Linked data
structured data and method for its publication
In computing, linked data is structured data which is associated with ("linked" to) other data. Interlinking makes the data more useful through semantic queries.
Tim Berners-Lee, director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), coined the term in a 2006 design note about the Semantic Web project.
Part of the vision of linked data is for the Internet to become a global database.
Linked data builds upon standard Web technologies such as HTTP, RDF and URIs, but rather than using them to serve web pages and hyperlinks only for human readers, it extends them to share information in a way that can be read automatically by computers (machine readable).
Linked data may also be open data, in which case it is usually described as Linked Open Data.
Principles
In his 2006 "Linked Data" note, Tim Berners-Lee outlined four principles of linked data, paraphrased along the following lines:
Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) should be used to name and identify individual things.
HTTP URIs should be used to allow these things to be looked up, interpreted, and subsequently "dereferenced".
Useful information about what a name identifies should be provided through open standards such as RDF, SPARQL, etc.
When publishing data on the Web, other things should be referred to using their HTTP URI-based names.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Linked data” is structured data and method for its publication. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Linked, data and structured, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “structured data and method for its publication” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q515701. The Library of Congress control number is sh2013002090. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2006.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Linked data”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Linked data primary sources, Linked data archive and Linked research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Linked data”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Linked data” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.