Accessing the DBpedia Dataset over the Web

The DBpedia dataset can be accessed online via a SPARQL query endpoint and as Linked Data.

1. Querying DBpedia

The DBpedia dataset enables quite astonishing query answering possibilities against Wikipedia data.

1.1. Backend Database Engine

DBpedia runs of a live instance of OpenLink Virtuoso.

1.2. Public SPARQL Endpoint

There is a public SPARQL endpoint over the DBpedia dataset at http://DBpedia.org/sparql

You can ask queries against DBpedia using:

• The Leipzig query builder at http://wikipedia.3ba.se/
• The OpenLink Interactive SPARQL Query Builder (iSPARQL) at http://demo.openlinksw.com/isparql
• SNORQL query explorer at http://DBpedia.org/snorql(does not work with Internet Explorer)

or any other SPARQL aware client(s).

1.3. Example query displayed with the Spar QI query builder

• People who were born in Berlin before 1900

1.4. Example queries displayed with the Leipzig query builder

• Tennis players from Moscow
• Sitcoms set in NYC
• People influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche
• Space Missions
• Soccer player with tricot number 11 from club with stadium with >40000 seats born in a country with more than 10M inhabitants

1.5. Example queries displayed with the Berlin SNORQL query explorer

• People who were born in Berlin before 1900
• German musicians with German and English descriptions
• German musicians who were born in Berlin
• French films
• Ego-shooter computer games
• Luxus cars

1.6. Example queries exposed as Linked Data pages using OpenLink's iSPARQL Query tool

• Information about Forester Whitaker
• Information about English soccer clubs
• People born in Berlin after 1900

1.7. Free Text Search

The DBpedia SPARQL endpoint also supports free text search within DBpedia texts. Free text search queries are expressed using Virtuoso's bif:contains() SPARQL extension function. By using the SPARQL lang() function, it is possible to restrict search results to certain languages.

• Find all concepts having label that contain the term 'Berlin'
• Find all concepts having a short abstract that contain the term 'beautiful'
• Show German language descriptions containing the term 'Zeitgeist'

1.8. Examples rendering DBpedia Data with Google Map 

• Capitals in Europe (in French)
• UNESCO World Heritage Sites (in French)

1.9. Example displaying DBpedia Data with Exhibit

• Persons by birthplace (in French, does not work with Internet Explorer)

2. Linked Data

Linked Data is a method of publishing RDF data on the Web and to interlink data between different data sources.

2.1. Background

Linked Data on the Web can be accessed using Semantic Web browsers, just as the traditional Web of documents is accessed using HTML browsers. However, instead of following links between HTML pages, Semantic Web browsers enable users to navigate between different data sources by following RDF links. This allows the user to start off at one data source, and then move through a potentially endless Web of data sources connected by RDF links. It also allows the robots of Semantic Web search engines to follow these links to crawl the Semantic Web.

Please see to Tim Berners-Lee's Web Design Note about Linked Data and the tutorial on How to publish Linked Data on the Web for more information about Linked Data.

2.2. The DBpedia Linked Data Interface

The DBpedia dataset is served as Linked Data meaning that all DBpedia URIs are dereferencable.

This allows you to browse the DBpedia dataset with Semantic Web browsers like Disco, Tabulator, the OpenLink RDF Browser, Objectviewer, or Zitgist Data Viewer.

Some example Linked Data URIs from the DBpedia dataset are listed below. To start surfing the Semantic Web, please enter any of these URIs into the navigation bar of one of the Semantic Web browsers listed above.

• http://dbpedia.org/resource/Berlin
• http://dbpedia.org/resource/Category:Cities_in_England
• http://dbpedia.org/resource/The_Beatles
• http://dbpedia.org/resource/Paul_McCartney
• http://dbpedia.org/resource/Category:English_musicians
• http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web
• http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tetris
• http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web
• http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL

3. Semantic Web Crawling Sitemap

Semantic Web Crawling: a Sitemap Extension defines an extension for the Sitemap protocol targeted at the efficient discovery and use of RDF data. Data publishers can state where RDF is located and alternative means to access it. Semantic Web clients and Semantic Web crawlers can use this information to access required RDF data in the most efficient way for the task they have to perform.

The Dbpedia project supports this sitemap extension. The DBpedia sitemap, pointing at the SPARQL endpoint, the downloads and some example instances, is found here.