Linked Open Models: Extending Linked Open Data with conceptual model information

Abstract

As the uptake of the Semantic Web vision has been relatively slow, a strategy based on pragmatic steps is being deployed in order to setup enablers and to stimulate acceptance. "Linked Open Data" refers to one of these early steps, benefiting from an available technological space (RDF, HTTP). The paper proposes "Linked Open Models" as a possible additional step, whose aim is to enable users to externalize knowledge in the form of diagrammatic models – a type of content that is human-readable, as well as linkable in the way promoted by the Linked Data paradigm. Consequently, diagrams become user-generated content that semantically enriches Linked Data, thus allowing richer constraints or connections in queries. The vision emerged from the context and use cases provided by the ComVantage FP7 research project, where linking benefits for conceptual diagrammatic models have been investigated. However the paper also discusses the vision’s degree of generality, beyond the scope of the exemplary project use cases. Feasibility was demonstrated with a vocabulary and a prototype mechanism for exposing the models created with a hybrid, domain-specific modeling method in a Linked Data-driven collaboration environment.