LODLAM is Linked Open Data in Libraries, Archives, and Museums.  LODLAM.net is an informal, borderless network of enthusiasts, technicians, professionals and any number of other people who are interested in or working with Linked Open Data pertaining to galleries, libraries, archives, and museums.

Linked refers to Linked Data, or the concept of connecting data using W3C standards.  Open refers to the use of open licenses, such as the Public Domain Mark, Creative Commons 0, Creative Commons Attribution, and Creative Commons Attribution-Alike. Data can be raw data, metadata, descriptive data, bibliographic data, etc.

The LODLAM acronym was coined in the fall of 2010 by Jon Voss in attempt to begin gathering interest from like-minded individuals, largely in the United States (the acronym initially had a hyphen, LOD-LAM, but was removed as the community became active on Twitter).  Voss joined forces with Kris Carpenter Negulescu to organize the first global gathering that reached across the GLAM sector (galleries, libraries, archives and museums).  Thanks to funding by the National Endowment of the Humanities Office of Digital Humanities, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Internet Archive, more than 100 individuals from 17 countries and 85 organizations gathered in San Francisco in June of 2011 for the first International LODLAM Summit.

LODLAM.net is designed to be a central place for sharing resources and connecting and collaborating with other interested individuals.  There is also a Google Group, and the #LODLAM hashtag is used extensively on Twitter for shared news, questions, and projects regarding LODLAM.

For more on the history of LODLAM, see the paper Radically Open Cultural Heritage Data on the Web, presented at Museums and the Web, 2012.

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