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News Release
Spanish Linked Data Thematic Network Set Up
15 March 2011
Facultad de Informática de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Some twenty Spanish research groups, employing over 150
researchers from 18 higher education institutions, have set up
the Spanish Linked Data Thematic Network, with the aim of improving
knowledge exchange and transfer between Spanish researchers working in
Spain or abroad on related fields, as well as increasing the
international visibility of Spanish research on linked data.
Thematic networks are partnerships of public or private research
groups with related scientific or technological activities within a
shared field of interest.
Linked Open Data (LOD) is a world data network that now contains over
four-and-a-half million references organized as interrelated thematic
bubbles on the Internet. This world data network is one of the pillars
of the Semantic Web.
The Semantic Web relates data that are distributed over the Web
through linked data that are referenced in the same way as links between
Web pages.
New social trend
The huge growth of the Data Web (or Linked Data Web) over
the last few months speaks for its significance. Other initiatives
similar to the Spanish thematic network have been launched more or less
formally in other European countries and also in the United States.
Examples of similar thematic networks are the communities working on
initiatives launched by the United Kingdom and the United
States Governments, foundations like the Open Knowledge
Foundation, or popular initiatives, such as Italy's FAO-based
community. The Spanish Government is working to improve citizen and
enterprise access to Spanish State Administration public data, and
several regional and local governments, like Euskadi (Basque Country),
Asturias, Navarre, Catalonia, Saragossa and Gijón, have started to
follow this trend and lauched open data initiatives.
Twenty research groups
The Spanish Linked Data Thematic Network is led by Oscar Corcho of
the Ontological Engineering Group, based at the Universidad
Politécnica de Madrid's Facultad de Informática, and is partnered by:
the Ontology Engineering Group (OEG), the Universidad del País Vasco's
Database Interoperability Group, the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos's
Intelligent Information Technologies and Applications Centre (CETINIA) ,
the Universidad de Deusto's Internet Unit, the Universidad Complutense
de Madrid's Artificial Intelligence Group, the Universidad Nacional de
Educación a Distancia's aDeNu Research Group, the Universitat de
Lleida's Human-Computer and Data Integration Research Group, the
Universidad Europea de Madrid's Intelligent Systems Group, the
Universidad San Pablo-CEU's Ontologies Group, the Universidad de
Zaragoza's Advanced Information Systems Group, the Universidad de
Santiago de Compostela's Intelligent Systems Group, the Universidad de
Murcia's Knowledge Modelling, Processing and Management Group, the
Universidad de Málaga's KHAOS Group, the Universidad Carlos III's Web
Technologies Laboratory (WebTLab), the Universidad de Extremadura's
OntoQuercus Group, the Universidad de Zaragoza's Distributed Information
Systems Group (SID) , the Universidad de Sevilla's Distributed Group,
the Fundación CTIC's Semantic Technologies Unit, and the Universidad de
Oviedo's WESO - Semantic Web Group.
To achieve its goals, the Spanish Linked Data Thematic Network has
scheduled a series of regular research and evangelization meetings
(VoCamps, Linked Data meetups, and working breakfasts) with enterprises
and public administrations. It also intends to set up training tracks
and educational material (on-line tutorials, slides, etc.) and encourage
researcher mobility within the country.
Available data sources
The Spanish Linked Data Thematic Network was set up with data sources supported by network members.
One of these sources is GeoLinked Data (.es), an open
initiative launched by the Ontological Engineering Group based at the
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid's Facultad de Informática, aimed at
enriching the Data Web with Spanish geospatial data. This initiative
became operational with the publication of several sources of
information from the National Geographical Institute on the Data Web.
The data sources now available on GeoLinkedData.es belong to the
National Geographical Institute (IGN) and the National Statistics
Institute (INE).
Another available source is SemanticXBRL, a dataset generated by the
Universitat de Lleida's Human-Computer Interaction and Data Integration
Group from XBRL-formatted financial reports submitted by numerous
companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange to the US Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC).
Sources in progress and external sources
Other data sources are under development by network members and will
be made available to the Spanish Linked Data Thematic Network.
One of these data sources is being developed by the Universidad
de Deusto. This higher education institution is to set up a Dublin Core
data source containing all the publications by the MoreLab Research
Group from 2010 and 2011 at least. A processor of links to publications
saved as PDF files is to be built. The metadata necessary to generate
Dublin Core instances will be retrieved from these publications.
Another data source is a SPARQL access point to the MoreLab Group
website. The queryable RDF-formatted data will be modelled in compliance
with the Dublin Core, Geo, DOAP and Bio vocabularies. An automatic
personal web page generator for group personnel is also to be built,
including sections like bios, publications or projects.
Additionally, Universitat de Lleida's Human-Computer Interaction and
Data Integration Group is partnering the UN-FAO AGRIS project. This
project aims to publish compiled literature references for publications
related to food and agriculture as linked data.
Finally, the network website will list data sources and software
generated by external Spanish Linked Data Thematic Network agents that
will also be available to its researchers. Examples are an API for
accessing BizkaiaBus public data, as well as an API for accessing
traffic-related public data offered by the Basque Country Regional
Government's Department of the Interior.
http://www.fi.upm.es/?id=tablon&acciongt=consulta1&idet=782