1. The Nobel Prize as Linked Data
metasolutions.se
2014-10-24
Matthias Palmér
matthias@metasolutions.se
PhD from KTH with focus on:
Linked Data based Webbapplications

2. Who are MetaSolutions
Publish
Import
Edit
User
Interface
LODify
EntryScape
Customer
adaptions
A technology company that:
➔ can manage your Linked Data in the cloud
➔ provides an Open Source and collaborative Linked Data Plattform
➔ provides consultancy services around Linked Data

3. Who are Nobel Media
To inform a global
audience about Nobel
Laureates and their
discoveries, inspiring
engagement in Nobel
related areas of science,
literature and peace.
Digital Media
Broadcast
Events

4. Why Nobelprizes as Linked Data
Phase 1 - expose Linked Data externally
1. Spread information on Nobelprizes
2. Enable others to build apps or services
3. Provide opportunities for more in-depth analyzes
Phase 2 - use the Linked Data internally
4. Retrieve external information for internal use
5. Validate and strengthen master data
6. Better coverage for different target groups

5. Phase 1 - expose Linked Data
Deciding on a Linked Data Expression
1. Reuse existing vocabularies
2. Define new vocabulary
3. Document: specification + RDF-schema
4. Describe and publish dataset information
Expose Linked Data from Database
1. Set up infrastructure with replicated Database
2. Configure LODify platform, scalability
Interlink with other datasets
1. Reconciliation with DBPedia
2. Extend Database

6. Vocabulary
Vocabularies reused
● DCTerms
● FOAF
● DBPedia-ontology
● RDF and RDF Schema (naturally)
New vocabulary
● 10 classes
● 14 properties

7. Linked Data for Nobelprizes

8. Dataset information published
Rights
● Creative Commons Zero (CC0)
● “As is” “As available” service
● “Fair use” demand
Publication of dataset
● in CKAN installation at datahub.io
● DCAT-AP and inclusion in öppnadata.se in progress
(VINNOVA funded project, will be at dcat-editor.com)

9. SPARQL exemple
Swedish female Nobelprize laureates:
SELECT DISTINCT ?label ?motivation WHERE {
?laureate rdf:type nobel:Laureate .
?laureate dbpedia-owl:birthPlace <http://data.nobelprize.
org/resource/country/Sweden> .
?laureate foaf:gender "female" .
?laureate nobel:laureateAward ?award .
?award rdfs:label ?label .
optional {
?award nobel:motivation ?motivation .
FILTER (langMatches(lang(?motivation), "sv"))
}
}
LIMIT 10
Run the example!

10. SPARQL exempel 2
Nobelprize laureates who are born in Sweden and share the price with someone else.
SELECT DISTINCT ?name WHERE {
?laureate dbpedia-owl:birthPlace <http://data.nobelprize.
org/resource/country/Sweden> .
?laureate nobel:laureateAward ?award .
?award nobel:share ?share .
?laureate foaf:name ?name .
FILTER (xsd:int(?share) > 1 )
}
Run the example!

11. Phase 1 - reaction at Nobel Media
● Good that external parties can use our data.
● But what do we gain ourselfs from Linked Data?
● How can we use linked data ourselves?
● How are we a part of the bigger LOD cloud?

12. How do we eat use our own dog food
Linked Data?

13. Phase 2 - use Linked Data internally
Enhance webpages by including:
● Laureate information from DBPedia
● Important publications from pubmed
(via links to bio2rdf and linkedlifedata)
● An embedded Linked Data Browser
Better position Nobel Prizes in the LOD cloud
● DBPedia, freebase, viaf, yago, bio2rdf,
linkedlifedata
Improved quality of own data by comparing with
other sources

14. Truly Linked Nobel Prizes!
Nobel Laureate
DBpedia
Freebase
YAGO
Nobel Prize
VIAF
...
Bio2RDF
Linked Life Data
...

15. New better webpages

16. Linked Data Cache
● Neccessary due to
○ different levels of service
(DBpedia sometimes slow or down)
○ Reduce amount of requests
(i.e. labels on linked resources in same request)
○ Unified RDF format
(I.e. write code directly against RDF/JSON)
● Challenges in configuration
○ Cache for how long
○ Which properties to follow
○ Only include suitable subsets of available RDF

17. Linked Data Browser

18. Linked Data Browser
● Characteristics
○ Ordered presentation
○ Labels + explanatory texts
○ Groupings
○ Hide URI:s
○ If translations exists, show only one
○ Handle links to non-Linked Data resources
● Technically
○ Based on RDForms (javascript library)
○ Configurable for different vokabularies
○ Depends on a Linked Data Cache

19. Phase 2 architecture

20. Data, documentation, article, press
data.nobelprize.org
dokumentation
article on semanticweb.com
paper at ISWC-Dev

21. Summary
Added value for Nobel Media as an organization
● Increased amount of quality information
● Pushes towards a better informationmodel,
specialization and positioning with links
Added value for Nobel Medias target groups
● Increased access and overview of information
● Open and standardized information for developers
Added value for the LOD community
● LDC + LDB should be useful in other settings

22. Nobel Prizes in the LOD Cloud 2014
Thanks for listening!
Matthias Palmér
matthias@metasolutions.se