This widget demonstrates how Finnish national biographies can be utilized as an authority control mechanism, e.g., in content annotation.
The autocompletion widget queries the Semantic National Biography RDF dataset published in a SPARQL endpoint in the LDF.fi service and shows the names and birth/death years of matching persons. A mouseover info box shows more information: person's occupation/title, photograph and a summary of the biography. Birth and death places are visualized on a map. Also, links to the linked data browser Saha and original data are provided for further information.
The system supports collaborative development of the person ontology by allowing users to suggest new persons (type a name that does not exist in the dataset and click "Add person!"). The user-suggested persons are stored in a separate RDF graph in a SPARQL endpoint in the LDF.fi service. Also, new datasets can be added to the system dynamically. E.g, organization's internal authority dataset could added to allow simultaneous search to public and private authority lists. The existing person data can be edited in the Saha linked data browser/editor (for editing the Semantic National Biography data a special permission from the LDF.fi team is required).