WhoKnows? Evaluating linked data heuristics with a quiz that cleans up DBpedia

Abstract

Purpose

Linking Open Data (LOD) provides a vast amount of well structured semantic information, but many inconsistencies may occur, especially if the data are generated with the help of automated methods. Data cleansing approaches enable detection of inconsistencies and overhauling of affected data sets, but they are difficult to apply automatically. The purpose of this paper is to present WhoKnows?, an online quiz that generates different kinds of questionnaires from DBpedia data sets.

Design/methodology/approach

Besides its playfulness, WhoKnows? has been developed for the evaluation of property relevance ranking heuristics on DBpedia data, with the convenient side effect of detecting inconsistencies and doubtful facts.

Findings

The original purpose for developing WhoKnows? was to evaluate heuristics to rank LOD properties and thus, obtain a semantic relatedness between entities according to the properties by which they are linked. The presented approach is an efficient method to detect popular properties within a limited amount of triples. Ongoing work continues in the development of sound property ranking heuristics for the purpose of detecting the most relevant characteristics of entities.

Originality/value

WhoKnows? uses the approach of “Games with a Purpose” to detect inconsistencies in Linked Data and score properties to rank them for sophisticated semantic search scenarios.

Citation

Waitelonis, J., Ludwig, N., Knuth, M. and Sack, H. (2011), "WhoKnows? Evaluating linked data heuristics with a quiz that cleans up DBpedia", Interactive Technology and Smart Education, Vol. 8 No. 4, pp. 236-248. https://doi.org/10.1108/17415651111189478