Open Linked Data as Part of a Government Enterprise Architecture

Open Linked Data

A Key Element of
Public Administration
Information Management

 Transparency
 Participation
 Collaboration

“My Administration is committed to creating an
Unprecedented level of openness in Government.“
Barack Obama, “Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies -
Transparency and Open Government,” Jan. 2009.

Neelie Kroes
Vice-President of the European Commission
responsible for the Digital Agenda

“Take the example of public sector information –
possibly a €30 billion market in Europe. I have said it
before, and I say it again: yes to open data!”
“Lift-Off towards Open Government" conference, Brussels, 15 December 2010
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/10/752

Status Quo Austria
 2 Initiativen der Zivilgesellschaft:
● http://gov.opendata.at
● http://www.open3.at
● http://offenedaten.at/
 Überblick am Reference-Server
http://reference.e-government.gv.at/Open-Government-Let-the-
suns.opengovernment.0.html
 E-Government-Vision 2020
● „Bereitstellung von ausgewählten öffentlichen Rohdaten und Mashups mit
privaten Services“
● http://www.bka.gv.at/site/6878/default.aspx
 Im Regierungsprogramm Rot/Grün Wien
 Thema des Kompetenzentrums Internetgesellschaft “KIG”

Applications & State of Affairs

Open Data Catalogues
State / Federal Private
 data.gov  data.worldbank.org/
 datasf.org data-catalog
 data.edmonton.ca/
 www.undata-
api.org/wiki/datasets
 data.gov.uk
 gov.opendata.at
 data.london.gov.uk
 data.reegle.info
 digitaliser.dk
 OpenBelgium.be
 geodata.gov.gr
 opengovdata.ru
 data.suomi.fi

http://www.london.gov.uk/rents/

http://www.nycbigmaps.com/restaurant-inspections-heatmap.php

http://treesnearyou.com/ http://www.wayfindermobile.com/ http://www.cabsense.com/

Why Open Data?
 More information might lead to more informed
and better decisions
 Higher degree of effectiveness & efficiency
● P. Weiss, "Borders in Cyberspace: Conflicting Public Sector Information Policies and their Economic Impacts," ed: U.S.
Department of Commerce, 2004.

 Strengthen trust in establishment
● R. Marcella and G. Baxter, "Information need, information seeking behaviour and participation, with special reference to
needs related to citizenship: results of a national survey," Journal of Documentation, vol. 56, pp. 136-160, 2002.

 Leverage benefits of peer production
 New business models
 “Peoples right to know”

Benefits for Citizens

 Execution of controlling rights by the citizens
 Self-Determination
 Communication on equal information level
 Better Services – better Governance – better
Regulation

Drawbacks

 Administration:Loss of control & power –
undermining the statutory supremacy
 Business: Loss of money by threatening
established business models
 Society: Discrimination by stigmatisation
 “The unknown” considered harmful

Challenges
 Beneficial for many but drawbacks for some others
● eg. changing value of real estate by transparency
 Media Literacy - “Data divide”
● Data journalism as a new role for the endangered
traditional media
 Access vs. effective use
● Theoretical benefit – real utility
 Beneficial for larger & educated states
● Anyone for “Apps for Liechtenstein”? - “Apps for Somalia”?

Background image attribution http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SBB-CFF.JPG

Open Government Data
Definitions & Principles


Open Government Data are data sets
released by the government on public
interest. Usage is unconstrained with
the right to re-share and re-purpose
without further notice.

Explained
 Released by the government
 Data is following the open data principles
 Always non-personal
 Beneficiaries rights are regulated by
meaningful licences
 Usage is unconstrained
 Business usage is welcomed

Open Data Principles
 Complete
 Primary
 Timely
 Easily Accessible
 Machine Processable
 Non-Discriminating
 Using Open Standards
 Liberal Licencing
 Reliable
 Free of Charge OR Non-Discriminating fees
von Lucke and C.P. Geiger, “Open Government Data - Frei verfügbare Daten des öffentlichen Sektors,” Dec. 2010.


Element of Public Administration

Information Management (EN)
 Collection and management of
information
 Organization of and control over the
structure, processing and delivery of
information

Informationsmanagement (DE)
 Beschaffung und Bereitstellung von Information
 Planung, Beschaffung und Bereitstellung der
dafür erforderlichen Informations- und IT-
Infrastruktur und notwendiger, personeller
Ressourcen
● Informationsmanagement wird in der
deutschsprachigen Literatur überwiegend als
Informationsgenerierung und
Informationsbeschaffung behandelt

Literature Research

[1] J. White, Managing information in the public sector, Armonk N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2007.
[2] C.M. Shea and G.D. Garson, Handbook of public information systems, Taylor & Francis Group, 2010.
[3] B. Rocheleau, Public management information systems, Hershey PA: Idea Group Pub., 2006.

