Architecture of Linked Data Applications

Abstract

Before the emergence of RDF and Linked Data, Web applications have been designed around relational database standards of data representation and service. A move to an RDF-based data representation introduces challenges for the application developer in rethinking the Web application outside the standards and processes of database-driven Web development. These include, but are not limited to, the graph-based data model of RDF [171], the Linked Data principles [83], and formal and domain specific semantics [96]. To date, investigating the challenges which arise from moving to RDFbased data representation has not been given the same priority as the research on potential benefits. We argue that the lack of emphasis on simplifying the development and deployment of Linked Data and RDF-based applications has been an obstacle for real-world adoption of Semantic Web technologies and the emerging Web of Data. However, it is difficult to evaluate the adoption of Linked Data and Semantic Web technologies without empirical evidence. Towards this goal, we present the results of a survey of more than 100 RDF-based applications, as well as a component-based, conceptual architecture for Linked Data applications which is based on this survey. We also use