Visual Query Formulation for Linked Open Data: The Norwegian Entity Registry Case

Abstract

The cloud of Linked Open Data is steadily growing, yet it remains largely
inaccessible to the general public, due to the technical barrier posed by
the requirement to know a formal query language such as SPARQL. In
this article, we present a new approach for visual query formulation toward
arbitrary SPARQL endpoints, and we show a working prototype developed
to improve the accessibility to Linked Open Data sources for non-computer
experts. We show how the prototype can be employed to simplify access to
governmental Linked Open Data with a case study from the Norwegian Entity
Registry.