Peculiarities of Public Sector
 Functional discrepancies
● Private: Maximizing shareholder value
● Public: Loss-making public transport
 Conflicting targets, perceptions and interests in public & private
sector information management
● Risk, Accountability, Representativeness, Stakeholders, Openness;
 Information management performance measure models complex
due to conflicting targets
 BUT: Literature recognizes information as a critical resource
 Conclusion: Information out-flow shall be treated as a core
element of public sector information management

B. Bozeman and S. Bretschneider, “Public management information systems: Theory and prescription,” Public
Administration Review, vol. 46, 1986, pp. 475–487.

Literature Review - Result

 Information is a critical resource

 Information flow is not considered to be
bi-directional
 Current literature does not describe an
open data architecture model


Architecture Model

Architecture Model
 Five level saturation model by Tim
Berners-Lee
★ Available on the web (whatever format), but with an open licence
★★ Available as machine-readable structured data (e.g. excel instead
of image scan of a table)
★★★ as (2) plus non-proprietary format (e.g. CSV instead of excel)
★★★★ All the above plus, Use open standards from W3C (RDF and SPARQL)
to identify things, so that people can point at your stuff
★★★★★ All the above, plus: Link your data to other people’s data
to provide context

Architecture Model
 Everything gets an URI
 Data is encoded in RDF
 URIs are kept persistent by policies and PURLs
 Ontologies describe NON-Information Resources
● Data entities are self-described by these government
ontologies
 RESTFul APIs for data access
 Data gets federated to meta data register
 Data searchable à la swoogle

Linking Concepts - Basics
 Connecting concepts across federal levels, spanning departments
 Supports the automatic generation of new information
 Common understanding about “things”, even across different
languages

http://data.wien.gv.at/info.rdf

Bundeshauptstadt Vienna

URIs for everything
 Naming scheme respects federal principle of
subsidiarity and autonomy
 http://{sector}.{federallevel}.data.gv.at/
{concept}/IDENTIFIKATION {.rdf|html}
● http://bildung.krems.noe.data.gv.at/schule/4711
 NON-Information resources require two
additional URIs (“HttpRange-14”)
● Associated information resource, eg. HTML-Page
● Associated information resource as “303” resource,
eg. RDF-data

RDF Data Representation
 One format fits all
 Target representation by XSLT
transformation or (X)HTML render
 Plethora of public sector data in legacy or
non-conforming formats will require a
transitional phase
 TXT, CSV, HTML, XML are royalty free
formats with strong open source backing

Trust by Reliability
 Internet Addresses come and go
 URIs shall be reliable by organizational
consensus
 Fancy URIs remain invariant by means
of permanent Urls (PURL)
 PURLs interpretation of HTTP-Header
response values harmonize with
Semantic Web Interpretation

PURL vs. SemWeb
Interpretation
HTTP- HTTP- PURL Semantic Web
Header Interpretation Interpretation Interpretation
Status
Code
301 Moved Moved permanently
permanently to a target URL
302 Found Simple redirection
to a target URL
303 Found See other URL A URI; likely an
RDF-Document

Ontologies for Non-
Information Resources (NIR)
 Enable computer systems to reason about reality
 Automated service discovery
 Optimal resource allocation for processes
 Ontologies about NIRs classify Open Linked Data
about Information Resources (IR)
 SKOS as an alternative to the overly expressive OWL
for creating eg. Thesaurus of the public service
portfolio

Open Data API
 Reduce server resources by optimal query strategy
 Querying data originator rather than local storage
prevents data inconsistencies
 Extern-facing API by means of RESTful serives
● Integrates seamlessly with web browsers
● Well understood and supported standard technology
● JSON serialization less verbose and more web friendly than
XML
● “Simple” compared to wsdl:SOAP
 Eliminates asymmetry of Open Data by enabling
information in-flow

Open Government Data Register
 Topic of research
 Do not repeat dead
end of UDDI!

C. Koumenides, M. Salvadores, H. Alani, and N. Shadbol, “Global
integration of public sector information,” Raleigh, NC, USA: 2010.

