How to Troubleshoot Apps for the Modern Connected Worker
Towards a productive Linked Data environment within Enterprises
1. Towards a productive Linked Data environment
within Enterprises
Andreas Both
2019-05-22, Leipziger Semantic Web Tag (LSWT 2019)
2. LSWT 2019: Towards a productive Linked Data environment within Enterprises Andreas Both
Motivation for the talk
• share experience and insights
• provide options of actions
• help to overcome common misconceptions
Disclaimer
Imagesource:pixabay.com/illustrations/signs-right-wrong-good-bad-1172209/–License:PixabayLicense.
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3. LSWT 2019: Towards a productive Linked Data environment within Enterprises Andreas Both
Motivation for the talk
A talk about “Linked Data towards action” ...
isn’t this like 5 years ago?
Positive
• improved tools/toolchains
• more open data sets
• many new vocabularies
• in general: increased
understanding of Linked
Data engineering processes
Negative
• many companies still
struggle on taking advantage
of linked enterprise data
• applying the Linked Data
paradigm still no common
approach
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Spotlights
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Recapitulation
Main goal
Web of (linked) documents → Web of Linked Data
⇒ make the (data) world a better place!
Core Ideas of Linked Data
1. identify things using URIs/IRIs
2. use URIs/IRIs to refer to data
3. provide semantics for data, make semantics accessible
4. interlink data stores
→ break established data-access approach in enterprises
⇒ a huge change in understanding and behaving is expected from
teams/organisations!
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10. LSWT 2019: Towards a productive Linked Data environment within Enterprises Andreas Both
About change management, it is.
While changing the information system paradigm ...
• change of project goals and metrics
• change of project execution
• change of required skills
• change of technology stack
• change the common understanding of “finished”
• change of pattern (team communication, software design, iteration slicing, . . . )
• change the power balance (long-term vs. short-term, visual vs. backend, . . . )
• . . .
→ change management is a very important issue
Image“Yoda”byPaulHudsonislicensedunderCCBY2.0
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11. LSWT 2019: Towards a productive Linked Data environment within Enterprises Andreas Both
Change Management
Incomplete questions to initialize and drive a change process:
• What might cause misconceptions?
• What will make the change stick?
• What might block the change?
Observation
Mostly about changing the behavior of individuals!
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Experienced Situations
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Experienced Situations
Feedback: “Linked Data technologies solve a strategic problem”
• is enabler for additional value chain
• requires changing of paradigms with long-term effects
Observations and Consequences
hard for companies to invest enough into strategic approaches
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15. LSWT 2019: Towards a productive Linked Data environment within Enterprises Andreas Both
Experienced Situations
Feedback: “Linked Data is yet another ETL data integration process”
• data needs to be transformed
• for good experience a common approach is to copy data into a
triplestore
Observations and Consequences
classification of Linked Data projects similar to ETL projects
(well-know in enterprises for 20+ years)
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Experienced Situations
Feedback: “The whole movement seems to follow a formal
approach.”
• ontologies provide sound theoretical foundations
• during data modelling we require precise statements
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Success Factors
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Success Factors
Find matching metaphors
• less: reuse of common linked data terminology
• more: domain specific, precisely matching naming
→ positive impact: easier for customers to adopt your thinking and
better expectation management
Example: “data silos”
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Success Factors
Join a community of developers (product development)
• less: disconnection from product development
• more: advantages of JSON-LD, openAPI extension, . . .
→ positive impact: bottom-up movement starting
Derived research questions
improve integration into software engineering process
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Success Factors
Agile Approach
• less: long-term planning, high ramp-up costs, top-down approach
• more: agility and iterations
→ increased transparency and faster value transfer
Derived research questions
tools for change management of ontologies
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Success Factors
Community Ontology Management Approach
• less: centralized approach, gate-keeper
• more: community approach, community management
→ increased commitment in development teams, increased quality
Derived research questions
improve tooling for community management, co-evolution,
self-services, . . .
Image“bouncers2”byCharlesLeBlancislicensedunderCCBY-SA2.0
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Success Factors
Pragmatic Approach
• less: theoretical, formal, meta-level discussions
• more: pareto-optimal actions
→ positive impact: first impact quickly achieved
Derived research questions
improve method and tool capabilities w.r.t. uncertainty
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Conclusions and Take Away
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Conclusions
• 3 unwanted situation
◦ w.r.t. strategic importance
◦ w.r.t. ETL processes
◦ w.r.t. formalisms
• 5 action items which might be success factors
◦ metaphors
◦ community of developers (community of practice)
◦ adopt agile methodology
◦ community focus
◦ pragmatic approach
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Take Away
• take on classification of challenges you might be confronted while
working in the field of Linked Data
• insights into some common challenges during the execution of
Linked Data projects
• possible action items during the execution of a Linked Data driven
project
→ towards a productive Linked Data environment within
enterprises
Prof. Dr. Andreas Both
andreas.both@hs-anhalt.de
Anhalt University of Applied Sciences
linkedin.com/in/andreas-both-9426722
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