[open-bibliography] Europeana factsheet on Open Linked Data

Tue Nov 23 10:10:08 UTC 2010

Hello,

as it seems, things are going in a good direction at Europeana. Via
twitter[1] I got aware of an Europeana factsheet on Open Linked Data:
[2]. Here are some quotes:

"Data can be open but not linked. Data can be linked but not open. The
Semantic Web can only function with data which is both open and
linked." (p.1) - This insight isn't self-evident. I know from Germany
that not yet all people agree on this and rather think they can just
do Linked Data without opening it...

"The current non-commercial clause in the data provider agreements
*must be removed* in order to allow Europeana to make its metadata
resources available as Open Linked Data." (p.2) - Hopefully this will
be carried out soon. Does anybody know how far efforts have been made
at Europeana for an actual implementation of insights like this?

"If Europeana and its providers do not enable uses such as this, we
will fall behind in a rapidly changing environment. Wikipedia and
others will take our place as the only available authoritative source
for contextual data. This carries the risk of undermining the position
of cultural heritage institutions as relevant information providers.
When we can supply Open Linked Data to other providers, we will all
benefit by placing ourselves at the forefront of the technology
revolution and establishing ourselves as the trusted and authoritative
source on cultural heritage information." (p.2)

In April Europeana already published a "Public Domain Charter"[3]
adressing the licensing of digitized public domain works as Europeana
content. Has there already been any cooperation on open content or an
exchange of ideas between the OKFN and Europeana?

Adrian

P.S.: BTW, what's going on with the Principles on Open Bibliographic
Data? Europeana would certainly be one organization we should ask to
sign and support them as soon as they are in a stable version. But
until now, nobody answered my post which discusses the principles
draft: http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/open-bibliography/2010-November/000585.html
I would be glad to pick up the conversation...

[1] http://twitter.com/#!/eld_de/status/6987513566593024

[2] http://version1.europeana.eu/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=374c381f-a48b-4cf0-bbde-172cf03672a2&groupId=10602

[3] http://version1.europeana.eu/web/europeana-project/public-domain-charter-en