Introduction to the Semantic Weband the Nonprofit Social Graph

Andrew SearsExecutive Director

The Need for the Semantic Web:What are the Online Megatrends?

Browser traffic

General Search

Proliferation of Closed Datasets/APIs

App Traffic

Vertical Search

Open, StandardizedMachine Readable Data

All of these trends call for more standardized APIs and linked datasets = Semantic Web

App Traffic Growing beyond Browser Traffic

Note: Includes all web (desktop and mobile)

Vertical Search through MicroFormats & Schema.org

Proliferation of Nonprofit APIs

All for Good Brooklyn Museum Convio CorpWatch DonorsChoose eTapestry FirstGiving Global Giving Kintera Kiva LetGive Piryx Guidestar Charity Navigator Dropcash Global Currents Pitleline

Social Actions Sparked WiserEarth CiviCRM Get Active Member-only Reults Plus Blackbaud Institute for Money in State

Politics Giveness WiserEarth ChristianVolunteering Let’s Give Piryx Open Aid

A Programmers PerspectiveTo develop a good app you need to:

◦Aggregate from 5-20 sources ◦Write to 5-20 Apis◦Sign 5-20 contracts and terms of use that are

often incompatible with each otherIn the future this problem will be 10 times

as bigConclusion: Developers are more likely to

develop apps based on standardized APIs like the Semantic Web

What is the Semantic Web?Initiative of World Wide

Web Consortium for providing common formats for web data

Led by Tim Burners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web

aka Web 3.0

Semantic Web Standards

RDF = data sharing format in XML

Sparql: global query language for RDFSchema.org: schema & ontology

of objects in RDF

Aggregators: Freebase, Dbpedia, Zemanta, Kasiba, Calais, Data.gov…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web

How Nonprofits are likely to fit with Semantic Web Standards

RDF: data sharing format in XML

Sparql endpoints: AllforGood, GuidestarSparql: API standard for nonprofitsSchema.org: organizations, job postings events, volunteer opportunities

Aggregators: VolunteerMatch, AllforGood, Guidestar, ChristianVolunteering, Mobile Apps, Widgets, Web Portals, Thousands of Sites

Nonprofit Contracts/API Terms of Use

Schema.orgDefines schema of objects relevant to

nonprofits in RDF◦Organizations◦Job Posting◦Volunteer Opportunity◦Events

Will be used by all major search engines to improve search results◦Most experts say using Schema.org format

could increase click-throughs by 30%

Why Provide Data to Semantic Web Technology Mandate

◦ Given strategy of search engines, it is likely that nonprofit data that do not support the Semantic web will lose 50% of their search engine traffic within 5 years and 90% within 10 years

◦ As more of the web is viewed through apps and vertical search engines, open data is required

◦ There will soon be hundreds of nonprofit APIs, which are too many for programmers to support

Government Mandate◦ It is likely that future government grants will require grantees to

provide data to Data.gov Public Mandate

◦ Nonprofits that choose to be closed will likely attract public criticism and lose funders

Social Mandate◦ Providing open data maximizes social RoI

What is the Nonprofit Social Graph?

1. The Nonprofit social graph is set of standards for data objects of interest to nonprofits

◦Similar to the Facebook Social graph, but more open and focused on mapping resources related to nonprofits

2. It will be how Nonprofits contribute to the semantic web (Web 3.0)

3. It will define a set of data format standards and terms of use for sharing data

Nonprofit Social Graph

Organizations

Volunteer Opportunities

Jobs

People

Giving Requests

Causes/Social Actions

NonprofitMeta-wiki

Events

Foundations

SPARQL EndpointsSPARQL Endpoints serve as the primary

repository for a source of data◦ Nonprofit Organizations in USA, Volunteer Opportunities

Provides standard API query interface◦ Two-way update capabilities coming soon

Similar to AllForGood API, but using semantic web standards

Will require nonprofit community in each country to agree to endpoint◦ Will probably want to interface with data.gov

