Vision for a Nonprofit Knowledge Graph

Andrew SearsExecutive Director

My BackgroundCo-Founded the Internet Telecoms Consortium

with David Clark (one of the fathers of the Internet) at MIT in 1996

Consulted as new product architect for St. Paul Venture Capital, Internet startups and Sprint

Nonprofit Social Graph Slideshare, January 2012◦ www.slideshare.net/techmission/nonprofit-social-graph

Serving as nonprofit founder and Executive Director of TechMission

TechMission 1.0(AC4/Digital Divide)

TechMission 2.0(ChristianVolunteering.org& Nonprofit Web 2.0)

TechMission 3.0(big data & online ed Christian Social Graph& CityVision.edu)

TechMission History

TechMission Programs

TechMission

City Vision Internships

ChristianVolunteering.org

- UrbanMinistry.org- ILS Nova GED- Christians in Recovery

City VisionCollege

- Addiction Studies- Nonprofit Management- Urban Missions- Masters in Science, Technology, Society & Ministry

Theology of Technology

Organizational Systems

Emerging Media

Electives

Appropriate Technology

Theology of Work

Capstone Course

Masters of Science, Technology,Society and Ministry

Purpose of DiscussionPersonal connectionWe see tech trends that could have major

implications on TechMission strategy◦Trend toward Universal APIs (like Wolfram Language)◦Trend toward vertical search

Would rather build on shoulders of giants◦Christian Social Graph is subset of Nonprofit Knowledge

graph◦Want to avoid building something that will be made

obsolete by larger initiatives◦Want to be able to contribute our data to larger

initiatives (as we have with AllforGood)◦Want someone like Google to build a Nonprofit

Knowledge Graph

Phases of Nonprofit Data Nonprofit Web 1.0

◦Individual websitesNonprofit Web 2.0

◦Idealist.org, VolunteerMatch.org, Guidestar.org, ChristianVolunteering.org

Nonprofit Data 2.5 (today)◦Nonprofits provide very limited APIs◦Google’s Knowledge Graph for Nonprofits◦Governments start providing open data◦Apps

Nonprofit Data 3.0?

Vision for Nonprofit Data 3.0

What if Google created a free data repository and API of data useful for Nonprofits by…◦Scrubbing and enhancing data that is useful to

Nonprofits from web, public sources and semantic web

◦Providing an Open API◦Promoting a search ecosystem that encourages

more open nonprofit data◦Providing vertical search capabilities and linked

Knowledge Graph data supporting nonprofits

Nonprofit Knowledge Graph Data Types

Organizations

Volunteer Opps

Jobs

People

Giving Requests

Causes/Social

Actions

DisasterResponse

Data

Events

Foundations & Grants

TechMission’s Focus

Nonprofit Knowledge Graph

Christian Social Graph

All Objects of Interest to Nonprofits

TechMission:All Objects ofInterest toChristian Orgs

Christian Social Graph API

Christian Social Graph

Parachurches300,000+

Jobs15,000+

Volunteer Opportunities

10,000+

Resumes(People)

ClassifiedListings

Churches300,000

Groups & Events

Content150,000

items

Funders & Grants

10,000+

TechMission’sFocus

Nonprofit Knowledge Graph Concept

Knowledge GraphAdded April 2013

Proposed Additions

Vertical Search withNonprofit Data• Jobs• Volunteer Opps• Events

Key Questions for Google1. What is Google’s next steps for nonprofits in the

Knowledge Graph?2. Will Google provide a competitive response to Data.com &

Hoovers◦ Nonprofit Data could fit here (and be free)

3. Will Google provide a competitive response to Wolfram Language?

◦ Nonprofit API could fit within this structure

4. Will Google provide vertical search for jobs (like it has for hotels and flights)?

◦ Nonprofit Jobs and Volunteer Opportunities would fit here

5. How can nonprofits contribute data to Knowledge Graph?◦ Could be helpful to have an open standard filling holes in Schema.org

or something else?

