VoID-graph: Visualize Linked Datasets on the Web

TL;DR

VoID-graph is a web-based tool that visualizes Linked Data datasets from VoID descriptions directly in browsers, simplifying the process and increasing accessibility without server dependencies.

Contribution

It introduces a standalone, browser-based visualization tool for VoID descriptions, eliminating complex setup and server reliance, enhancing ease of use and sustainability.

Findings

Visualizes VoID descriptions within web browsers.

No server setup or installation required.

Built using open web standards like JavaScript and SVG.

Abstract

The Linked Open Data (LOD) cloud diagram is a picture that helps us grasp the contents and the links of globally available data sets. Such diagram has been a powerful dissemination method for the Linked Data movement, allowing people to glance at the size and structure of this distributed, interconnected database. However, generating such image for third-party datasets can be a quite complex task as it requires the installation and understanding of a variety of tools which are not easy to setup. In this paper we present VoID-graph (http://lmatteis.github.io/void-graph/), a standalone web-tool that, given a VoID description, can visualize a diagram similar to the LOD cloud. It is novel because the diagram is autonomously shaped from VoID descriptions directly within a Web-browser, which doesn't require any server cooperation. This makes it not only easy to use, as no installation or configuration is required, but also makes it more sustainable, as it is built using Open Web standards such as JavaScript and SVG.