Open Data - Where can it take us?

Deirdre Lee
Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI),
NUI Galway

 Copyright 2011 Digital Enterprise Research Institute. All rights reserved.

Enabling Networked Knowledge

Promotional art for Batman #608 (Oct.
2002, second printing)
Pencils by Jim Lee and inks by Scott
Williams


 “In God we trust. Everyone else bring data”
 Mayor Mike Bloomberg, New York City

 “My administration is committed to creating an
unprecedented level of in Government.
Openness will strengthen our and promote
and in Government”
 President Obama, US

 "This revolution in government will make it
easier than ever before for the public to make
between providers, and hold government to
account for the of key public services.”
 Prime Minister David Cameron, UK


 nyopendata.socrata.com
 924 datasets
 data.gov
 4409 datasets
 data.gov.uk
 >8200 datasets
 data.worldbank.org
 data.nytimes.com
 data.enel.com


First workshop
of National
Cross Industry
Working Group
Open Data ie.ckan.net data-gov.ie First Irish Open
on Open Data
Google Group launched launched Data Week

Fingal Open opendata.ie 18-hour Open Dublinked Apps4Fingal
Data launched launched Data Challenge launched deadline


 : data that can be freely used, reused
and redistributed by anyone.*

 : data and information produced
or commissioned by government or government
controlled entities.*

 Not sensitive or private information but core public
data on transport, infrastructure, education, health,
crime, environment, etc.

*Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) http://opengovernmentdata.org/what/


 Resources:
 oil, gas, skilled workforce,
infrastructure, etc.
 Data is also a valuable
resource!
 A by-product of day-to-day
governance


1 Governing Body

2

Agency Agency Agency

3


 Freedom of Information request handling
 Internal reporting
 Service indicators submission
 Queries from neighbouring agencies
 Queries from the public or media
 Requests for Open Data




 Providing easy access to public data can encourage:
 comments, feedback, critique, insights,
recommendations, queries....
 Two-way discussion
 Enables government to respond to real-time needs
of citizens


 Depends on datasets…

 To highlight deficiencies, mistakes and inaccuracies
within government?

 To rebuild trust between citizens and government,
 identify room for improvement,
 encourage new solutions, and
 remove inefficiencies.


 Have a simple page on your website
 Use an open community data catalogue
 The Data Hub (
 Irish CKAN (
 Set up catalogue using own software
 Data.fingal.ie
 Dublinked.ie
 Set up catalogue using Open Source software
 Data.gov.uk
 Berlin Open Data
 Use a national Irish data catalogue





http://lab.linkeddata.deri.ie/2010/star-scheme-by-example/


★

 Web
 Wide access
 Google can index it
 People can find it themselves

 Open License
 Regulates reuse of data
 Helps maintain provenance
 Strengthens business reuse


★★

 Machine-readable


★★★

 Freedom of how to process, analyse and visualise
data

 Proprietary:
 Word, Excel, PDF
 Non-proprietary:
 CSV, XML, JSON, Microdata, RDF


 CSV – Comma-Separated Values
 More open (and simpler) alternative to Excel format
 Can be opened in and exported from Excel, Google
Spreadsheets, Google Refine, …
 KML – Keyhole Markup Language
 Simple format for presenting geographic data
 Can be opened in Google Maps
 RSS – Really Simple Syndication
 Notifications of updates of any kind
 Can be opened in RSS readers and many email clients


 XML – Extensible Markup Language
 W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) standard, 1997
 established, reliable, ubiquitous
 JSON – Javascript Object Notation
 IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) standard, 2006
 great for web APIs
 very simple; very fashionable right now
 RDF – Resource Description Framework
 W3C standard, 2004
 great for data integration
 steeper learning curve


★★★★

 Unique identifiers enable others to point to the
data.
 <http://www.deri.ie/about/team/member/Deirdre_Lee>
 <http://lab.linkeddata.deri.ie/2010/star-scheme-by-
example/gtd-4.html#forecast20101113>


★★★★★

http://lod-cloud.net


Governing Body



Governing Body
Common standards



 Title
 Description
 Category
 License
 Quality
 Format(s)
 Granularity
 Format
 Time Period
 ....


http://vmsgov03.deri.ie:8080/data-cube-searcher/about.html


Org:BlanchardstownHospital hosp:childrensWard
hosp:hasWard

Org:hasOrgType

Org:hospital

Org:hospital

Org:hasOrgType
hosp:hasWard
Org:StJamesHospital hosp:cardiacWard


 Massive Industry Adoption


 Develop a domain model
 Populate your data model
 Design URIs
 Build pages
 Apply layout and decor CSS
 Test and iterate

Mike Atherton, ‘Beyond the Polar Bear’
http://www.slideshare.net/reduxd/beyond-the-polar-bear


 Modular for publishing
standard Open Data, based on Open Source
components.

 Deployment
 On-site
 Hosted service (in the cloud)


 Mailing List
 http://groups.google.com/group/open-data-ireland

 Workspace
 http://workspace.opendata.ie

 Open Data Publishing Pipeline (ODPP)
 http://publishing-pipeline.com


Open Data - Where can it take us?

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