
<http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/39303>
dc:creator viaf:17238976 .
Linking an ISAW faculty member to a digital
publication

14. viaf:17238976
foaf:Person
"Daniel T. Potts"
pleiades:39303
dc:creator
foaf:name
(is) a

15. @prefix viaf: <http://viaf.org/viaf/> .
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/#term_> .
@prefix dc: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> .
@prefix p: <http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
viaf:17238976 a foaf:Person ;
foaf:name "Daniel T. Potts" .
<http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/39303>
dc:creator viaf:17238976 ;
rdfs:label "Aksum",
"Auksome" ;
rdfs:comment "Present-day Aksum in Ethiopia. The center of the Aksumite
Kingdom, a maritime trading power that flourished from the first to the tenth
centuries AD. The city was listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980." .
Linking an ISAW faculty member to a digital
publication

16. viaf:17238976
foaf:Person
"Daniel T. Potts"
pleiades:39303
dc:creator
foaf:name
(is) a
"Aksum"
"Auksome"
"Present-day Aksum in
Ethiopia. The center of
the Aksumite
Kingdom, , a maritime
trading power that
flourished from..."
rdfs:label
rdfs:label
rdfs:description

17. viaf:17238976
foaf:Person
"Daniel T. Potts"
pleiades:39303
dc:creator
foaf:name
(is) a
"Aksum"
"Auksome"
"Present-day Aksum in
Ethiopia. The center of
the Aksumite
Kingdom, , a maritime
trading power that
flourished from..."
rdfs:label
rdfs:label
rdfs:description
<http://isaw.nyu.edu/people/faculty/daniel-t-potts>
foaf:prim
aryTopic
(is) a
foaf:Document

18. viaf:17238976
foaf:Person
"Daniel T. Potts"
pleiades:39303
dc:creator
foaf:name
(is) a
"Aksum"
"Auksome"
"Present-day Aksum in
Ethiopia. The center of
the Aksumite
Kingdom, , a maritime
trading power that
flourished from..."
rdfs:label
rdfs:labelrdfs:description
<http://www.paregorios.org/me>
dc:contributor
"Tom Elliott"
foaf:name
<http://isaw.nyu.edu/people/faculty/daniel-t-potts>
foaf:prim
aryTopic
(is) a
foaf:Document
foaf:Person
(is) a

19. @prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/#term_> .
<http://www.paregorios.org/me> a foaf:Person ;
foaf:name "Tom Elliott" ;
foaf:primaryTopicOf
<http://isaw.nyu.edu/people/staff/tom-elliott> ,
<http://www.linkedin.com/in/paregorios> ,
<http://nyu.academia.edu/TomElliott> ,
<https://plus.google.com/116427745746305527780/posts> ,
<https://twitter.com/paregorios> ,
<http://www.paregorios.org/> .

20. @prefix awib: <http://isaw.nyu.edu/awib/> .
@prefix dctypes: <http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/> .
@prefix flickr: <http://www.flickr.com/> .
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/#term_> .
awib:image/2009060518070638 a dctypes:Image ;
dcterms:creator <http://www.paregorios.org/me> ;
dcterms:date "1996-06-13" ;
foaf:primaryTopicOf flickr:photos/isawnyu/4910372563 .
flickr:photos/isawnyu/4910372563 a dctypes:Text ;
dcterms:format "text/html".

21. Openness
Photo of façade of the Museum of Early Trades and Crafts, Madison, NJ
Photographed by Tom Elliott, 29 May 2013