Users want access to datasets, not dataset descriptions. The dataset descriptions that you can search, filter and view in the Dataset Register are a means of getting to the dataset’s source data.
A while ago we added worldwide GeoNames to the Network of Terms. That post announced the what; this one is the how, because getting GeoNames in there was less obvious than it sounds.
GeoNames has no usable RDF. There is official ‘RDF’, but it dates from 2020, it is broken RDF/XML and incomplete anyway. There’s also per-resource RDF, but that’s hard to work with for 13M+ resources. So we fell back to the TSV dump: messy, but recent and complete. This is the story of converting that TSV to RDF using nothing but the SPARQL we already know: no bespoke scripts, no separate mapping language. And of why the pipeline around the conversion is what turns a one-off experiment into an actual service.
Today NDE releases SCHEMA-AP-NDE 1.0: the first stable version of the Schema.org Application Profile every dataset in the Dutch cultural heritage network is expected to publish. It comes with a backward compatibility promise: as long as we stay on 1.x, data that conforms keeps conforming, and software built against it keeps working.
That is what a 1.0 really is: not just a number, but a signal of stability. It is worth asking what that promise means for a specification, and why a shared profile needs a version number at all.
Version 2.0 of the Requirements for Datasets is on the horizon. It tightens rules that are warnings today into full requirements, aligns the Dataset Register with DCAT-AP-NL 3.0, and raises the baseline quality of dataset descriptions across the Dutch cultural heritage network. Publishers and collection management system vendors have until Monday 3 May 2027 to prepare.
Schema.org is the web’s most widely adopted vocabulary for structured data, supported by Google, Bing, and countless data platforms.
It defines types like CreativeWork, Person, and Organization, giving machines a common language to understand content.
This is exactly why the NDE application profile is built on Schema.org.
Getting it right is what makes cultural heritage data findable and reusable across institutions.
But if you’ve worked with Schema.org in RDF, you’ve run into this: there’s http://schema.org and then there’s https://schema.org.
That one-letter difference can cause real problems:
SPARQL queries that silently return nothing, SHACL validation that rejects good data or ignores bad data, or datasets that should link up but don’t – especially when combining data from multiple sources, as in NDE.
This post originally recommended http://schema.org/ (HTTP) based on reasons outlined below. It sparked exactly the discussion we hoped for: a structured conversation with stakeholders from NDE, CLARIAH, ODISSEI, and heritage institutions. On 2 April 2026, participants reached consensus on https://schema.org/ (HTTPS). We acknowledge that this recommendation goes against one of the core principles of linked data – cool URIs don’t change – but force of circumstance and pragmatic considerations have led us to advise HTTPS for Schema.org metadata going forward. This post has been updated to reflect that decision – see the recommendation.
The Network of Terms now offers the ability to filter by subject within a terminology source.
We launched a public status page to provide real-time insight into the availability of NDE services.
The Network of Terms now monitors each terminology source and exposes its availability via the website and the GraphQL API.
New thesaurus for movable agricultural heritage available via the Network of Terms
Yes, although hyphens have no meaning in the Assigned Name of an ARK, you can use UUIDs as Assigned Names in ARK, the local resolver does need to be made aware.