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

2. 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.

3. RESTful & Resourceful APIs

4. JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)

8. 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

9. OpenURL
Version 0.1
Version 1.0

10. COinS (Content in Spans) in HTML
<span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z &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%2F %2Favsc.12142&rft.issn= "><!--COinS--></span>

13. 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

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

15. Are there Canadidate Query Parameters in Our Community?

17. What About the Response Structure?

18. Vascular Plants of Canada

22. JSON-LD

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

24. Example
Encyclopedia of Life TraitBank®

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

26. 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

27. 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