Per Laura's message, and what I think was the underlying idea behind Mike's
post, I think there's still a great opportunity to learn something new.
Perhaps you might want to look at WebSocket [0], and Jason Ronallo's
presentation from Code4lib 2014 [1] was a great intro. It seems like this
might be a good candidate for showing real-time availability information.

[0] https://www.websocket.org/
[1] http://jronallo.github.io/presentations/code4lib-2014-websockets/

Cheers,
Mark


--
Mark A. Matienzo <[log in to unmask]>
Director of Technology, Digital Public Library of America


On Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 9:23 AM, Shaun Ellis <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I don't understand the "publish it and they will come" mentality when it
> comes to linked data.  If you can't define a clear use case for your own
> data infrastructure, then I can't see how you would justify the time spent.
>
> The "making data available to the world at large" is a nice byproduct, but
> you can't write a "use case" for "unknown users" with unknown goals.  So,
> if you have no plans to use the data in some productive way, then I'm sure
> you have more pressing things to do with your time.
>
> -Shaun
>
>
> On 8/7/14 9:48 AM, Scott Prater wrote:
>
>> Echoing others... the use case for linked data appears to be making data
>> available to the world at large, unknown consumers, who may find a use
>> for it that you never imagined.
>>
>> Name authority services (like VIAF), catalogs of public resources, map
>> data -- all these are good candidates for a linked data approach.
>>
>> Hardware availability at your library?  Not so much.  It's hard to
>> imagine a case where that information would be useful outside your walls.
>>
>> -- Scott
>>
>> On 08/07/2014 08:09 AM, Ethan Gruber wrote:
>>
>>> I agree with others saying linked data is overkill here. If you don't
>>> have
>>> an audience in mind or a specific purpose for implementing linked data,
>>> it's not worth it.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Aug 7, 2014 at 9:07 AM, Jason Stirnaman <[log in to unmask]>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>  Mike,
>>>> Check out
>>>> http://json-ld.org/,
>>>> http://json-ld.org/primer/latest/, and
>>>> https://github.com/digitalbazaar/pyld
>>>>
>>>> But, if you haven't yet sketched out a model for *your* data, then
>>>> the LD
>>>> stuff will just be a distraction. The information on Linked Data seems
>>>> overly complex because trying to represent data for the Semantic Web
>>>> gets
>>>> complex - and verbose.
>>>>
>>>> As others have suggested, it's never a bad idea to just "do the simplest
>>>> thing that could possibly work."[1] Mark recommended writing a simple
>>>> API.
>>>> That would be a good start to understanding your data model and to
>>>> eventually serving LD. And, you may find that it's enough for now.
>>>>
>>>> 1. http://www.xprogramming.com/Practices/PracSimplest.html
>>>>
>>>> Jason
>>>>
>>>> Jason Stirnaman
>>>> Lead, Library Technology Services
>>>> University of Kansas Medical Center
>>>> [log in to unmask]
>>>> 913-588-7319
>>>>
>>>> On Aug 6, 2014, at 1:45 PM, Michael Beccaria <[log in to unmask]>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>  I have recently had the opportunity to create a new library web page
>>>>> and
>>>>>
>>>> host it on my own servers. One of the elements of the new page that I
>>>> want
>>>> to improve upon is providing live or near live information on technology
>>>> availability (10 of 12 laptops available, etc.). That data resides on my
>>>> ILS server and I thought it might be a good time to upgrade the
>>>> bubble gum
>>>> and duct tape solution I now have to creating a real linked data service
>>>> that would provide that availability information to the web server.
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> The problem is there is a lot of overly complex and complicated
>>>>>
>>>> information out there onlinked data and RDF and the semantic web etc.
>>>> and
>>>> I'm looking for a simple guide to creating a very simple linked data
>>>> service with php or python or whatever. Does such a resource exist? Any
>>>> advice on where to start?
>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>
>>>>> Mike Beccaria
>>>>> Systems Librarian
>>>>> Head of Digital Initiative
>>>>> Paul Smith's College
>>>>> 518.327.6376
>>>>> [log in to unmask]
>>>>> Become a friend of Paul Smith's Library on Facebook today!
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>
>>
> --
> Shaun Ellis
> User Interface Developer, Digital Initiatives
> Princeton University Library
> 609.258.1698
>
> “Any darn fool can get complicated. It takes genius to attain simplicity.”
> -Pete Seeger
>