RDF Validation requirements for data about products, services and companies

(on behalf of GS1 Digital initiative) mark.harrison@cantab.net Recently, a number of manufacturers, brand owners and retailers are showing interest in the use of Linked Data technology to make information about products, services and offerings much more discoverable on the web. GS1 [1], a global user­driven standards organization that develops global open standards to improve supply chain efficiency, has recently launched the GS1 Digital initiative to explore ways in which web technology and Linked Data in particular can help this user community to publish their own authoritative information about products and services online. The published data much be trustworthy and readily accessible to search engines and other software applications, including mobile apps. The aim is to help retailers, brand owners and manufacturers engage more effectively with current/potential consumers of their products and to help consumers find the products that best match their needs, as well as online services and support that help them in their usage of products. In this paper, we identify a number of areas in which robust validation of linked data about products would be helpful. EU Food labelling legislation (EU 1169/2011) [2] requires information that is shown on the packaging / label of a food product to be available online prior to purchase when that product is offered for sale online. This has led many retailers to expand the amount of information shown on product­specific web pages to include not only an image and description but also lists of ingredients, known allergens, nutritional information and other accreditations, both ethical (e.g. fair trade) and environmental (sustainably sourced, organic, etc.). Although the legislation does not currently mandate that the online data must be easily machine­readable, there is an opportunity to use RDFa and appropriate web vocabularies to go beyond mere compliance with legislation and ensure that details about the product can be efficiently indexed by search engines. For consumers with specific allergies or dietary requirements, linked data markup of product­specific web pages could enable a number of online or mobile apps that meet their needs and assist them when shopping in physical stores or online. For example, a consumer with coeliac disease could scan the bar code of a product and be warned if the product contains any incompatible ingredients, such as wheat gluten. Furthermore, the consumer could be advised of alternative products available in the same store, locally or online that don't cause a problem. Similarly, an ethical …