the state of linked government data
DESCRIPTION
There are high expectations for Linked Government Data—the practice of publishing public sector information on the Web using Linked Data formats. This slideset reviews some of the ongoing work in the US, UK, and within W3C, as well as activities within my institute (DERI, National University of Ireland, Galway).TRANSCRIPT
Copyright 2009 Digital Enterprise Research Institute. All rights reserved.
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The State of Linked Government Data
Richard CyganiakDERI Friday Talk, August 20, 2010
http://linkeddata.deri.ie
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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
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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!
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Open Data …
Open Data starts with making available
the data that you already have, in whatever format.
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Raw data catalog, data.gov
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Government data catalogs
http://datos.fundacionctic.org/sandbox/catalog/map
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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/
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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*
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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
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Data-gov wiki
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White House Visitor Search
http://data-gov.tw.rpi.edu/demo/stable/white-house-visitor/top100-visitees.php
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Dataset 10025: White House visistors
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Dataset: White House Visitee
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Comparing US and UK Global Foreign Aid
http://data-gov.tw.rpi.edu/demo/linked/aidviz-1554-10030.html
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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/
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United Kingdom
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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
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Responsible Publishing
Source: Jeni Tennison
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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
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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
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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
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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/
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Crime Statistics
http://www.jenitennison.com/visualisation/crime.html
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legislation.gov.uk – 800 years of law
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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)”
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W3C Activities: 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/
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W3C Activities: eGov IG
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
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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
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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.
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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
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And finally…
ISWC 2010 Tutorial:Linked Data for eGovernment
http://latc-project.eu/events/2010/iswc-ld4egov
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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