6. What are Google’s plans for open education, Open EdX, mooc.org, etc.? YouTube of courses?

Nonprofit Product Roadmap Wishlist

Google’s Universal API

(like Wolfram language)

NonprofitKnowledge

Graph Sidebar

Open Data Submission Standard

Schema.org+

Linkage with

Google+

Google for Nonprofits

GoogleData.comProduct

Nonprofit Vertical Search

Use CasesImproves nonprofit data ecosystem

◦ Encourages nonprofit data providers to include EIN and other keys to linked data

◦ Needed for linked data between: Volunteer Opps (AllforGood), Organizations, Donate Links, etc.

◦ Promotes open data while still allowing providers like Guidestar to provide more extended data

Apps & Mashups◦ Refining nonprofit public data from sources like Data.gov is

costly for each organization and could be done once by Google

Improved Nonprofit/For Profit Partnership◦ For profit companies could more easily integrate nonprofit

causes if there were low barriers to entry through Google’s APIs

Appendix: Nonprofit Linked

Data Today

Nonprofit Organization Data

USA Providers: Guidestar, NetworkforGood, Charity Navigator, HandsOn Network, Idealist.org, United Way/Truist, ChristianVolunteering.org, VolunteerMatch.org, 211, Data.gov/IRS

Problems with Organizational Data◦ Few use open standards like Schema.org◦ Unlinked: Little data has unique organizational identifier

needed for linking◦ Terms of use prohibit third party use of data even when it

was compiled from public sources (i.e. taking data provided by governments and then making it proprietary)

◦ Government data is not user-friendly and cannot be easily linked with other data

Volunteer Opportunity Data Providers (USA)

Open = Contributing to Serve.Gov/Data.gov/AllforGood◦ HandsOn Network, AARP, Idealist.org, United Way, Truist,

Habitat for Humanity, Service Nation, Universal Giving, ChristianVolunteering.org, Craigslist, MENTOR, Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, Girl Scouts, YMCA, Up2Us, CatchaFire, Volunteer.gov, Rock the Vote, Citizen Corps, Red Cross, Samaritan Technologies, Catchafire

Closed = Not Contributing to Serve.Gov/Data.gov◦ VolunteerMatch.org

Schema Examples◦ http://www.allforgood.org/spec◦ http://schema.org/Event

Problems with Volunteer Opportunity Data◦ Data not provided with unique identifier that would enable

linkages and assist in deduplication

Nonprofit Jobs Data Jobs Data Providers: Idealist.org, SimplyHired.com,

Indeed.com, ChristianVolunteering.org, jobinventory.com, jobisjob.com, olx.com, simplyhired.com, trovit.com, job-search-engine.com, yakaz.com, oodle.com, workhound.co.uk, www.wowjobs.ca

Schema.org: OrganizationProperty Expected Type DescriptionProperties from Thingdescription Text A short description of the item.image URL URL of an image of the item.name Text The name of the item.url URL URL of the item.Properties from Organizationaddress PostalAddress Physical address of the item.

aggregateRating AggregateRating The overall rating, based on a collection of reviews or ratings, of the item.

contactPoints ContactPoint A contact point for a person or organization.

email Text Email address.employees Person People working for this organization.

events Event Upcoming or past events associated with this place or organization.

faxNumber Text The fax number.

founders Person A person who founded this organization.

foundingDate Date The date that this organization was founded.

interactionCount Text

A count of a specific user interactions with this item—for example, 20 UserLikes, 5 UserComments, or 300 UserDownloads. The user interaction type should be one of the sub types of UserInteraction.

location Place or PostalAddress The location of the event or organization.members Person or Organization A member of this organization.reviews Review Review of the item.telephone Text The telephone number.

