In recent years, several knowledge bases have been built to enable large-scale knowledge sharing, but also an entity-centric Web search, mixing both structured data and text querying. These knowledge bases offer machine-readable descriptions of real-world entities, e.g., persons, places, published on the Web as Linked Data. However, due to the different information extraction tools and curation policies employed by knowledge bases, multiple, complementary and sometimes conflicting descriptions of the same real-world entities may be provided. Entity resolution aims to identify different descriptions that refer to the same entity appearing either within or across knowledge bases. The objective of this book is to present the new entity resolution challenges stemming from the openness of the Web of data in describing entities by an unbounded number of knowledge bases, the semantic and structural diversity of the descriptions provided across domains even for the same real-world entities, as well as the autonomy of knowledge bases in terms of adopted processes for creating and curating entity descriptions. The scale, diversity, and graph structuring of entity descriptions in the Web of data essentially challenge how two descriptions can be effectively compared for similarity, but also how resolution algorithms can efficiently avoid examining pairwise all descriptions. The book covers a wide spectrum of entity resolution issues at the Web scale, including basic concepts and data structures, main resolution tasks and workflows, as well as state-of-the-art algorithmic techniques and experimental trade-offs.

Entity Resolution and Information Quality presents topics and definitions, and clarifies confusing terminologies regarding entity resolution and information quality. It takes a very wide view of IQ, including its six-domain framework and the skills formed by the International Association for Information and Data Quality {IAIDQ). The book includes chapters that cover the principles of entity resolution and the principles of Information Quality, in addition to their concepts and terminology. It also discusses the Fellegi-Sunter theory of record linkage, the Stanford Entity Resolution Framework, and the Algebraic Model for Entity Resolution, which are the major theoretical models that support Entity Resolution. In relation to this, the book briefly discusses entity-based data integration (EBDI) and its model, which serve as an extension of the Algebraic Model for Entity Resolution. There is also an explanation of how the three commercial ER systems operate and a description of the non-commercial open-source system known as OYSTER. The book concludes by discussing trends in entity resolution research and practice. Students taking IT courses and IT professionals will find this book invaluable. - First authoritative reference explaining entity resolution and how to use it effectively - Provides practical system design advice to help you get a competitive advantage - Includes a companion site with synthetic customer data for applicatory exercises, and access to a Java-based Entity Resolution program.

In recent years, several knowledge bases have been built to enable large-scale knowledge sharing, but also an entity-centric Web search, mixing both structured data and text querying. These knowledge bases offer machine-readable descriptions of real-world entities, e.g., persons, places, published on the Web as Linked Data. However, due to the different information extraction tools and curation policies employed by knowledge bases, multiple, complementary and sometimes conflicting descriptions of the same real-world entities may be provided. Entity resolution aims to identify different descriptions that refer to the same entity appearing either within or across knowledge bases. The objective of this book is to present the new entity resolution challenges stemming from the openness of the Web of data in describing entities by an unbounded number of knowledge bases, the semantic and structural diversity of the descriptions provided across domains even for the same real-world entities, as well as the autonomy of knowledge bases in terms of adopted processes for creating and curating entity descriptions. The scale, diversity, and graph structuring of entity descriptions in the Web of data essentially challenge how two descriptions can be effectively compared for similarity, but also how resolution algorithms can efficiently avoid examining pairwise all descriptions. The book covers a wide spectrum of entity resolution issues at the Web scale, including basic concepts and data structures, main resolution tasks and workflows, as well as state-of-the-art algorithmic techniques and experimental trade-offs.

Data matching (also known as record or data linkage, entity resolution, object identification, or field matching) is the task of identifying, matching and merging records that correspond to the same entities from several databases or even within one database. Based on research in various domains including applied statistics, health informatics, data mining, machine learning, artificial intelligence, database management, and digital libraries, significant advances have been achieved over the last decade in all aspects of the data matching process, especially on how to improve the accuracy of data matching, and its scalability to large databases. Peter Christen’s book is divided into three parts: Part I, “Overview”, introduces the subject by presenting several sample applications and their special challenges, as well as a general overview of a generic data matching process. Part II, “Steps of the Data Matching Process”, then details its main steps like pre-processing, indexing, field and record comparison, classification, and quality evaluation. Lastly, part III, “Further Topics”, deals with specific aspects like privacy, real-time matching, or matching unstructured data. Finally, it briefly describes the main features of many research and open source systems available today. By providing the reader with a broad range of data matching concepts and techniques and touching on all aspects of the data matching process, this book helps researchers as well as students specializing in data quality or data matching aspects to familiarize themselves with recent research advances and to identify open research challenges in the area of data matching. To this end, each chapter of the book includes a final section that provides pointers to further background and research material. Practitioners will better understand the current state of the art in data matching as well as the internal workings and limitations of current systems. Especially, they will learn that it is often not feasible to simply implement an existing off-the-shelf data matching system without substantial adaption and customization. Such practical considerations are discussed for each of the major steps in the data matching process.

Entity resolution is an essential tool in processing and analyzing data in order to draw precise conclusions from the information being presented. Further research in entity resolution is necessary to help promote information quality and improved data reporting in multidisciplinary fields requiring accurate data representation. Innovative Techniques and Applications of Entity Resolution draws upon interdisciplinary research on tools, techniques, and applications of entity resolution. This research work provides a detailed analysis of entity resolution applied to various types of data as well as appropriate techniques and applications and is appropriately designed for students, researchers, information professionals, and system developers.

Unstructured data is the most voluminous form of data in the world, and several elements are critical for any advanced analytics practitioner leveraging SAS software to effectively address the challenge of deriving value from that data. This book covers the five critical elements of entity extraction, unstructured data, entity resolution, entity network mapping and analysis, and entity management. By following examples of how to apply processing to unstructured data, readers will derive tremendous long-term value from this book as they enhance the value they realize from SAS products.

This open access book is part of the LAMBDA Project (Learning, Applying, Multiplying Big Data Analytics), funded by the European Union, GA No. 809965. Data Analytics involves applying algorithmic processes to derive insights. Nowadays it is used in many industries to allow organizations and companies to make better decisions as well as to verify or disprove existing theories or models. The term data analytics is often used interchangeably with intelligence, statistics, reasoning, data mining, knowledge discovery, and others. The goal of this book is to introduce some of the definitions, methods, tools, frameworks, and solutions for big data processing, starting from the process of information extraction and knowledge representation, via knowledge processing and analytics to visualization, sense-making, and practical applications. Each chapter in this book addresses some pertinent aspect of the data processing chain, with a specific focus on understanding Enterprise Knowledge Graphs, Semantic Big Data Architectures, and Smart Data Analytics solutions. This book is addressed to graduate students from technical disciplines, to professional audiences following continuous education short courses, and to researchers from diverse areas following self-study courses. Basic skills in computer science, mathematics, and statistics are required.