EAGER: Demonstrating Decentralized Social Software using Linked Data (Crosscloud)

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

The Intellectual Merit of this project is the CrossCloud design for a practical, open, federated data base system, based on existing web technologies including Linked Data. CrossCloud's design solves longstanding database federation challenges in a simple and effective way using the Linked Data vision of RDF data sources which use URLs as object identifiers. CrossCloud includes a "data registration" mechanism to create a distributed search service for data and a vocabulary mapping system to connect applications developed independently with these components. CrossCloud is decentralized, capable of managing queries and updates from across the internet with no central bottleneck. The Broader Impact of this work begins with making it easier for developers to share users across an industry and then be able to reach a critical mass. Nearly any situation calling for coordinated work among people can benefit from multi-user software and with CrossCloud changing the software market, the needed solutions can finally be put into widespread use. This EAGER grant proposal is being made at a critical time, as the underlying technologies fall into place and enterprising developers begin to settle into working with mobile devices and cloud infrastructure.