Linked Data

This chapter motivates, introduces and describes Linked Data, which centres around a concise set of principles by which data can be published and interlinked on the Web, and by which a Web of Data can ultimately be formed. We first discuss the core Linked Data principles, which espouse the use of HTTP IRIs to identify the entities described in data, returning a machine-readable description of the entity (typically RDF) when its corresponding IRI is looked up on the Web. We then discuss some further best practices for publishing data conformant with the Linked Data principles in a way that enhances interoperability. We discuss the Linking Open Data (LOD) project founded on the idea of publishing Open Data on the Web in a standard, machine-readable fashion using Linked Data; we describe the most prominent datasets and vocabularies that have results from this initiative. We then discuss tools and techniques for converting legacy data to RDF, discovering links, and hosting Linked Data. We subsequently discuss the Linked Data Platform: a standard that outlines the protocols and resources needed to build a new generation of read–write Linked Data applications. We conclude the chapter with a discussion of open challenges yet to be addressed in the context of Linked Data.