The State of Linked Government Data

Copyright 2009 Digital Enterprise Research Institute. All rights reserved.

Digital Enterprise Research Institute www.deri.ie

The State of Linked Government Data

Richard CyganiakDERI Friday Talk, August 20, 2010

http://linkeddata.deri.ie


High expectations …

Publishing Public Sector Information on the Web It enables the reuse of the data provided by

government agencies, opening up new business opportunities.

It provides citizens a direct access to public services, helping to cut costs and improve processes in the government agencies and between the agencies and the citizens.

It helps increase the citizen engagement and participation

Highest-profile adoption of Semantic Web tech to date


Open Data vs. Linked Data

Open Data Equal access for all Licensing, legal issues Transparency Changing the way government works

Linked Data URIs, HTTP, RDF, SPARQL, FOAF

Linked, Open Data!


Open Data …

Open Data starts with making available

the data that you already have, in whatever format.


Raw data catalog, data.gov


Government data catalogs

http://datos.fundacionctic.org/sandbox/catalog/map




TimBL’s 5-star plan for open data

★ Make your stuff available on the Web

★★ Make it available as structured data(e.g., an Excel sheet instead of image scan of a table)

★★★ Use a non-proprietary format(e.g., a CSV file instead of an Excel sheet)

★★★★ Use linked data format(i.e., URIs to identify things, and RDF to represent data)

★★★★★ Link your data to other people’s data to provide contextSource: http://inkdroid.org/journal/2010/06/04/the-5-stars-of-open-linked-data/

http://inkdroid.org/journal/2010/06/04/the-5-stars-of-open-linked-data/


All around the world …

8 of XYZ

Country Official?

Rating Datasets

Sweden N ★★ fewNew Zealand Y ★★ manyIreland Y ★★★ fewCanada Y ★★★ manyUnited States Y* ★★★★ manySpain N ★★★★★ fewUnited Kingdom

Y ★★★★★ many*


United States

Data.gov National raw data and geodata catalogs

Data-gov Wiki project at RPI “Triplifying” tabular datasets from Data.gov Generic services on RDF data Wiki for collecting more information about datasets Demos

As of 2010, Data.gov links to RPI’s RDF


Data-gov wiki


White House Visitor Search

http://data-gov.tw.rpi.edu/demo/stable/white-house-visitor/top100-visitees.php




Dataset 10025: White House visistors


Dataset: White House Visitee


Comparing US and UK Global Foreign Aid

http://data-gov.tw.rpi.edu/demo/linked/aidviz-1554-10030.html

http://data-gov.tw.rpi.edu/demo/linked/aidviz-1554-10030.html


Data-gov Wiki: Criticism

Is this more useful than a table?

<rdf:Description rdf:about="#entry9053451"> <rdf:type rdf:resource="http://data-gov.tw.rpi.edu/ 2009/data-gov-twc.rdf#DataEntry"/> <value>2.7</value> <period>M01</period> <year>1995</year> <series_id>SMU55225408000000001</series_id></rdf:Description>

Source: Stefano Mazzocchi http://www.betaversion.org/~stefano/linotype/news/351/

http://www.betaversion.org/~stefano/linotype/news/351/

http://www.betaversion.org/~stefano/linotype/news/351/


United Kingdom


United Kingdom

Large numbers of raw datasets at data.gov.uk Selected datasets as five-star Linked Data Doing the groundwork for high-quality LD

representations URI sets Vocabularies Best Practices


Responsible Publishing

Source: Jeni Tennison


Designing URI Sets for the UK Public Sector

Best-practice report http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/301253/puiblic_sector_uri.pdf

Note ironic typo! Examples

http://education.data.gov.uk/id/school/78 http://transport.data.gov.uk/id/road/M5/junction/24 http://education.data.gov.uk/def/school

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/301253/puiblic_sector_uri.pdf




Vocabularies

SDMX-RDF and the Data Cube Vocabulary DERI; Epimorphics; Metadata Technologies; Stationery

