🔗VoID

NEW

Also known as: Vocabulary of Interlinked Datasets

An RDF vocabulary for describing datasets, their metadata, and interlinking patterns to aid discovery and reuse.

DESCRIPTION

VoID specifies properties for dataset-level metadata, linksets, and statistical summaries to support discovery and integration in the Linked Data space. It helps document endpoints, example resources, and link relationships. VoID was widely used in early Linked Data publishing. Today, DCAT often serves as the more modern, standardized dataset catalog vocabulary, though VoID concepts remain informative.

ALTERNATIVE DEFINITIONS

W3C

VoID is an RDF Schema vocabulary for expressing metadata about RDF datasets.

Defines scope as dataset-level metadata in RDF Schema terms.

Source

Wikipedia

VoID is an RDF vocabulary used to describe linked datasets and their statistics.

Mentions dataset statistics and interlinking use cases.

Source

DERI

VoID provides terms to describe datasets, linksets and their interlinking structure in the Linked Data web.

Highlights linkset modeling and Linked Data context.

Source

RELATED TERMS

RDF Linked Data Dataset Metadata SPARQL Provenance Open Dataset RDF Schema Simple Knowledge Organization System

COMPETING TERMS

DCAT

KNOWLEDGE AREAS

Semantic & Knowledge Modeling Metadata Management Data Integration & Interoperability Data Management

TARGET AUDIENCE

Data Steward Data Architect Information Analyst Data Engineer

EXTERNAL SOURCES

• Wikipedia - VoID
• W3C - VoID Note specification
• W3C - DCAT 3 dataset catalog standard

TOP QUESTIONS

Is VoID still relevant today?

VoID remains useful for linksets and dataset summaries, but DCAT is the modern standard for catalog metadata.

Category: Relevancy

What are common mistakes with VoID?

Using VoID alone for comprehensive cataloging; combine with DCAT for richer discovery and governance.

Category: Mistakes

What risks exist using only VoID?

Limited adoption can hinder interoperability with portals that expect DCAT.

Category: Risk

How does VoID relate to DCAT?

VoID focuses on linked datasets and linksets; DCAT standardizes dataset catalogs and distributions.

Category: Alternatives

What’s a hot topic around VoID?

Combining VoID linksets with DCAT catalogs and PROV for comprehensive data publishing.

Category: Topic

How to publish VoID for a dataset?

Provide VoID descriptions with endpoints, example resources, statistics, and linksets, hosted alongside your dataset.

Category: Implementation

Can VoID model provenance?

Not directly; use PROV-O for provenance and link VoID descriptions to provenance records.

Category: Requirements

Is VoID standardized by W3C?

It is a W3C Note, not a Recommendation; DCAT is a W3C Recommendation.

Category: Standards

What is the modern successor to VoID?

DCAT and related profiles serve as the modern approach to dataset catalog metadata.

Category: Alternatives