The Open University Linked Data - data.open.ac.uk

Submitted by Enrico Daga on 01/19/2015 - 01:18

Tracking #: 973-2184

Authors: 
Enrico Daga
Mathieu d’Aquin
Alessandro Adamou
Stuart Brown

Responsible editor: 
Philippe Cudre-Mauroux

Submission type: 
Dataset Description
Abstract: 
The article reports on the evolution of data.open.ac.uk, the Linked Open Data platform of the Open University, from a research experiment to a data hub for the open content of the University. Entirely based on Semantic Web technologies (RDF and the Linked Data principles), data.open.ac.uk is used to curate, publish and access data about academic degree qualifications, courses, scholarly publications and open educational resources of the University. It exposes a SPARQL endpoint and several other services to support developers, including queries stored server-side and entity lookup using known identifers such as course codes and YouTube video IDs. The platform is now a key information service at the Open University, with several core systems and websites exploiting linked data through data.open.ac.uk. Through these applications, data.open.ac.uk is now fulfilling a key role in the overall data infrastructure of the university, and in establishing connections with other educational institutions and information providers.
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Previous Version: 
The Open University Linked Open Data - data.open.ac.uk
Tags: 
Reviewed

Decision/Status: 
Accept

Solicited Reviews:
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Review #1
By Alex Olivieri submitted on 26/Jan/2015
Suggestion:
Accept
Review Comment:

This manuscript was submitted as 'Data Description' and should be reviewed along the following dimensions: (1) Quality of the dataset. (2) Usefulness (or potential usefulness) of the dataset. (3) Clarity and completeness of the descriptions.

For my point of view the paper should be accepted because the authors fulfiled all the skepticisms mentioned by the reviewers, or through an improvement of the paper or explaining why the paper is not treating the cited issue.

They do not aim to perform some tests, but what they want to do is to explain how their system allows to publish the data they have following Open Data patterns. They explain well how they attain their objectives and how they make their data available.

This approach and subsequently their system is a good solution for the open linked data.

The dataset they have is not easy to evaluate, but using standard it can be easily integrated with other dataset.

Review #2
By Amrapali Zaveri submitted on 28/Jan/2015
Suggestion:
Accept
Review Comment:

The authors have addressed most of my comments. The paper is now in a state to be accepted.

For the future, I recommend the authors to perform an evaluation of the accuracy (correctness) of the interlinks.

A few minor comments
- “we have not so far been able to” - “we have not been able to so far”
- Check the font size of “query parameter” in footnote 30
- Full stop missing after (e.g. A100)
- Why was the reference for the SPARQL service description removed?

Review #3
By Michael Luggen submitted on 24/Feb/2015
Suggestion:
Accept
Review Comment:

The paper gained quality in structure and clarity through the last iteration. The slight shift to more practical information is a big improvement in my opinion.

I hope this paper will inspire other universities to follow the example of the Open University and also give them a head start in getting such a project of the ground.

layout minors to correct:
- Footnote 30: "query parameter" wrong size?
- Chapter 6: after "3)" a space to much?