Data in Switzerland: BFS at OKCon 2013

Federal Department of Home Affairs FDHAFederal Statistical Office FSO

Semantic Data!Linked Data Platform@ FSO

Adrian Gschwend (Alain Nadeau)September 2013, OKCon Geneva

2 Semantic data!| OKCon September 2013Gschwend/Nadeau


Swiss Federal Statistical Office FSO

• Runs and co-ordinates Switzerland’s entire public statistic system

• Produces and disseminates key statistical information in• Demographics, Economy, Society, Spatial planning,

Environment• Complex analysis, interpretation and monitoring of its data

http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/en/index.html

http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/en/index.html



Semantic Data!

• OpenData policy since foundation in 1860, public mandate• More than 50’000 files available as of today• 2 or 3 star format according to Tim Berners-Lee

• CSV, PX, PDF, printed books• FSO follows developments in data dissemination

• Berners-Lee 5-star• Semantic data are the future of open data

• FSO mandates Berner Fachhochschule (BFH) to pilot a study: How can existing statistical data (Census 2011) be transformed into semantic data and linked with other semantic data

http://lod-cloud.net/versions/2011-09-19/lod-cloud_colored.html

http://lod-cloud.net/versions/2011-09-19/lod-cloud_colored.html



We are not alone

• Wikipedia / DBpedia / Wikidata• Facebook Graph Search• Google Knowledge Graph (Freebase)• JSON-LD & RDFa (microformats)• Linked Data Cloud

Trend: Structured, graph based data!



Linked Data Platform for BFS

• We know our data best• Tabular publication lacks clear semantics• You might interpret a relation differently• Goal: Increase machine readability, clear vocabulary• Standard: Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX)

http://sdmx.org/

http://sdmx.org/



Technology Stack

• Standardized graph query language: SPARQL• Ask ad-hoc questions without the performance hit

• Output formats: CVS/TSV, JSON, XML & RDF• Direct access via HTTP (data and queries)



RDF

• W3C standard• Resource Description Framework• Provides various serializations (JSON, XML, Turtle etc.)• Supports internationalization by design (i18n)• Technical base for SPARQL• Federation (no need for one big DB)• In your namespace• Logic languages on top of it (RDFS, OWL)• Support in most popular programming languages



Prototype with FSO data

• Public SPARQL endpoint• Sample apps/visualization• Own namespace (data.admin.ch)

• Unique identifiers for every piece of data • Direct access to HTTP URIs in various

RDF formats (dereferencing)• Sample integration from different data

source (DBpedia, Google Maps)

http://www.gemeindezukunft.ch/acms/projekte/opendata/

http://www.gemeindezukunft.ch/acms/projekte/opendata/



Sample Applications



HTML view



Turtle Serialization

curl -H "Accept: text/turtle" http://data.admin.ch/bfs/municipality/12099



Turtle output



Same for JSON

Curl -H "Accept: application/rdf+json" http://data.admin.ch/bfs/municipality/12099



JSON output



JSON-LD for „classical“ web coders

curl -H "Accept: application/ld-json" http://data.admin.ch/bfs/municipality/12099

Work in progress, not implemented yet on public endpoint!



JSON-LD output



Ask ad-hoc questions



Get answers your way



Visualize things your way



What you get

• The data is the API• Metadata comes with the data

• Standardized vocabulary• Standardized query language• Become your own Data Analyst and Data Scientist• Reduces ETL pain of other formats• Federation (see DBpedia integration)• You choose your output format• Built on HTTP stack (web native!)• Advanced: Schemas, RDFS & OWL

• Ask me for demos



What you pay for

• Steeper learning curve• Data owner has more work to do upfront• You need to get rid of some old concepts in your head

But it‘s worth it!



Outlook

• Stable namespace ?• More datasets ?• A productive, redundant platform ?• More government divisions on board?

Talk to us for questions / remarks / participation!

Data in Switzerland: BFS at OKCon 2013

Education

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