Location and Linked Data

Dr John Goodwin

Research Scientist

Ordnance Survey

The Problems with Place

Hampshire – A confusing place

Today:

• Hampshire = The (Administrative) County of Hampshire or

The (Vernacular) County(ies) of Hampshire.

• Wikipedia is confused!

Historically:

• Southamptonshire, Hamptonshire, County of Southampton

• with or without the Isle of Wight and Bournemouth

Opening UK Public Sector Information: Ordnance

Survey and Linked Data

• At the forefront of the geospatial linked data

web in Great Britain.

• Provide a well trusted source of location

data for the linked data web.

Ordnance Survey and Linked Data

Ordnance Survey Linked Data

http://data.ordn..co.uk/id/postcode/SO168BY

http://data.ordn...co.uk/id/7000000000037256

http://data.ordn...co.uk/id/7000000000041421

The City of Southampton

district

name

containedBy

South East England

name

http://education.data.gov.uk/id/school/1234

“Oasis Academy Lord's Hill”

name

type

edu:School

postcode

http://data.ord..co.uk/id/postcode/SO168BY

http://data.ordn...co.uk/id/7000000000037256

district

The City of Southampton

name

http://data.ordn...co.uk/id/7000000000041421

containedBy

Linked Data & Location In Action

Linked Data In Action: Mashups and Meshups

Traditional Mashup

Fast food vendors in the US

Linked data Meshup

Artists that were played on

specific BBC radio

programmes that come from a

specified place

osgb:700000000000018 db:Birminghamowl:sameAs

osgb:700000000000018 db:Birminghamowl:sameAs

db:Broadcast

db:homeTown

osgb:700000000000018 db:Birminghamowl:sameAs

db:Broadcast

db:homeTown

bbcmusic:aa..#artist

owl:sameAs

osgb:700000000000018 db:Birminghamowl:sameAs

db:Broadcast

db:homeTown

bbcmusic:aa..#artist

owl:sameAs

bbcprog:aap0..#track

foaf:maker

bbcprog:aap0..#segment

po:track

bbcprog:boo..#...

po:time

Key Message: Mashup versus Meshup

• URIs:

� Unambiguously identify a ‘thing’ – avoid name clashes

� Can be looked up to find data on said ‘thing’

� Through the web they provide a mechanism for linking to other

datasets via http

• Linked Data Format (RDF):

� A common, simple data model to be used on the web

� To the web of data what HTML is to the web of documents

Future Work

Linked Data API

• Developed by Jeni Tennison (TSO), Dave Reynolds

(Epimorphics) and Leigh Dodds (Talis)

• Not everyone wants to learn SPARQL

• Allows RESTful access to services built on top of linked

data resources, e.g.

http://os.services.tso.co.uk/geo/api/50k-gazetteer/city/Southampton

Data Enrichment

Spatial Predicates

At small – mid scale a lot can be done using qualitative spatial data, e.g.:

• equals

• touches

• disjoint

• contains

• containedBy

• partiallyOverlaps

Scaling Things Up

• integers

• dates

• strings

• etc…

• points

• lines

• polygons

• etc…

Future Work: Ordnance Survey

A More Vernacular Geography?

• “The General Populous are darned fools:

• They use geographical terms they can’t define.

• They mix up their attribute datasets.

• They can rarely put anything precisely on a map.”

Andy Evans (University of Leeds)

Examples

• The Highlands

• The Lake District

• Spaghetti Junction

• The City Centre, Downtown

• Southside (Glasgow)

• Southside (Edinburgh)

• Most Localities (e.g. Merchant City)

• The Stag Gates

• Foys Corner

© Copyright sylvia duckworth, Geograph

Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 © 2006 Blisco

Linking though place

Hampshire(Administrative)

Hampshire(Vernacular)

Hampshire(keeper of the concept)

Is a

representation of

Is a

representation ofIs historical

representation of

Is historical

representation of

Is historical

representation of

Evolves to

Evolves to

Evolves to

So why do we care?

• Need from emergency services and the like

• Web search needs to be improved

Conclusions

• Location is a key information hub on the linked data web

• Linked Data will open up new opportunities

Some URLs

• http://opendata.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/

• http://data.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/

• http://openspace.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/

• http://opentoids.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/