Architecture (0)
3 0
1 2
URI
Web Interface
Service
RDF-Browser Javascript Libraries
Discovery
api.data.gv.at data.gv.at proxy.data.gv.at Service

[0] Identify an Open Data Set

Architecture (1)
3 0
1 2
URI
Web Interface
Service
Discovery

[1] Browse Url / Uri (eg. http://bildung.krems.noe.data.gv.at/schule/4711)

Architecture (2)
3 0
1 2
URI
Web Interface
Service
Discovery

[2] Transfer minimal Web Page with
Javascript RDF-Browser

Architecture (3)
3 0
1 2
URI
Web Interface
Service
Discovery

[2] Transfer minimal Web Page with
Javascript RDF-Browser
[3] Retrieve Data using OGD API

Architecture (4)
3 0
1 2
URI
Web Interface
Service
Discovery
4'
Externe Sicht 5
Interne Sicht
4
DB1 RDF RDF
RDF DB DB
Datenbank DB2
Org 2 Org 3
Organisation

[4] Query RDF-Database

3
1
RDF-Browser
0
Web Interface
Javascript Libraries
URI
Service
Architecture (4')
Discovery
4'
Externe Sicht

Interne Sicht
4
DB1 RDF RDF
RDF DB DB
Datenbank DB2
Org 2 Org 3
Organisation

[4] Query RDF-Database
[4'] Use HTTP-Proxy to Query Databases
outside Internet Domain

Big picture

3 0
1 2
Web Interface
URI
Service
Discovery
4
Externe Sicht 5
Interne Sicht
4
DB1 RDF RDF
RDF DB DB
Datenbank DB2
Org 2 Org 3
Organisation

Next steps
 Identify already released data or uncritical data sets;
grab for the low hanging fruits
 Release as XML, CSV
 Create an online-catalogue of Open Data
 Go semantic: Enrich with meta data, create URI
infrastructure, identify open source components
 Extend government enterprise architecture with
Linked Data elements

Thank you – Contact

Johann Höchtl
Center for E-Government
Danube University Krems, Austria

johann.hoechtl@donau-uni.ac.at

Links and further reading
Papers & Literature:
C. Koumenides, M. Salvadores, H. Alani, and N. Shadbol, “Global integration of public sector information,” Raleigh, NC, USA: 2010.
F. Ortiz-Rodríguez, J.C. Pelaez, and F.J. Pascual, “Semantic model approach for eGovernment to improve sharing, retrieving and
exchanging documentation across back-office,” Proceedings of the 10th Annual International Conference on Digital Government
Research: Social Networks: Making Connections between Citizens, Data and Government, Digital Government Society of North
America, 2009, pp. 319–320.
S.K. Goudos, V. Peristeras, and K. Tarabanis, “Reengineering Public Administration through Semantic Technologies and a Reference
Domain Ontology,” Semantic Web for eGovernment 2006, p. 25.
C. Koumenides, M. Salvadores, H. Alani, and N. Shadbol, “Global integration of public sector information,” Raleigh, NC, USA: 2010.
P. Salhofer, “Ontology Driven E-Government,” eGovernment Review, Jan. 2009, pp. 22-23.
J. Sheridan and J. Tennison, “Linking UK government data,” Proc. of the WWW Workshop on Linked Data on the Web, 2010.
D. Wood, Linking Enterprise Data, Springer, 2010.
F. Servant, “Linking Enterprise Data,” CEUR Workshop Proceedings, Bejing: 2008.
F. Maali, R. Cyganiak, and V. Peristeras, “Enabling Interoperability of Government Data Catalogues,” Lecture Notes in Computer
Science, Lausanne, Switzerland: Springer, 2010, pp. 339-350.
P.N. Weiss, “Borders in Cyberspace: Conflicting Public Sector Information Policies and their Economic Impacts,” Public sector
information in the digital age: between markets, public management and citizens' rights, 2004, p. 137.
E. Hornes, A. Jansen, and Ø. Langeland, “How to Develop an Open and Flexible Information Infrastructure for the Public Sector,”
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Lausanne, Switzerland: Springer, 2010, pp. 301-314.
. von Lucke and C.P. Geiger, “Open Government Data - Frei verfügbare Daten des öffentlichen Sektors,” Dec. 2010.

Web Links:
Empowering the empowered: http://gurstein.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/open-data-empowering-the-empowered-or-effective-data-use-
for-everyone/
Cool URIs for the semantic web: http://www.w3.org/TR/cooluris/
Re-use HTTP-Header Response Codes for the Semantic Web: http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/httpRange-14/2007-05-31/HttpRange-14
Licenses: http://www.opendatacommons.org/
CKAN Semantic Web Software: http://ckan.org/
Tabulator Library to render RDF as (X)HTML: http://semanticweb.org/wiki/Tabulator
APIs: http://open311.org/, http://www.odata.org/ http://services.sunlightlabs.com/docs/Sunlight_Congress_API/
SKOS recommendation to create thesauri: http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/
Tools and Software recommended by the W3C to deal with RDF and the Semantic Web: http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/wiki/Tools

http://offener.datenkatalog.at/

Open Linked Data as Part of a Government Enterprise Architecture

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