Sample Endpoints◦ Data.gov, Data.gov.uk, Dbpedia, Freebase, World

Factbook,http://www.w3.org/wiki/SparqlEndpointshttp://www.w3.org/wiki/SPARQLhttp://www.w3.org/wiki/SPARQL/Extensions/Update

Potential Options for Repositories/Sparql Endpoints

1. One organization becomes sole repository for organizations, volunteer opportunities

2. Different organizations become primary repository for different objects

◦AllForGood = Volunteer Opportunities◦Guidestar = Organizations

3. National/Global Sparql Endpoint becomes sole repository (i.e. Data.gov)

◦All data sources feed into Data.gov as a central repository/Sparql endpoint provider

◦Data.gov probably will not accept third-party data

Schema.org: OrganizationProperty Expected Type DescriptionProperties from Thingdescription Text A short description of the item.image URL URL of an image of the item.name Text The name of the item.url URL URL of the item.Properties from Organizationaddress PostalAddress Physical address of the item.

aggregateRating AggregateRating The overall rating, based on a collection of reviews or ratings, of the item.

contactPoints ContactPoint A contact point for a person or organization.

email Text Email address.employees Person People working for this organization.

events Event Upcoming or past events associated with this place or organization.

faxNumber Text The fax number.

founders Person A person who founded this organization.

foundingDate Date The date that this organization was founded.

interactionCount Text

A count of a specific user interactions with this item—for example, 20 UserLikes, 5 UserComments, or 300 UserDownloads. The user interaction type should be one of the sub types of UserInteraction.

location Place or PostalAddress The location of the event or organization.members Person or Organization A member of this organization.reviews Review Review of the item.telephone Text The telephone number.

More specific types: Corporation, EducationalOrganization, GovernmentOrganization, LocalBusiness, NGO, PerformingGroup, SportsTeam

Step Toward Nonprofit Social Graph: Organizations

Organize a working group of key stakeholdersDecide who will be the primary organization

endpoint◦Guidestar or Data.gov or both

Provide input into Schema.org’s organization and NGO standards◦ i.e. missing charity id, tax id, etc.◦May want to extend standard beyond Schema.org

Provide Sparql Endpoint for Organization dataData.gov latest IRS data is 2004

◦ http://www.data.gov/list/agency/14/15/catalog/raw/page/1/count/50

http://schema.org/Organizationhttp://schema.org/NGO

Organization Data Providers

GuidestarNetworkforGoodCharity NavigatorHandsOn NetworkIdealist.orgUnited Way/TruistChristianVolunteering.orgVolunteerMatch.org211Data.gov/IRS

Schema.org: Job PostingNeed Volunteer Opportunity

Property Expected Type DescriptionProperties from Thingdescription Text A short description of the item.image URL URL of an image of the item.name Text The name of the item.url URL URL of the item.Properties from JobPostingbaseSalary Number The base salary of the job.benefits Text Description of benefits associated with the job.datePosted Date Publication date for the job posting.educationRequirements Text Educational background needed for the position.

employmentType Text Type of employment (e.g. full-time, part-time, contract, temporary, seasonal, internship).

experienceRequirements Text Description of skills and experience needed for the position.hiringOrganization Organization Organization offering the job position.incentives Text Description of bonus and commission compensation aspects of the job.industry Text The industry associated with the job position.jobLocation Place A (typically single) geographic location associated with the job position.

occupationalCategory Text Category or categories describing the job. Use BLS O*NET-SOC taxonomy: http://www.onetcenter.org/taxonomy.html. Ideally includes textual label and formal code, with the property repeated for each applicable value.

qualifications Text Specific qualifications required for this role.responsibilities Text Responsibilities associated with this role.

salaryCurrency Text The currency (coded using ISO 4217, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_4217 used for the main salary information in this job posting.

skills Text Skills required to fulfill this role.

specialCommitments Text Any special commitments associated with this job posting. Valid entries include VeteranCommit, MilitarySpouseCommit, etc.

title Text The title of the job.workHours Text The typical working hours for this job (e.g. 1st shift, night shift, 8am-5pm).

