On 7/10/12 5:07 PM, Karen Coyle wrote:
> On 7/10/12 4:02 PM, Richard Wallis wrote:
>>
>> But is it available to everyone, and is the data retrieved also
>> usable as
>> ODC-BY by any member of the Web public?
>>
>> Yes it is, and at this stage it is only available from within a html
>> page.
>
> The "it" I was referring to was the API. Roy is telling me that people
> should use the API, as if that is an obvious option that I am
> overlooking. I am asking if the general web public can use the API to
> get this data. I believe that should be a yes/no question/answer.
Since no one here from OCLC had the integrity to answer this question, I
went ahead and applied for a Worldcat API key, and here is the reply:
*****
Hello,
Thank you for your interest in the WorldCat Search API, however at this
time the web service is only available to institutions, primarily
libraries, that have a specific relationship with OCLC and then only for
work related to that library's services. The specific relationship is
explained further here,
http://oclc.org/developer/documentation/worldcat-search-api/who-can-use.
However, there are other OCLC services that are available to
individual's non-commercial use. Looking at the list of services
available on http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/content/affiliate/ you'll see
that the WorldCat search box and WorldCat links with embedded searches
are available to anyone. You may also be interested in checking out
the WorldCat Registry, or low-volume use of the xISBN and xISSN services.
If you have questions about the service, please contact the product
manager, Dawn Hendricks at [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>.
*****
There is nothing wrong with having a proprietary API; but pretending
that it isn't (either directly or through omission), or being afraid to
say it, is the kind of thing that has caused me to lose respect for
OCLC. Nothing should be declared "open" that isn't available to all, not
just members. And advertisements for WC API classes should state
"members only." That would be honest. And telling folks on a wide-open
list that they should use the Worldcat API (without mentioning "if you
are in a member institution and using this for library services) is at
best deceiving, at worst dishonest.
I, for one, am tired of OCLC's lies, and I'm not afraid to say it.
Fortunately for me, retirement is looming and I don't need to care who
likes what I say. This is a relief, to say the least.
kc
>
> kc
>
>>
>> This experiment is the first step in a process to make linked data about
>> WorldCat resources available. As it will evolve over time other
>> areas such
>> as API access, content-negotiation, search & other query methods,
>> additional RDF data vocabularies, etc., etc., will be considered in
>> concert
>> with community feedback (such as this thread) as to the way forward.
>>
>> Karen I know you are eager to work with and demonstrate the benefits of
>> this way of publishing data. But these things take time and effort, so
>> please be a little patient, and keep firing off these use cases and
>> issues
>> they are all valuable input.
>>
>> ~Richard.
>>
>>>
>>> kc
>>>
>>>
>>> Roy
>>>> On Tue, Jul 10, 2012 at 2:08 PM, Kevin Ford <[log in to unmask]>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> The use case clarifies perfectly.
>>>>>
>>>>> Totally feasible. Well, I should say "totally feasible" with the
>>>>> caveat
>>>>> that I've never used the Worldcat Search API. Not letting that
>>>>> stop me,
>>>>> so
>>>>> long as it is what I imagine it is, then a developer should be
>>>>> able to
>>>>> perform a search, retrieve the response, and, by integrating one
>>>>> of the
>>>>> tools advertised on the schema.org website into his/her code, then
>>>>> retrieve
>>>>> the microdata for each resource returned from the search (and save
>>>>> it as
>>>>> RDF
>>>>> or whatever).
>>>>>
>>>>> If someone has created something like this, do speak up.
>>>>>
>>>>> Yours,
>>>>>
>>>>> Kevin
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 07/10/2012 04:48 PM, Karen Coyle wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Kevin, if you misunderstand then I undoubtedly haven't been clear
>>>>>> (let's
>>>>>> at least share the confusion :-)). Here's the use case:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> PersonA wants to create a comprehensive bibliography of works by
>>>>>> AuthorB. The goal is to do a search on AuthorB in WorldCat and
>>>>>> extract
>>>>>> the RDFa data from those pages in order to populate the
>>>>>> bibliography.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Apart from all of the issues of getting a perfect match on
>>>>>> authors and
>>>>>> of manifestation duplicates (there would need to be editing of the
>>>>>> results after retrieval at the user's end), how feasible is this?
