An introduction to linked data (semantic web) for a Knowledge and Information Network (KIN) webinar. The presentation shows some examples of linked data in action, data visualization, difference between open and linked data and how linkd data is being used in UK gov and local gov.

1. Linked data KIN Webinar 11 June 2010 Stephen Dale Associate Consultant – IDeA Director Semantix (UK) Ltd www.semanrtix.co.uk

2. San Francisco Crime Data Visualizations created by a private individual from dataset s made available by City & County of San Francisco

3. http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/because-every-country-is-the-best-at-something/

4. Google public data explorer http://www.google.com/publicdata/home

5. Data sourced from Guardian Open Platform

7. Open data, linked data, data visualization Open Data + Visualization can surface hidden insights Open + Linked Data provides opportunities for sharing these insights

8. Some basics Linked data and open data are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. Open data is non-personal data published in a digital format, e.g. HTML, CSV, Excel, Access, Word, PDF Linked data is data that is structured in such a way that data sets can be combined to create something greater than the sum of its parts. Also described as ‘the semantic web’. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, describes it as being a “web of data” the same way that the Internet is currently a “web of documents” Whereas we use URLs to connect the web of documents, we use URIs to connect the web of data. URI Definition at http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986

9. Open Data definition A work is open if its manner of distribution satisfies the following conditions: 1. Complete All public data are made available. Publicdata are data that are not subject to valid privacy, security or privilege limitations. 2. Primary Data are collected at the source, with the finest possible level of granularity, not in aggregate or modified forms. 3. Timely Data are made available as quickly as necessary to preserve the value of the data. 4. Accessible Data are available to the widest range of users for the widest range of purposes. 5. Machine processable Data are reasonably structured to allow automated processing. 6. Non-discriminatory Data are available to anyone, with no requirement of registration. 7. Non-proprietary Data are available in a format over which no entity has exclusive control. 8. License-free Data are not subject to any copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret regulation Source: http://www.opengovdata.org/home/8principles

10. Some definitions Linked Data is about using the Web to connect related data that wasn't previously linked, or using the Web to lower the barriers to linking data currently linked using other methods. More specifically, Wikipedia defines Linked Data as "a term used to describe a recommended best practice for exposing, sharing, and connecting pieces of data, information, and knowledge on the Semantic Web using URIs and RDF." Source: http://linkeddata.org

11. Public Data Principles Public data will be published in reusable, machine readable form Public data will be available and easy to find through a single easy to use online access point (www.data.gov.uk) Public data will be published using open standards and following the recommendations of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Any ‘raw’ dataset will be represented in linked data form More public data will be released under an open licence which enables free reuse, including commercial reuse. Data underlying the Government’s own websites will be published in reusable form for others to use Personal, classified, commercially sensitive and third-party data will continue to be protected. Source: Smarter Government – December 2009

12. Resource description framework (RDF) Linked Data is published on the web for machines to read rather than humans, using the RDF2 data model. RDF breaks a statement down into three parts ( so that an RDF statement is known as a ‘triple’ ). · Subject · Predicate · Object RDF Triple Subject Object Predicate

13. Marking up documents for rdf Use the XHTML+RDFaDOCTYPE at the top of the document:<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML+RDFa 1.0//EN" "http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/DTD/xhtml-rdfa-1.dtd"> RDFa makes extensive use of URIs which can get a little unwieldy. RDFa supports a mechanism for shortening URIs (called Compact URIs, or CURIEs), which involves using a prefix to replace part of the URI. <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:argot="http://purl.oclc.org/argot/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/" xmlns:v="http://www.w3.org/2006/vcard/ns#" xmlns:dbp="http://dbpedia.org/resource/"> ...</html>

14. RDF Triples The examples above are ‘human-readable’ but the actual RDF representation of this data is in a form that machines can interpret and inference from. Each part of a ‘triple’ is therefore represented by a ‘universal identifier’ rather than the actual text. Source: LeGSB

15. Results from a sparql query A description of the resource identified by http://education.data.gov.uk/id/school/133274

16. sparql SPARQL (pronounced "sparkle" ) is an RDF query language; its name is a recursive acronym that stands for SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language. It was standardized by the RDF Data Access Working Group (DAWG) of the World Wide Web Consortium, and is considered a key semantic web technology. On 15 January 2008, SPARQL became an official W3C Recommendation. Source: Wikipedia

17. Reference data Reference data and Ontologies are the basis for making connections between linked datasets. There are a number of well established sources of reference data that form the basis of the connections that mash-up style sites use. The latest view of these is given at http://linkeddata.org Typical types of reference data are: DBPedia – to define terms GeoNames – to define places

18. http://linkeddata.org

20. Growth of the internet Source: Richard Wallis http://www.slideshare.net/rjw/linked-data-in-action

21. Maturity of linked data Source: Richard Wallis http://www.slideshare.net/rjw/linked-data-in-action

22. Data.gov.uk

23. Making public data public

24. Open or linked? http://coins.guardian.co.uk/coins-explorer/search

25. http://alpine.coinsdata.co.uk

26. More examples of Linked data in action

27. http://www.lichfielddc.gov.uk/site/custom_scripts/map.php

28. http://www.lichfielddc.gov.uk/site/custom_scripts/map.php

29. http://labs.timesonline.co.uk/2009/cycling_accidents/

30. http://mappa-mercia.org/gritting-map.shtml

31. http://filmlondon.org.uk/film_culture/film_tourism/movie_maps/love_from_london

32. can linked data solve problems within the enterprise?

33. CONNECTING SILO’D DATA REPOSITORIES MAIL CORP WEBSITE BUSINESS SYSTEMS IINTRANET Mail System HR, FINANCE Datamarts eMail Intranet Documents Datawarehouse Intranet Documents DMS, RMS Documents Records RDBMS Legacy Data ERP, CRM Linked Data Cloud

34. Questions for the panel (you!) How could linked data be used in your organisation to create value? Could linked data techniques be used to connect silo’d data across the enterprise? What are the risks (e.g. provenance, reliability, accuracy)? Do we all need to become statisticians to correctly interpret the data? Where next for linked data (semantic web)?

35. Thank you! Steve.dale@gmail.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevedalexxx http://twitter.com/stephendale stephendale http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephendale/ http://steve-dale.net http://stephendale.net http://friendfeed.com/dissident http://slideshare.net/stephendale http://www.delicious.com/stephendale http://www.diigo.com/user/stephendale