One impediment to the uptake of linked data technology is developers’ unfamiliarity with typical Resource Description Framework (RDF) serializations like Turtle and RDF/XML. JSON for Linking Data (JSON-LD) is designed to bypass this problem by expressing linked data in the well-known Javascript Object Notation (JSON) format that is popular with developers. JSON-LD is now Google’s preferred format for exposing Schema.org structured data in web pages for search optimization, leading to its widespread use by web developers. Another successful use of JSON-LD is by the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF), which limits its use to a narrow design pattern, which is readily consumed by a variety of applications. This presentation will show how a similar design pattern has been used in Audubon Core and with Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) controlled vocabularies to serialize data in a manner that is both easily consumed by conventional applications, but which also can be seamlessly loaded as RDF into triplestores or other linked data applications. The presentation will also suggest how JSON-LD might be used in other contexts within TDWG vocabularies, including with the Darwin Core Resource Relationship terms.

linked data, International Image Interoperability Framework IIIF, vocabulary, biodiversity

Steven J Baskauf

TDWG 2021