The recent emergence of initiatives like OpenSPG (Semantic-enhanced Programmable Graph) and OpenKG (Open Knowledge Graph) has been presented as a significant advancement in the field of knowledge graph construction and application. Proponents hail these frameworks as a novel approach to combining the strengths of different data models. However, a closer examination reveals that OpenSPG and its associated methodologies represent less of a paradigm shift and more of a repackaging of established knowledge graph (KG) pipeline processes that have existed for decades. The framework's core premise, while seemingly innovative, largely sidesteps the robust and globally accepted standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and in doing so, risks creating a new, proprietary ecosystem that is incompatible with the broader semantic web.
At its heart, a knowledge graph is a structured representation of information, typically composed of entities and their relationships. The process of building one—from data extraction to knowledge modeling and application—has been a well-documented and refined discipline. This pipeline, often involving stages of information extraction, entity linking, and ontology population, has been the standard practice for years. OpenSPG, with its "Semantic-enhanced Programmable Graph" framework, essentially formalizes this same multi-stage pipeline under a new name. It promotes a system that "creatively integrates LPG structural and RDF semantic," but this hybridization is a problem that established standards were designed to solve. Instead of offering a genuinely new methodology, OpenSPG provides a specific implementation of a well-known process, giving it a unique name and an accompanying set of tools. This approach is reminiscent of past efforts to create proprietary data formats and query languages in the database world, a trend that the W3C standards were created to overcome.
The most significant critique of the OpenSPG framework is its apparent disregard for the foundational principles and standards of the semantic web. The W3C has meticulously developed a suite of standards, including the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and Web Ontology Language (OWL), to ensure that KGs are interoperable, machine-readable, and globally linkable. These standards provide a common language and a rich set of logical capabilities for reasoning and inference that OpenSPG’s ad-hoc integration of LPG and RDF cannot fully replicate. By promoting a non-standardized approach, OpenSPG creates a walled garden, where data and knowledge assets built within its framework may not be easily shareable or reusable with other systems that adhere to the W3C's vision of a decentralized, interconnected web of data.
Furthermore, the OpenSPG framework seems to ignore the ongoing evolution of established graph standards. The Property Graph model, which it claims to integrate, has its own emerging query language standard, GQL (Graph Query Language), which is designed to provide a cohesive, vendor-agnostic way to query property graphs. Instead of contributing to or adopting these open, community-driven standards, OpenSPG proposes its own proprietary abstractions and tools. This fragmentation not only stifles innovation but also burdens developers and organizations with the task of learning yet another specialized framework, with no guarantee of long-term compatibility or community support. The benefits of such an approach are questionable, as they offer little that is not already available through existing, mature technologies that embrace interoperability.