Exploring the linked university data with visualization tools

Abstract

University data is typically stored in separate data silos even though the data is implicitly richly related together. Such data has a large and diverse user base, including faculty members, students, industrial partners, alumnis, collaborating universities, and media. In this paper, we demonstrate two tools for understanding and using the contents of linked university data. The first tool, Visualization Playground (VISU), supports querying and visualizing the data for example for illustrating emerging trends in universities (e.g., about publications) and for comparing differences. The second tool, Vocabulary Visualizer (V2), demonstrates the usage of shared vocabularies in the Linked University Data Cloud. It reveals what kinds of data different universities have published, and what terms are used to describe the contents. Such analysis is a basis for facilitating design of Linked Data applications across university data boundaries. © Springer-Verlag 2013.