OpenLink Data Spaces (ODS)

ODS is a new generation Distributed Collaborative Application platform for creating semantic web presence via Data Spaces derived from: Weblogs, Wikis, Feed Aggregators, Photo Galleries, Shared Bookmarks, Discussion Forums, and more.

What are Data Spaces?

Data Spaces are a new database management technology frontier that deals with the virtualization of heterogeneous data and data sources via a plethora of data access protocols.

As Unified Data Stores, Data Spaces also provide solid foundation for knowledge creation, processing, and dissemination; a making them a natural foundation platform for the emerging Data-Web (Semantic Web - Layer 1).

Why are they Important?

They provide a cost-effective route for generating Semantic Web Presence from Web 2.0 and Traditional Web data sources, by delivery of an atomic data container for RDF Instance Data derived from data hosted in Blogs, Wikis, Shared Bookmark Services, Discussion Forums, Web File Servers, Photo Galleries etc.

Data Spaces enable direct and granular database-style interaction with Web Data.

Standards and Protocols

Query Service Support

ODS supports a number of Query Services:

• GData
• OpenSearch
• XQuery/XPath over HTTP
• Full Text Search over HTTP
• SPARQL

Publishing Protocol Support

ODS supports the following publishing protocols:

• GData
• ATOM 1.0
• Moveable Type
• MetaWeblog
• Blogger

Application Components

• ODS-Framework - OpenID and Yadis compliant Framework for building Distributed Collaborative Applications that are equipped with Single-Sign-On (SSO) funcitonality and auto-generated RDF Data Spaces
• ODS-Weblog - Comprehensive blogging platform that support all the major publishing protocols (Atom, Moveable Type, Meta Weblog, and Blogger) and includes automatic generation of content syndication gems that support RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, Atom, SIOC, OPML, OCS, and others
• ODS-Briefcase - WebDAV based Unified Storage Solution that incorporates automated metadata extraction and management
• ODS-Feed-Manager - RSS 1.0, 2.0, Atom, OPML, OCS Feed Aggregator
• ODS-Wiki - Wiki Platform that support the Atom Publishing Protocol alongside Twiki and Wikimedia markup
• ODS-Mail - Web based Email Client
• ODS-Bookmark-Manager - Shared Bookmark Manager
• ODS-Gallery - Photo & General Image Sharing
• ODS-Discussion - Conversation / Discussion Management that also provides Conversation/Comment/Discussion management services to all of the ODS-* applications
• ODS-Community - Group/Community Mode service for all of the ODS-* applications

Getting Started

ODS comes with the Virtuoso Open Source 4.5.3 edition. If you are running the server with the demo database, just point the browser to http://localhost:8890/ods . See Setting up ODS for the needed configuration steps for getting full functionality.

Learn More

• Data Space FAQ
• ODS Screencast Demonstrations?
• ODS SIOC Reference
• ODS SIOC Query Tutorial
• Virtuoso Technology Blog
• Kingsley Idehen's Blog Data Space
• Kingsley Idehen's Data Space commentary and articles
• Orri Erling's Weblog Data Space