Steps Toward Nonprofit Social Graph: Volunteer Opportunities

Currently data.gov provides some data◦ http://

explore.data.gov/Social-Insurance-and-Human-Services/Federal-Volunteer-Opportunities/svbx-5gin

Decide who will be the primary organization endpoint◦ Very likely to be All for Good

Need Volunteer Opportunity standard in Schema.org◦ Probably an intangible object like JobPosting◦ Will probably want to relate event object to it for dates, and

determine whether there needs to be a new volunteer event◦ Need to require EIN/org ID to be able to link to organization

Provide Sparql Endpoint for Organization data

http://schema.org/Organizationhttp://schema.org/NGO

Volunteer Opportunity Data Providers

Open = Contributing to Serve.Gov/Data.gov◦ HandsOn Network, AARP, Idealist.org, United Way, Truist,

Habitat for Humanity, Service Nation, Universal Giving, ChristianVolunteering.org, Craigslist, MENTOR, Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, Girl Scouts, YMCA, Up2Us, CatchaFire, Volunteer.gov, Rock the Vote, Citizen Corps, Red Cross, Samaritan Technologies, Catchafire

Closed = Not Contributing to Serve.Gov/Data.gov◦ VolunteerMatch.org

Schema Examples◦ http://www.allforgood.org/spec◦ http://schema.org/Event

Schema.org: EventProperty Expected Type DescriptionProperties from Thingdescription Text A short description of the item.image URL URL of an image of the item.name Text The name of the item.url URL URL of the item.Properties from Eventattendees Person or Organization A person attending the event.

duration Duration The duration of the item (movie, audio recording, event, etc.) in ISO 8601 date format.

endDate Date The end date and time of the event (in ISO 8601 date format).

location Place or PostalAddress The location of the event or organization.

offers Offer An offer to sell this item—for example, an offer to sell a product, the DVD of a movie, or tickets to an event.

performers Person or Organization The main performer or performers of the event—for example, a presenter, musician, or actor.

startDate Date The start date and time of the event (in ISO 8601 date format).

subEvents Event Events that are a part of this event. For example, a conference event includes many presentations, each are subEvents of the conference.

superEvent Event An event that this event is a part of. For example, a collection of individual music performances might each have a music festival as their superEvent.

Challenges with other Data ObjectsNo centralized source or independent

aggregator with critical mass of objects◦Nonprofit Events◦Nonprofit Meta-Wiki◦Giving Opportunities

Lack of common structure◦Social Actions/Causes

No workable business model◦People (will probably default to Facebook and

remain private silos for business reasons)

Roles in the Nonprofit Social Graph

Sparql Endpoints

Nonprofit Websites & Applications

ProgrammingConsultants

Data Sources

Global Standards & Aggregators

• Websites• System Integration• Mobile Apps• Facebook Apps• Widgets• Open Source Projects

• National Sparql Endpoints• Data.gov• Search Engines• Social Networks• Places/Maps• 211

• 1,000’s of websites• Volunteer, Jobs, Orgs, etc.

• Web Portals• Desktop software• Nonprofit social networks• Nonprofit portals

But, Nonprofit Data Providers Make Their Money on their Data!

