Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
For the application developer, this offers a wealth of information that can be brought together,
and then for the end-user, the resulting data mash-ups offer different ways of looking at the same
data.
4.1.5 INTERACTING WITH THE WEB OF DATA
While the web of data (WoD) is growing rapidly, it is still the exception on the web, with most
pages containing primarily human readable information. However, we can also see applications that
are in some way related to or linked into the growing WoD.
These WoD applications can be categorised in two ways:
User Sees the WoD
- Some applications actively present a view to the user that looks like linked
semantic resources, while other applications hide the underlying data representation with some
form of bespoke view, for example, taking RDF data on crime statistics and presenting it as
icons on a map. This is similar to traditional relational databases where administrators see
the database directly in terms of tables, schema, and records, but most end-users only see the
database indirectly through application user interfaces, maybe a shopping catalogue or bank
statement.
Implemented UsingWoD
- Some are based on underlying semantic web standards, while others
use traditional technology or non-standard ontologies
This leads to four main classes of WoD applications (see Figure
4.12
), which we will deal with in
turn.
Figure 4.12:
Accessing the web of data.
