Estimation on the Importance of Semantic Web Integration for Art and Culture Related Online Media Outlets

Abstract

Since the dawn of the new millennium and even earlier, a coordinated effort has been underway to expand the World Wide Web into a machine-readable web of data known as the Semantic Web. The field of art and culture has been one of the most eager to integrate with the Semantic Web, since metadata, data structures, linked-data, e.g., the Getty vocabularies project and the Europeana LOD initiative—and other building blocks of this web of data are considered essential in cataloging and disseminating art and culture-related content. However, art is a constantly evolving entity and as such it is the subject of a vast number of online media outlets and journalist blogs and websites. During the course of the present study the researchers collected information about how integrated the media outlets that diffuse art and culture-related content and news are to the Semantic Web. The study uses quantitative metrics to evaluate a website’s adherence to Semantic Web standards and it proceeds to draw conclusions regarding how that integration affects their popularity in the modern competitive landscape of the Web.