Jekyll RDF: Template-based linked data publication with minimized effort and maximum scalability

Abstract

Over the last decades the Web has evolved from a human–human communication network to a network of complex human–machine interactions. An increasing amount of data is available as Linked Data which allows machines to “understand” the data, but RDF is not meant to be understood by humans. With Jekyll RDF we present a method to close the gap between structured data and human accessible exploration interfaces by publishing RDF datasets as customizable static HTML sites. It consists of an RDF resource mapping system to serve the resources under their respective IRI, a template mapping based on schema classes, and a markup language to define templates to render customized resource pages. Using the template system, it is possible to create domain specific browsing interfaces for RDF data next to the Linked Data resources. This enables content management and knowledge management systems to serve datasets in a highly customizable, low effort, and scalable way to be consumed by machines as well as humans.