Abstract

Hugh Cayless, Sustaining Linked Ancient World Data

May 31st, 2018 marked the sixth anniversary of the Linked AncientWorld Data Institute (LAWDI), a workshop funded by the US NationalEndowment For the Humanities. This makes it a good time to take stock of theAncient World Linked Data initiatives that have been around for some time, aswell as some that have foundered and some that are new. What makes forsustainable Linked Open Data? Why do some initiatives thrive while othersfail? What resources do successful LOD sites need, and how maytheybe ob-tained? The promise of LOD is that it frees our information from the silos inwhich it is housed, permitting cross-system interactions that improve thequality and usefulness of the information in any single system. This article willtake the broader view of the definition of Linked Data suggested by TimBerners-Lee’s foundational“Linked Data–Design Issues”paper, as encom-passing more types of data than simply RDF and other“Semantic Web”tech-nologies. This view of LOD is pragmatic and leverages the strengths of semantictechnologies while avoiding their weaknesses.

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