The Semantic Web has been through the extremes of the hype cycle, from being an imminent revolution that would change all our daily lives, to being a mirage forever out of reach. Now, the vision of a semantic web – of databases joined up as a global, machine-readable knowledge base – is gradually becoming real as open technologies and practices allow different data sources to co-ordinate together. In particular Wikidata, a project from the same stable as Wikipedia, is acting as a “spine” or “hub” to link diverse databases and to turn them into interactive visualisations.[1][2][3]

The linking together of documents to make a global hypertext document (the World Wide Web) took us from an information-scarce society to one of information overload. It changed the context of learners’ relationships with information, and formal education has struggled to catch up.[4] This session is about the changes brought by the web of semantic knowledge and their consequences. Resources that used to be difficult to create will now be easy, yet the skills of critical appreciation of data are no easier to acquire. Data, intelligently arranged, allow learners to explore different kinds of space: a map, a timeline, or a family tree are obvious examples, but there are more abstract kinds of space: spheres of influence, organisational structures, fictional worlds. This session is about the opportunities and issues of the web of knowledge, with some real examples and a glimpse of a future in which open, semantic technologies are more widespread.

[1] Hinojo, Àlex (2015) “Wikidata: The New Rosetta Stone” CCCBLAB
[2] Poulter, Martin (2017) “Wikidata: The new hub for cultural heritage” Oxford Museums Aspire
[3] Neubert, Joachim (2017) “Wikidata as a linking hub for knowledge organization systems?” 17th European Networked Knowledge Organization Systems (NKOS) Workshop
[4] White, David (2013) “What’s left to teach now that Wikipedia has done everyone’s homework?” Keynote presentation, EduWiki Conference 2013.