Schema.org. Linked Data's Gateway Drug
The talk will detail the trajectory schema.org has taken, starting with a history that is less a retrospective than a narrative. I'll follow this narrative to the fortunately-timed emergence of JSON-LD, providing as it does a flexible, standards-based serialization of the vocabulary.
This, I'll explain, helped fuel the popularity of schema.org, which in turn has caused a demand for more schemas, growing the vocabulary and its capabilities. I'll make the case that schema.org has started to resemble exactly what everyone involved in the initiative declared it shouldn't be: an ontology of everything.
Whether or not that be the case, I'll say, the utility of having a relatively simple, well thought-out, well-understood and very broad vocabulary available has made schema.org (along with JSON-LD) a go-to tool for linked data modelers.
Finally, and with a look at the many ways Google, in particular, has made use of schema.org, I'll explore to what extent its utility extends past being a convenient starting for point for back-of-the napkin knowledge graph development, or whether it's making a significant contribution to realizing the promise of a web of data.
Aaron Bradley
Knowledge Graph Strategist, Electronic Arts
Video