Linked Data Task Force

'Approaches for Accommodating Heterogeneous Data Sources in the European Common Data Space for Cultural Heritage'

Purpose

The main purpose of this Task Force is to show the value for aggregators of interlinking heterogeneous data from various sources and guide them and their network of cultural heritage institutions with recommendations and guidelines to implement Linked Data. It will provide use cases for Linked Data by exploring the use of RDF for semantically enhanced data and APIs as an interoperability platform for these data. A proof of concept will be developed to demonstrate the technical implementability of the solution.

The Task Force will bring together and organise all relevant documentation (guidelines and best practices) for fostering and implementing Linked Data towards aggregators.

In the context of the common European data space for cultural heritage, semantic interoperability will be key. This supposes that metadata might be expressed in semantic standards that are not only EDM. We will experiment with the development of the proof of concept of how one can browse data expressed in different models within one same interface and how various sets of mappings towards EDM can be handled within one interface. The proof of concept will allow the user to query the metadata in their source semantic model or EDM via a SPARQL endpoint. The TF will use the results of previous initiatives in the area of Linked Data.

Expected outcomes

The Task Force has three main objectives:

1. Show the value of building a Linked Data Environment
2. Share guidelines and good practices that have been identified for:
   • Semantic standards
   • Security & Privacy
   • RDB to graph mechanisms
   • Explorative views and visualisation of LoD
   • Performance and scalability
3. Develop a proof of concept
   • Guide aggregators to build their own Linked Data Environment
   • Deploy a user-friendly SPARQL query builder interface
   • Deploy a query federation mechanism
   • Create metadata for Datasets

Dissemination plan

The Task Force will kick off virtually during early November 2023, and its scope and objectives will be presented in the Europeana Aggregators Forum. Results will be disseminated at the 2023 Europeana Conference. We will organise at least one webinar, publish a EuropeanaTech Insight issue and communicate the results through Europeana Pro news .
A paper detailing the proof of concept will be prepared and shared as one of the outcomes of the Task Force.

• Alexandros Chortaras (National Technical University of Athens)
• Thomas Francart (Sparna)
• Seth Van Holland (SEMIC - DIGIT)
• Pavlina Fragkou (SEMIC - DIGIT)