Office http://linked-statistics.org/ (coming soon)

An organization ontology Epimorphics http://www.epimorphics.com/public/vocabulary/org.html

http://linked-statistics.org/

http://www.epimorphics.com/public/vocabulary/org.html

http://www.epimorphics.com/public/vocabulary/org.html


Datasets

analytics.data.gov.uk business.data.gov.uk crime.data.gov.uk education.data.gov.uk environment.data.gov.uk finance.data.gov.uk patents.data.gov.uk reference.data.gov.uk research.data.gov.uk statistics.data.gov.uk transport.data.gov.uk


Linked Data API

Developers demand familiar formats LD API delivers developer-friendly JSON-style APIs

from SPARQL endpoints http://code.google.com/p/linked-data-api/

http://code.google.com/p/linked-data-api/

http://code.google.com/p/linked-data-api/


Crime Statistics

http://www.jenitennison.com/visualisation/crime.html




legislation.gov.uk – 800 years of law


W3C Activities: eGov IG

eGovernment Interest Group (eGov IG)http://www.w3.org/2007/eGov/IG/

“The mission of the eGov IG is to explore how to improve access to government through better use of the Web and achieve better government transparency using open Web standards at any government level (local, state, national and multi-national)”

http://www.w3.org/2007/eGov/IG/



Documents produced so far: Use Cases

http://www.w3.org/egov/wiki/Use_Cases Publishing Open Government Data

http://www.w3.org/TR/gov-data/ Improving Access to Government through

Better Use of the Webhttp://www.w3.org/TR/egov-improving/

http://www.w3.org/egov/wiki/Use_Cases

http://www.w3.org/TR/gov-data/

http://www.w3.org/TR/egov-improving/



Projects http://www.w3.org/egov/wiki/Projects Outreach Demonstration (now chaired by Michael) Best Practices for Using Web Technologies to Deliver

Government Services Best Practices for Government Data Management Best Practices for Government Use of Social Media Data Catalog Vocabulary task force (Richard, Fadi)

http://www.w3.org/egov/wiki/Data_Catalog_Vocabulary

http://www.w3.org/egov/wiki/Projects

http://www.w3.org/egov/wiki/Projects




W3C Activities: New Working Group

Government Linked Data Working Group is planned

Best practices, lessons learned in US and UK Strong support from W3C members Charter soon:

http://www.w3.org/egov/wiki/GLD_Charter





Upcoming DERI activities

CSO/DES Linked Data pilot Which school should I send my child to?

LATC support action Work package: Publish EU-level datasets as LD http://latc-project.eu/

LOD2 IP Work package: National datasets on Austria, Germany,

Ireland etc.

http://latc-project.eu/

http://latc-project.eu/


Reality check

“Triplification” alone is not very useful Linked Data addresses syntax, data model, access, but

does not automatically solve the hard problems Standardized classifications; identifier management;

data provenance; versioning; context; data discovery Linked Data needs developers, journalists, analysts,

scientists to translate it into benefits for the common citizen

LD removes some technical issues, giving us a better shot at solving the organizational/political ones


And finally…

ISWC 2010 Tutorial:Linked Data for eGovernment

http://latc-project.eu/events/2010/iswc-ld4egov




Additional image sources

Kristen Taylorhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/kthread/2857259619/

Independent.co.ukhttp://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/internets-founder-attacks-scheme-to-monitor-web-usage-797133.html?action=Popup&gallery=no

LowCarbonEconomy.comhttp://www.lowcarboneconomy.com/community_content/_low_carbon_blog/2596/brown_tackles_energy_bills_unemployment

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kthread/2857259619/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kthread/2857259619/

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/internets-founder-attacks-scheme-to-monitor-web-usage-797133.html?action=Popup&gallery=no




http://www.lowcarboneconomy.com/community_content/_low_carbon_blog/2596/brown_tackles_energy_bills_unemployment



The State of Linked Government Data

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