On Sep 4, 2013, at 9:27 AM, Shaun Ellis <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I get the basic concepts of linked data.  But what I don't understand is 
> why the idea has been around so long, yet there seems to be a dearth of 
> useful applications that live up to the hype.  So, what I want to learn 
> about linked data is: who's using it effectively?  Maybe there's lots of 
> stuff out there that I just don't know about?


I've been doing some reading and evaluating in the regard to Linked Data [0], and I think the problem is multi-diminentional:

  * when people create Linked Data they all too often do
    not necessarily use URIs from other linked data sets
    or the URIs are not persistent

  * there is not a critical mass Linked Data available
    for the killer app to be demonstrated; the chicken &
    egg problem

  * encoding data/information/knowledge in the form of
    triples (whether it be RDF/XML, Turtle, or N3) is not
    trivial, let alone easy to understand despite the
    fact that there are only three parts

  * vocabularies get in the way; there does not seem to be
    a clear cut way of deciding what semantic(s) to use for
    describing things. FOAF? Dublin Core? Etc. I call this
    the Tower Of Babel problem

  * our (everybody's) data is dirty, inconsistent, or manifests
    a wide variety of integrity issues. People can tolerate
    this sort of ambiguity. Computers can't.

[0] beginnings of a Linked Data guidebook - http://sites.tufts.edu/liam/2013/08/08/liam-guidebook/

--
Eric Lease Morgan