Faceted exploration of RDF/S datasets: a survey

The amounts of available Semantic Web (SW) data (including Linked Open Data) constantly increases. Users would like to browse and explore effectively such information spaces without having to be acquainted with the various vocabularies and query language syntaxes. This paper discusses the work that has been done in the area for the case of RDF/S datasets, with emphasis on session-based interaction schemes for exploratory search. In particular, it surveys the related works according to various aspects, such as assumed user goals, structuring of the underlying information space, generality and configuration requirements, and various (state space-based) features of the navigation structure. Subsequently it introduces a small but concise formal model of the interaction (that captures the core functionalities) which is used as reference model for describing what the existing systems support. Finally the paper describes the evaluation methods that have been used. Overall, the presented analysis aids the understanding and comparison of the various different approaches that have been proposed so far.