by Angela Guess
A recent article discusses the relatively new concept of linked enterprise data or LED. The writer begins, “I first heard about LED a few years ago. It’s continued to grab my interest because of its connection to semantic web technology: a linked data enterprise is one in which semantic web technology is used to address the fundamental issues that prevent enterprises from achieving the agility they require. The primary issues that prevent enterprises from achieving this agility are information silos and the mountain of data enterprises generate. Moreover, a growing number of enterprises are realizing that cross-organizational data integration cannot be achieved on a project-by-project basis or with any single data management tool or database. Rather, data integration has to be an ongoing part of data creation and utilization, where accessing and sharing data is as important as creating it.”
The article uses the following definition of LED: “A linked data enterprise is an organization in which the act of information creation is intimately coupled with the act of information sharing. By analogy to a learning organization, in which learning from an activity is as important as the activity itself, and documentation of a system is as important as the construction of the system, in the linked data enterprise, sharing data is as important as producing it. In a linked data enterprise, individuals and groups continue to produce and consume information in ways that are specific to their own business needs, but they produce it in a way that can be connected to other aspects of the enterprise. When the time comes for information to be shared, the investment required to connect it is minimal, and reduces the barriers to information exchange. In the linked data enterprise, the motto of information production is distributed but connectable.”
photo credit: Inforbix.com