The nonprofit social graph must support sustainable business models for nonprofit data providers

Freemium business model◦Open data will be more limited like an RSS feed◦Need to provide enough data for it to be useful

or someone will “fork” the data and provide a better open alternative

Read Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson

Business Models1. RSS Feed Business model

◦Share limited data to drive traffic to your website◦Traffic can be monetized

2. Open Source Software business model◦Provide more limited open data to develop

consulting business with full data and leveraging expertise with data

3. Grants-funded business model◦Sharing data maximizes social value to attract

funders◦Funders will want aggregators to succeed◦Nonprofits perceived as “closed” will lose funding

Possible Futures1. Bad. Nonprofits remained closed and the only

open data is Data.gov◦ Data.gov’s data is very poor quality unless nonprofits help

improve it◦ Nonprofit app development will be severely limited and

nonprofits will lose visibility online: will digital divide online between nonprofits and for profits

2. Better. Most nonprofits contribute, but some do not◦ Nonprofits with closed data will lose most of their online

visibility

3. Best. Nonprofits organize and create critical mass◦ Creates new market for thousands of apps and widgets

where nonprofit causes become pervasive in the online world

Open vs. ClosedThere is a spectrum from very closed to

very openHaving an API is not Open

◦Many APIs are closed because of restrictive terms of use and limited access to data

Open is sharing enough data to be useful into open, public repositories

Developer perspective◦Writing an a nonprofit app could soon require

aggregating hundreds of data sources and hundreds of APIs

Potential first Steps toward the Nonprofit Social Graph Serve.Gov/AllForGood could require (or strongly encourage)

data providers to include EINs linking organizations to volunteer opportunities◦ Critical missing piece right now to connect to open org data◦ VolunteerMatch.org re-joins Serve.gov

Guidestar could organize a consortium of organization data providers ◦ Define organization standard as input to Schema.org◦ Provides 2 way API with partners◦ Provides organization data feed to Data.gov using RDF

Idealist.org could start aggregating third party nonprofit jobs (like AllforGood) ◦ Easy sources: SimplyHired.com, Indeed.com◦ Starts providing nonprofit jobs feed to Data.gov using RDF

Other nonprofit data sources start to form standards working groups

For More InformationWhy Nonprofits Should Care about Linked

Data and the Semantic Web◦ http://

www.spaceforgood.org/content/why-nonprofits-should-care-about-linked-data-and-semantic-web

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Webhttp://www.w3.org/2001/sw/ http://

www.w3schools.com/web/web_semantic.asp

Appendix

Why is TechMission Interested in the Nonprofit Social Graph?

Andrew Sears, Executive Director◦Previously co-founded MIT’s Internet Telecoms

Consortium supporting open standards◦Researched open standards under David Clark (one of

the fathers of the Internet)◦ I personally have a passion for open data

Open Data will support nonprofits focused on niches and increase diversity◦Largest segment of nonprofit market is the faith-based

segment◦TechMission is the leading provider of open data related

to faith based nonprofits (6,500 volunteer opps, 13,000 orgs, 170,000 wiki articles)

Giving Opportunity Data SourcesKivaJustGive.org Network for GoodChanging the PresentDonors ChooseFirstGiving.com Schema/API Examples

◦build.kiva.org◦developers.firstgiving.com◦developer.donorschoose.org

Causes/Social Actions Data Sources

Social Actions/GuidestarCauses.comChange.orgSchema/API Examples

◦ http://exchange.causes.com/resources/causes-developer-api/◦ http://wiki.socialactions.com/w/page/24592876/Social%20Actio

ns%20API%20-%20About

Nonprofit Job Data SourcesIdealist.orgIndeed.comSimplyHired.comSchema Examples

◦http://schema.org/JobPosting◦https://ads.indeed.com/jobroll/xmlfeed◦https://

www.jobamatic.com/a/jbb/partner-dashboard-advanced-xml-api

Other Schema.org Objects of Interest

ReviewRatingMediaObject (audio, image, music, video)

Events Data SourcesMeetup.comCraigslist.org/calEventful.comUpcoming.orgEventbrite.comSchema Examples

◦http://schema.org/Event◦http://www.meetup.com/meetup_api/

Foundation Data SourcesFoundation CenterCouncil on FoundationsGrant StationData.gov IRS foundation data

◦ http://www.data.gov/list/agency/14/15/catalog/raw/page/1/count/50