I think you’ve hit the nail on the head here, Karen. I would just add, or maybe reassure, that this does not necessarily require rethinking your existing metadata but how to translate that existing metadata into a linked data environment. Though this might seem like a pain, in many cases it will actually inspire you to go back and improve/increase the value of that existing metadata.

This is definitely looking awesome, Eric!

Aaron

On Nov 19, 2013, at 9:41 AM, Karen Coyle <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Eric, I think this skips a step - which is the design step in which you create a domain model that uses linked data as its basis. RDF is not a serialization; it actually may require you to re-think the basic structure of your metadata. The reason for that is that it provides capabilities that record-based data models do not. Rather than starting with current metadata, you need to take a step back and ask: what does my information world look like as linked data?
> 
> I repeat: RDF is NOT A SERIALIZATION.
> 
> kc
> 
> On 11/19/13 5:04 AM, Eric Lease Morgan wrote:
>> I believe participating in the Semantic Web and providing content via the principles of linked data is not "rocket surgery", especially for cultural heritage institutions -- libraries, archives, and museums. Here is a simple recipe for their participation:
>> 
>>   1. use existing metadata standards (MARC, EAD, etc.) to describe
>>      collections
>> 
>>   2. use any number of existing tools to convert the metadata to
>>      HTML, and save the HTML on a Web server
>> 
>>   3. use any number of existing tools to convert the metadata to
>>      RDF/XML (or some other "serialization" of RDF), and save the
>>      RDF/XML on a Web server
>> 
>>   4. rest, congratulate yourself, and share your experience with
>>      others in your domain
>> 
>>   5. after the first time though, go back to Step #1, but this time
>>      work with other people inside your domain making sure you use as
>>      many of the same URIs as possible
>> 
>>   6. after the second time through, go back to Step #1, but this
>>      time supplement access to your linked data with a triple store,
>>      thus supporting search
>> 
>>   7. after the third time through, go back to Step #1, but this
>>      time use any number of existing tools to expose the content in
>>      your other information systems (relational databases, OAI-PMH
>>      data repositories, etc.)
>> 
>>   8. for dessert, cogitate ways to exploit the linked data in your
>>      domain to discover new and additional relationships between URIs,
>>      and thus make the Semantic Web more of a reality
>> 
>> What do you think?
>> 
>> I am in the process of writing a guidebook on the topic of linked data and archives. In the guidebook I will elaborate on this recipe and provide instructions for its implementation. [1]
>> 
>> [1] guidebook - http://sites.tufts.edu/liam/
>> 
>> --
>> Eric Lease Morgan
>> University of Notre Dame
> 
> -- 
> Karen Coyle
> [log in to unmask] http://kcoyle.net
> m: 1-510-435-8234
> skype: kcoylenet