Government Linked Data Projects in the Wild

UPDATE ON
US GOVERNMENT
LINKED DATA PROJECTS IN THE
WILD
Bernadette Hyland
co-chair, W3C Gov Linked Data WG &
CEO, 3 Round Stones, Inc.

28-April 2012 Alexandria VA

Saturday, April 28, 12

This talk focuses on the impact of a government agency publishing data in a way that can be
easily exported and re-used by others.
The EPA began the process of learning about and publishing data as Linked Data about a year
ago ... A few pioneers in the Agency started looking at a Linked Data approach starting in
2008.

THE PROMISE ...

The Web is the natural place to publish
information for public dissemination
Transforming how we organize ourselves &
how we’ll address the world’s most pressing
problems in the 21st Century


The Web is owned by no one and yet open to vendors, governments and private citizens.
People in this eGov focused form would agree that Open Government Data initiatives and partnerships have the
potential to transform how we organize ourselves and how we address some of the world’s most pressing
problems in the 21st Century.

These are worthy goals include better communication with citizens, eliciting input to better formulate
positions and policies.
We have already seen improved response to natural disasters, human rights abuses, environmental and
health issues to name but a few.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sjungling/5974860/

Semantic technologies, and specifically a Linked Data approach, provide greater computing context.
The good news is that we are living in a golden age. The bad news is that many or even most are having a difficult time
keeping up.
The Web is owned by no one and yet open to vendors, governments and private citizens.
People in this eGov focused form would agree that Open Government Data initiatives and partnerships have the potential to
transform how we organize ourselves and how we address some of the world’s most pressing problems in the 21st Century.
These are worthy goals and include better communication with citizens, elicit input to better formulate positions and policies.

• Linked Data is
about publishing
and consuming
data using
international data
standards
• Based on 20 year
old idea
• A system of linked
information systems


I’m here in my role as the co-chair of W3C GLD WG as well as an entrepreneur who has successfully
competed on the basis of both producing Open Source software & commercially supporting it.
I’m a serial entrepreneur in this space & founded 3 different companies that led to several of the most
widely used Open Source projects for Linked Data, including Mulgara, OpenRDF/Sesame, the PURLs
2.0 and Callimachus.
I’ve authored chapters in two of these peer-reviewed books which are available in hardcopy or for free,
via the Web.


With my W3C hat on this morning, I’m be talking about 4 and 5 star linked data.
This means -- use URIs to identify things so that people can point at your stuff and link your data to
other data to provide context.
Publishing data on the Web using W3C standards is closely tied to realizing the beneﬁts associated with
Open Government -- to transform how governments serve citizens in the 21st Century.


There is a revolution in data sharing underway. It is taking place inside the enterprise, behind the
firewall. It is taking place in software product development.
It is taking place on the Web.

WE’VE SEEN THIS BEFORE


Like HTML and RDF, credit cards have a human-readable side and a machine-readable side.

A BETTER APPROACH ...

No one vendor owns it
It scales to Web-scale
Doesn’t require a super model
Based on International Data Exchange
Standards (RDF, SPARQL)


Scope: Bigger than any other deployed system
Inﬁnitely adaptable: Changes piecemeal and allows for ad hoc additions & changes.
Ownership: Nobody owns it


Who is sharing their data as Linked Data? Small and large commercial and government
organizations, NGOs, Non-proﬁts ... plus many universities.
Governments in the last few years have been responding to Open Government initiatives that mandate
publishing open government data.
Some are careful, slow-moving entities who simply needed to ﬁnd real solutions to real problems.

Governments
Goals: Governmental transparency and/or improved
internal efﬁciencies (data warehouses)


US EPA


SENTARA HEALTHCARE


Value
Proposi-on

•
Decrease
in
costly
Emergency
Department
visits

•
Reduc-on
of
hospital
re-‐admissions
a<er
treatment
• e
•
Improved
self-‐care
and
medica-on
compliance

•
Educa-on
of
triggers
and
disease
management


CDC Open
Government
Linked
Data
EPA Data Cloud DBpedia
US
Census Pub
Med
Clinical
Ontology NLM

Business
Ontology
Social
Media Internal
Portal
Data

Facebook Physicians
TwiLer Services
EMR Loca-ons
Data

Clinical
Condi-on
Speciﬁc


Leverage
Linked
Data,
Open
Source
&
Standards

Web
of
Data
CDC DBpedia SMS
EPA Pub
Med
US
Census NLM Email

CA-‐email-‐message.jpg
Web
EMR


FUTURE TRENDS?

What is next for Open Gov Data on the Web
We’re already seeing signs of things to come.
Structured data on the Web is quickly
becoming mainstream
Authorities starting to appreciate a new way
to publish and consume content


What’s next? We are already seeing signs of the things to come.
Structured data on the Web is quickly becoming mainstream.
There have been many well-publicized triple challenges, hack-a-thons, apps challenges -- they are popping up everywhere.
Organizations with mission critical applications based on relational technologies are creating a layer above their traditional
architectures and building Linked Data-driven Web apps.
Web apps based on LD are beginning to replace traditional data warehouses.

http://www.w3.org/2011/gld/charter

DELIVERABLES

Community Directory

Best Practices for Publishing Linked Data

Procurement, vocabulary selection, URI construction,
versioning, stability, legacy data issues

Cookbook for Linked Open Data

Standard Vocabularies

Metadata, Statistical “Cube” Data, People,
Organizational structures

“THANK YOU FOR JOYFULLY
PARTICIPATING”

Bernadette Hyland
Co-chair W3C Government Linked Data Working
Group & CEO 3 Round Stones, Inc

Twitter: @BernHyland
bhyland@3roundstones.com


This work is Copyright © 2011 3 Round Stones Inc.
It is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
Full details at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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This presentation is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA license, allowing you to share
and remix its contents as long as you give us attribution and share alike.

Credits
Riga Marathon, By Nordea
(CC-BY-NC) http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/nordearigamarathon/4549346580/

Centro Universitario de
Ciencias Exactas e Ingenierías,
http://proton.ucting.udg.mx/galeria/3D/WEB.jpg
Universidad de Guadalajara
(public domain)

http://lab.linkeddata.deri.ie/2010/star-scheme-by-example/
1-5 Star Linked Data image

LOD Cloud Diagrams
Richard Cyganiak, Anja http://lod-cloud.net/
Jentzsch, (CC-BY-SA)

Arab uprising photo, Collin
David Anderson (CC-BY-NC- http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/collina/5459554667/
SA)

Book covers © their respective owners and used under Fair Use for educational purposes

All other photos © 2011 Bernadette Hyland, released under a CC-BY-SA license


Credits
Head with 3D Glasses
Mark Chapman http://www.flickr.com/photos/markchapmanphoto/5139429152/
CC-BY licensed

Chasm Photo
Travis S. http://www.flickr.com/photos/baggis/3860802929/
CC-BY-NC licensed

Occupy Wall Street by
emilydickinsonridesabmx
CC-BY licensed http://www.flickr.com/photos/emilyrides/6212739587/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Sharing Squirrels Image
leezie5 http://www.flickr.com/photos/leeziet/5912219625/
CC-BY-NC-ND licensed

Rising Tide & Boats
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardwest/3827292231/sizes/l/in/photostream/
CC-BY licensed


Government Linked Data Projects in the Wild

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