11/04/2013
PRELIDA ("Preserving Linked Data") is a Coordination Action of the VII Framework Programme, which started on January 1, 2013 and will last for two full years. Its partners are: The ISTI institute of the National Italian Research Council, the Alliance for Permanent Access, The University of Huddersfield (UK) and the University of Innsbruck (Austria).
The project aims at building bridges across the Digital Preservation and Linked Data communities. It will raise the awareness of already existing outcomes of Digital Preservation in the Linked Data communities, while posing new research questions for the Preservation one.
The main objective of PRELIDA is to produce a state of the art on preserving linked data, and a road map for addressing the new challenges that preserving linked data poses. The road map will drive the scientific and technological development of this field, as well as future research programmes that the Commission may wish to fund.
The sheer amount of data offered and consumed on the Internet will steadily increase by orders of magnitude, as the volume of data being digitally stored and exchanged is growing exponentially. Obviously, these data generate the potential for many new types of products and services. A whole new industry implementing services on top of large data streams is foreseen. The impact of this emerging economic sector - the data economy - may soon outrange the current importance of the software industry.
Moreover, with the growing adoption of the Linked Data paradigm by governments and organizations, the requirements in terms of quality, usability and maturity increase. On the other end, the preservation of an information object requires gathering much metadata, concerning several aspects of the object. For these reasons, the issue of preserving Linked Data is a key factor in several areas and consequently the task of preserving them can, and should, be seen as part of the Digital Preservation agenda.
However, so far there has not been a sufficiently deep and comprehensive interaction between the Digital Preservation and Linked Data communities. The PRELIDA team is convinced that the preservation problem of Linked Data can only be solved satisfactorily if the two communities can bring in their complementary skills and technologies. So an important task of PRELIDA is to raise awareness of existing preservation solutions and to facilitate their uptake. For this purpose in-depth discussions among the two communities to identify which of these characteristics require novel solutions and to develop road maps for addressing the new challenges will be stimulated.
PRELIDA will employ a number of useful resources to achieve its targets. First, a Working Group composed of high calibre experts from both the Digital Preservation and Linked Data communities will be created. Second, three workshops will be organized, gathering representative stakeholders of the two communities, as well as two Summer Schools, where postgraduate students and junior researchers will acquire thorough knowledge of the state of the art of both communities. Finally, several reports will be drafted, documenting the important intermediate and final conclusions.
The main outcomes of the projects are the realization of a State of the Art report of Linked Data and their preservation needs, and the developing of a Roadmap concerning the most promising research paths, and the resulting problems which need to be addressed. This will drive the scientific and technological development of this field, as well as future research programmes that the Commission may wish to fund.
Per informazioni:
Carlo Meghini (project coordinator): carlo.meghini@isti.cnr.it
Anna Molino: anna.molino@isti.cnr.it
Website: www.prelida.eu; www.prelida.org