Using Maps for Interlinking Geospatial Linked Data

The creation of interlinks between Linked Data datasets is key to the creation of a global database. One can create such interlinks in various ways: manually, semi-automatically, and automatically. While quite a few tools exist to facilitate this process in a (semi-)automatic manner, often with support for geospatial data. It is not uncommon that interlinks need to be created manually, e.g., when interlinks need to be authoritative. In this study, we focus on the manual interlinking of geospatial data using maps. The State-of-the-Art uses maps to facilitate the search and visualization of such data. Our contribution is to investigate whether maps are useful for the creation of interlinks. We designed and developed such a tool and set up an experiment in which 16 participants used the tool to create links between different Linked Data datasets. We not only describe the tool but also analyze the data we have gathered. The data suggests the creation of these interlinks from these maps is a viable approach. The data also indicate that people had a harder time dealing with Linked Data principles (e.g., content negotiation) than with the creation of interlinks.