We are delighted to announce that Linked Open Vocabularies is now being hosted on Open Knowledge Foundation servers and is now officially an Open Knowledge Foundation project.

##LOV Project in 5 points

LOV is about vocabularies (aka. metadata element sets or ontologies) in OWL / RDFS used to describe linked data.

LOV provides a single-stop access to the Vocabulary Commons ecosystem

LOV helps to improve vocabularies understanding, visibility, usability, synergy, sustainability and overall quality

LOV promotes a technically and socially sustainable management of the Vocabulary Commons ecosystem

LOV is a community and open project. You are welcome to join the team of gardeners of the Vocabulary Commons!

##Project context

The LOV project is borned in the framework of the Datalift project which aims at providing a platform to lift data from semi-structured formats (csv, xls, etc.) to linked data. Part of this project under Mondeca‘s company responsibility was focused on vocabulary selection and re-use. The LOV project purpose goes now far beyond this original catalogue. The LOV dataset is maintained by Bernard Vatant and Pierre-Yves Vandenbussche.

##Project purposes

To identify vocabularies used or usable to express linked data in RDF

To harvest or create metadata and links between vocabularies

To suggest to vocabulary curators some vocabulary description improvements

To foster sustainable and responsible behavior of vocabulary creators and publishers

To provide advanced search features among vocabulary ecosystem elements

##Project features

Among the various features of the LOV project, you can explore the vocabularies dataset

using an intuitive UI. You can also access directly to an RDF dump via a file or an endpoint.

For every vocabulary, as much metadata as possible is harvested (gathered in the RDF file, in

the documentation or via interaction with authors). For example, the links between a particular

vocabulary and the ecosystem are shown as well as its different versions.

One may search for a particular vocabulary element using the LOV search feature, filtering results

by domain, type, or vocabulary. This feature is enabled thanks to the LOV-bot which monitor all the

vocabularies on a daily basis.

##OKFN support and the future of Vocabulary Commons

Along with a sustainable and resilient future for vocabularies, we believe the LOV project should live far beyond the Datalift research project in which it is born. In that perspective, the Open Knowledge Foundation agreed to support our project for the future years. We are really delighted by this support, which strengthens our belief that heritage organizations will play a major role in vocabularies preservation.

LOV and Vocabulary Commons future belongs to its community. You are therefore, as an individual or organization, most welcome to participate in the future of LOV in many ways:

by suggesting a new vocabulary via the LOV suggest feature

by participating in the maintenance of the LOV dataset

by collaborating in the working groups involved in the vocabulary management: DCMI Vocabulary Management Community; HIVE