OpenBiodiv Computer Demo: an Implementation of a Semantic System Running on top of the Biodiversity Knowledge Graph

Abstract

We present OpenBiodiv - an implementation of the Open Biodiversity Knowledge Management System. We believe OpenBiodiv is possibly the first pilot-stage implenatation of a semantic system running on top of the biodiversity knowledge graph. The need for an integrated information system serving the needs of the biodiversity community can be dated at least as far back as the sanctioning of the Bouchout declaration in 2007. The Bouchout declaration proposes to make biodiversity knowledge freely available as Linked Open Data (LOD)*1. At TDWG2016 (Fig. 1) we presented the prototype of the sytem - then called Open Biodiversity Knolwedge Management System (OBKMS). The specification and design of OpenBiodiv was outlined by Senderov and Penev (2016) and in this computer demo we would like to showcase its pilot. We will show how to use the SPARQL*2 endpoint directly, we will illustrate the semantic search capabilities of the system, and we will showcase some high-level applications that run on top of it. We will also look at the core dataset (the Biodiversity Knowledge Graph) and the R tools used to create it.