Université de Montréal / Canadensys Simplifying the mechanics toward building a Biodiversity Knowledge Graph David P. Shorthouse Christian Gendreau Université de Montréal / Canadensys @dpsSpiders, @christgendreau

Biodiversity Knowledge Graph I have shamelessly borrowed the catch phrase Biodiversity Knowledge Graph from pro-iBiosphere’s proposed Open Biodiversity Knowledge Management System. Rod sees digital biodiversity resources as disconnected silos of data objects. New knowledge can be obtained from our work as we as ask research-driven questions whose answers require that we connect our silos in novel ways and especially as we share those connections.

RESTful & Resourceful APIs

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)

OpenURL Created by librarian at University of Ghent in 1990s Used by libraries to connect patrons to subscription content Assists with the resolution of a request for a web resource ANSI/NISO Z39.88 standard Base URL + structured query string

OpenURL Version 0.1 http://resolver.example.edu/cgi?genre=book&isbn=0836218310&title=The+Far+Side+Gallery+3 Version 1.0 http://resolver.example.edu/cgi?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:book&rft.isbn=0836218310&rft.btitle=The+Far+Side+Gallery+3

COinS (Content in Spans) in HTML <span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fmendeley.com%2Fmendeley&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.date=2014&rft.pages=n%2Fa-n%2Fa&rft.atitle=Three+decades+of+vegetation+changes+in+peatlands+isolated+in+an+agricultural+landscape&rft.jtitle=Applied+Vegetation+Science&rft.title=Applied+Vegetation+Science&rft.aulast=Pasquet&rft.aufirst=Salom%C3%A9&rft.au=Pellerin%2C+St%C3%A9phanie&rft.au=Poulin%2C+Monique&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1111%2Favsc.12142&rft.issn=14022001"><!--COinS--></span>

http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/openurlhelp.aspx

Problems with OpenURL Never fully satisfied anyone Search vs. find Granularity of linking (journal? article? page?) Lazy exposure of known holdings Output does not have a specified format

Well-specified query parameters Versioning is explicit OpenURL Well-specified query parameters Versioning is explicit

Are there Canadidate Query Parameters in Our Community?

What About the Response Structure?

Vascular Plants of Canada http://data.canadensys.net/vascan/api

http://eol.org/api/pages/1.0/1045608.json

http://www.itis.gov/…/…/getFullRecordFromTSN?tsn=202384

JSON-LD

JSON-LD W3C Recommendation, January 2014 Allows specification of @contexts What the terms mean & what are their characteristics Allows specification of @id May not break existing API responses Transformation tools to express as RDF

Example Encyclopedia of Life TraitBank®

Well-specified semantics and structure for the content JSON-LD Well-specified semantics and structure for the content

Take Home Messages We should express versioning in our APIs We should reuse DwC terms as API query parameters We should use JSON-LD for API responses Consumers can use services with (greater) confidence Documentation can be shared It may be possible to inch toward a simple, effective biodiversity knowledge graph without breaking existing JSON-based APIs

How Do We Get There? Workflow and Services Interest Group Develop a common set of requirements Early adopters Proofs-of-concept, client applications Libraries of code to consume A name and a web presence