A new W3C Incubator Group on Library Linked Data (”LLD XG”) was announced on May 21 with the mission of helping to “increase global interoperability of library data on the Web by bringing together people involved in semantic Web activities — focusing on Linked Data — in the library community and beyond, building on existing initiatives, and identifying collaboration tracks for the future” [1,2,3].

The forty participants of the LLD XG represent nineteen W3C member organizations — including major libraries and library consortia, universities, research organizations, funding bodies, private companies, and non-profit organizations from twelve countries — with nine invited experts. The LLD XG conducts its work on a wiki [5] and on a mailing list with a world-readable Web archive [6] and RSS feed [7]. In addition, a public wiki [8] and mailing list [9] have been set up for members of the general public interested in discussing the work of the incubator group or providing feedback on its deliverables. The group has begun to gather use cases and case studies demonstrating successful implementation of Linked Data technologies [10] and is discussing the scope and focus of its remaining eleven months of activity [11].

W3C Incubator Activities are chartered for a period of one year or less to explore “innovative ideas for specifications, guidelines, and applications that are not (or not yet) clear candidates as Web standards developed through the more thorough process afforded by the W3C Recommendation Track” [12]. The LLD XG will be considered a success “if it can elaborate a state of the art report on the adoption of Linked data principles and perspective in the library domain and related sectors, leading to a clear and agreed view regarding what further standards and guidelines should be developed, and what organization should be set up in order to develop them” [3].

[1] http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/lld/
[2] http://www.w3.org/News/2010#entry-8803
[3] http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/lld/charter
[4] http://www.w3.org/2000/09/dbwg/details?group=44833&public=1
[5] http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/lld/wiki/Main_Page
[6] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-xg-lld/
[7] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-xg-lld/feed.rss
[8] http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/wiki/LLD
[9] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-lld/
[10] http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/lld/wiki/UseCases
[11] http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/lld/wiki/Topics
[12] http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/#About

Autoren: Stefan Kramer, Yale University Library, stefan.kramer@yale.edu; Anne Oechtering, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, anne.oechtering@sbb.spk-berlin.de; Joachim Wackerow, GESIS (Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften), joachim.wackerow@gesis.org

Abstract:
Numeric datasets generated in the course of research projects in the social sciences pose distinct problems for their efficient and effective description, indexing, locating, reusing, and archiving. The development of the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) seeks to address these problems. With the release of DDI version 3 as a metadata schema for social science data, the DDI Alliance as the organization behind these efforts now focuses on the development of tools and the promotion of the DDI in appropriate communities of practice. (more…)