>>>>>> Assume
>>>>>> that the author is prolific enough that one wouldn't want to look
>>>>>> up all
>>>>>> of the records by hand.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> kc
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 7/10/12 1:43 PM, Kevin Ford wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> As for someone who might want to do this programmatically, he/she
>>>>>>> should take a look at the "Programming languages" section of the
>>>>>>> second link I sent along:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> http://schema.rdfs.org/tools.**html<http://schema.rdfs.org/tools.html>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> There one can find Ruby, Python, and Java extractors and parsers
>>>>>>> capable of outputting RDF. A developer can take one of these and
>>>>>>> programmatically get at the data.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Apologies if I am misunderstanding your intent.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Yours,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Kevin
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 07/10/2012 04:34 PM, Karen Coyle wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Thanks, Kevin! And Richard!
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I'm thinking we need a good web site with links to tools. I had
>>>>>>>> already
>>>>>>>> been introduced to
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> http://www.w3.org/2012/pyRdfa/
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> where you can past a URI and get ttl or rdf/xml. These are all
>>>>>>>> good
>>>>>>>> resources. But what about someone who wants to do this
>>>>>>>> programmatically,
>>>>>>>> not through a web site? Richard's message indicates that this
>>>>>>>> isn't
>>>>>>>> yet
>>>>>>>> available, so perhaps we should be gathering use cases to
>>>>>>>> support the
>>>>>>>> need? And have a place to post various solutions, even ones
>>>>>>>> that are
>>>>>>>> not
>>>>>>>> OCLC-specific? (Because I am hoping that the use of
>>>>>>>> microformats will
>>>>>>>> increase in general.)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> kc
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On 7/10/12 12:12 PM, Kevin Ford wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> is there an open search to get one to the desired records in the
>>>>>>>>> first
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> place?
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> -- I'm not certain this will fully address your question, but try
>>>>>>>>> these two sites:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Website:
>>>>>>>>> http://www.google.com/**webmasters/tools/richsnippets<http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets>
>>>>>>>>> Example: http://tinyurl.com/dx3h5bg
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Website:
>>>>>>>>> http://linter.structured-data.**org/<http://linter.structured-data.org/>
>>>>>>>>> Example: http://tinyurl.com/bmm8bbc
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> These sites will extract the data, but I don't think you get your
>>>>>>>>> choice of serialization. The data are extracted and displayed
>>>>>>>>> on the
>>>>>>>>> resulting page in the HTML, but at least you can *see* the data.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Additionally, there are a number of "tools" to help with
>>>>>>>>> microdata
>>>>>>>>> extraction here:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> http://schema.rdfs.org/tools.**html<http://schema.rdfs.org/tools.html>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Some of these will allow you to output specific (RDF)
>>>>>>>>> serializations.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> HTH,
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Kevin
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> On 07/10/2012 02:42 PM, Karen Coyle wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> I have demonstrated the schema.org/RDFa microdata in the WC
>>>>>>>>>> database to
>>>>>>>>>> various folks and the question always is: how do I get access to
>>>>>>>>>> this?
>>>>>>>>>> (The only source I have is the Facebook API, me being a "user"
>>>>>>>>>> rather
>>>>>>>>>> than a "maker".) The microdata is CC-BY once you get a Worldcat
>>>>>>>>>> URI, but
>>>>>>>>>> is there an open search to get one to the desired records in the
>>>>>>>>>> first
>>>>>>>>>> place? I'm poorly-versed in WC APIs so I'm hoping others have a
>>>>>>>>>> better
>>>>>>>>>> grasp.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> @rjw: the OCLC website does a thorough job of hiding email
>>>>>>>>>> addresses or
>>>>>>>>>> I would have asked this directly. Then again, a discussion here
>>>>>>>>>> could
>>>>>>>>>> have added value.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>>>>> kc
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>> --
>>> Karen Coyle
>>> [log in to unmask] http://kcoyle.net
>>> ph: 1-510-540-7596
>>> m: 1-510-435-8234
>>> skype: kcoylenet
>>>
>>
>>
>
--
Karen Coyle
[log in to unmask] http://kcoyle.net
ph: 1-510-540-7596
m: 1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet
|
