Linked data as enabler for mobile applications for complex tasks in industrial settings

Nowadays, apps provide support for various simple tasks. They are easy to use and highly usable. However, future apps should support more complex workflows especially when trying to enter the professional business world. They need to provide higher reusability and composability in order to make them suitable for complex and alterable workflows that are common in industry. The concept of App Orchestration allows supporting complex tasks with aid of an ensemble of adapted and managed apps. Therefore, the apps raise several demands on the underlying information backend. This article describes these requirements and presents the Linked Data approach, which is a possible methodology for an integrated, semantically described information space for this purpose. It describes possible uses and benefits for the concept of App Orchestration and shows them in a use case of mobile maintenance. It further discusses the current status of the approach and provides future research challenges.