Introduction to Linked Open Data and the Semantic Web 

Led by: Susan Brown and Kim Martin

This workshop provides an introduction to the web of data for humanities researchers and cultural data stewards. Linked open data is highly structured interoperable data hosted on the web that is structured with semantic relationships so that machines can become partners in discovering, disseminating, sharing, and analyzing data. Done right, LOD contributes to a semantic web of resources that can be accessed and used across multiple online locations, aggregating knowledge and facilitating its reuse: it is FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) data in the most profound sense. The workshop will cover reasons for publishing cultural and research collections as LOD by looking at a range of existing uses in humanities research and GLAM (gallery, library, archive, and museum) contexts.

Participants will gain hands-on experience with several linked open data projects and tools; learn about the resource description framework (RDF), ontologies, and vocabularies used to create linked open data; learn how LOD can be leveraged in queries, visualizations, and web applications; gain an understanding of how LOD is created; and be introduced to a number of practical, ethical, and theoretical considerations that should inform the creation and reuse of diverse, nuanced, responsible, and usable linked open data for cultural research and dissemination. By the end of this workshop, participants should have grasped the major concepts of linked open data and the components of its technology stack; understand the basics of linked data creation, publication, and use; and be positioned to start to develop a linked data project of their own.

Intended audience: Advanced students, subject matter experts and researchers, librarians and data curators from GLAM contexts, research software engineers, and the LOD-curious!