More specific types: Corporation, EducationalOrganization, GovernmentOrganization, LocalBusiness, NGO, PerformingGroup, SportsTeam

Schema.org: Job PostingNeed Volunteer Opportunity

Property Expected Type DescriptionProperties from Thingdescription Text A short description of the item.image URL URL of an image of the item.name Text The name of the item.url URL URL of the item.Properties from JobPostingbaseSalary Number The base salary of the job.benefits Text Description of benefits associated with the job.datePosted Date Publication date for the job posting.educationRequirements Text Educational background needed for the position.

employmentType Text Type of employment (e.g. full-time, part-time, contract, temporary, seasonal, internship).

experienceRequirements Text Description of skills and experience needed for the position.hiringOrganization Organization Organization offering the job position.incentives Text Description of bonus and commission compensation aspects of the job.industry Text The industry associated with the job position.jobLocation Place A (typically single) geographic location associated with the job position.

occupationalCategory Text Category or categories describing the job. Use BLS O*NET-SOC taxonomy: http://www.onetcenter.org/taxonomy.html. Ideally includes textual label and formal code, with the property repeated for each applicable value.

qualifications Text Specific qualifications required for this role.responsibilities Text Responsibilities associated with this role.

salaryCurrency Text The currency (coded using ISO 4217, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_4217 used for the main salary information in this job posting.

skills Text Skills required to fulfill this role.

specialCommitments Text Any special commitments associated with this job posting. Valid entries include VeteranCommit, MilitarySpouseCommit, etc.

title Text The title of the job.workHours Text The typical working hours for this job (e.g. 1st shift, night shift, 8am-5pm).

Schema.org: EventProperty Expected Type DescriptionProperties from Thingdescription Text A short description of the item.image URL URL of an image of the item.name Text The name of the item.url URL URL of the item.Properties from Eventattendees Person or Organization A person attending the event.

duration Duration The duration of the item (movie, audio recording, event, etc.) in ISO 8601 date format.

endDate Date The end date and time of the event (in ISO 8601 date format).

location Place or PostalAddress The location of the event or organization.

offers Offer An offer to sell this item—for example, an offer to sell a product, the DVD of a movie, or tickets to an event.

performers Person or Organization The main performer or performers of the event—for example, a presenter, musician, or actor.

startDate Date The start date and time of the event (in ISO 8601 date format).

subEvents Event Events that are a part of this event. For example, a conference event includes many presentations, each are subEvents of the conference.

superEvent Event An event that this event is a part of. For example, a collection of individual music performances might each have a music festival as their superEvent.

Making Schema.org More Nonprofit Friendly

Organization/NGO Type◦Need fields for tax id, charity id, NTEE Code,

ICNPO◦Tax id and charity id are critical to link other

dataJob Type

◦Consider Volunteer Sub-type of job with special fields (need spec)

Event◦Consider service opportunity as event subtype

with special fields (need spec)

Semantic Web Standards

RDF = data sharing format in XML

Sparql: global query language for RDFSchema.org: schema & ontology

of objects in RDF

Aggregators: Freebase, Dbpedia, Zemanta, Kasiba, Calais, Data.gov…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web

Proliferation of Nonprofit APIs All for Good Brooklyn Museum Convio CorpWatch DonorsChoose eTapestry FirstGiving Global Giving Kintera Kiva LetGive Piryx Guidestar Charity Navigator Dropcash Global Currents Pitleline

Social Actions Sparked WiserEarth CiviCRM Get Active Member-only Results Plus Blackbaud Institute for Money in State Politics Giveness WiserEarth ChristianVolunteering Let’s Give Piryx Open Aid

The Problem: to develop a good nonprofit app you need to aggregate from 5-20 sources, write to 5-20 APIs, and sign 5-20 contracts and terms of use that are often incompatible with each other

Problems/What is missing?

Poor data quality in public data◦ Need scrubbing and de-duping

No linkages in data types◦ missing organization IDs in most data◦ How to link volunteer opportunities with org

Lacking ecosystem to encourage openness of nonprofit data◦ Current nonprofit business models are incentivized to

keep most data closedToo many Nonprofit APIs Summary: the pieces are there, but it’s a mess!

ReferencesDefining the Nonprofit Sector: A Cross-

national Analysis◦Crosswalk of National Standards: http://

books.google.com/books?id=ffY_NY3EpYcC&pg=PA90&dq=icnpo+ntee+crosswalk

THE INTERNATIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS: ICNPO-REVISION 1, 1996◦http://www.protectiamuncii.ro/ro/incpo.pdf

Wolfram Language◦http://reference.wolfram.com/language/