Deploying Linked Data Guide - Glossary

• class - A concept in a domain of interest. A class describes the common attributes and behaviours shared by entities belonging to the same group by virtue of their common characteristics.
• content negotiation - A mechanism defined in HTTP which supports serving different representations of a URL-addressable resource. An HTTP client can indicate which representation formats it understands and prefers.
• cURL - A command line tool for transferring files to or from a URL. It writes to standard output by default and provides a good tool for simulating a web browser's interaction with an HTTP server.
• data source - A source of data (e.g. a place that provides access to property values associated with one or more Entities).
• data resource - same as data source
• data space - A moniker for Web-accessible atomic containers that manage and expose data, information, services, processes, and knowledge. Data Spaces are fundamentally problem-domain-specific database applications with the benefit of being data model and query language agnostic.
• dereferencing - The act of accessing and retrieving data, in desired representation, from a location identified by URL.
• document resource - A Web information resource in a specific representation that is identifiable and accessible via a URL. Documents are the dominant information resource form on the Document Web (i.e., the current Web).
• Document Web - Web of Linked Documents.
• entity - Something, real or conceptual, which exists apart from other things.
• entity ID - A unique identifier for an entity, uniquely identifying and distinguishing a particular entity instance from other similar entities (typically of the same type or class).
• entity set - A collection of entities all belonging to the same class.
• HTTP (HyperText Transport Protocol) - A communication protocol for information transfer on the World Wide Web.
• HTTP header - A text record exchanged between an HTTP client and server, which forms part of an HTTP request or HTTP response message. A request consists of a method (or verb), headers, and an optional message body. The request header fields allow the client to send additional information about the request and the client itself. A response consists of a status line, headers, and an optional message body. A response header typically contains information about the data being returned and about the server itself.
• information resource - An encapsulation of data and representation that forms the basic payload unit (packet) on the Web Information Bus.
• IRI (Internationalized Resource Identifier) - An internationalized version of a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). While URIs are limited to a subset of the ASCII character set, IRIs may contain any Unicode character.
• Linked Data - A Data Access by Reference mechanism that uses HTTP as a pointer system for accessing the negotiated representation of resource/entity descriptions. For example, an RDF model based resource description can be projected (represented) using (X)HTML, N3, Turtle, or RDF/XML via content negotiation. At all times the data access mechanism and ultimate presentation/representation format are distinct..
• Linked Data Web - Web of Linked Data.
• non-information resource - Any resource that is not an information resource (i.e., not Web transportable in basic form). Structured data resource (see below) is a more accurate and preferable term.
• structured data resource - A Web accessible container of structured data representing physical and abstract entities.
• structured data - Data organized into semantic chunks or entities, with similar entities grouped together in relations or classes, and presented in a patterned manner.
• structured data source - A repository of structured data.
• URL (Uniform Resource Locator) - A URI that identifies a physical Web resource.
• URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) - A global identification mechanism for resources (entities or objects) that is completely distinct from their presentation, representation and data access mechanism.
• Web information resource - A compound document style of artifact that provides a materialized contextualization of data.

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