This document discusses how linked data is transforming eGovernment by integrating government data through linking related datasets. It explains the key concepts of linked data including the four design principles put forward by Tim Berners-Lee. The document also outlines how linked data enables greater government transparency, fosters innovation, and allows for virtual integration of data without centralization. The ISA programme is highlighted as actively promoting linked data adoption for public administrations through best practices, vocabularies, and pilot projects to realize the benefits of open government data through semantic interoperability and linked approaches.
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How Linked Data is transforming eGovernment
1. EUROPEAN
JOINING UP GOVERNMENTS COMMISSION
How Linked Data is
transforming eGovernment
... and how the ISA Programme is actively
pushing forward this transformation for the
benefit of Europe.
2. Case study: How Linked Data is transforming eGovernment
ISA online search
EU Linked Data ISA produces best ISA produces ISA is carrying out Linked
Introduction service based on References
initiatives practices vocabularies Government Data pilots
Linked Data
What is Linked Data?
The Web is evolving from a “Web of linked documents” into a
“Web of linked data”.
“Linked data is a set of design principles for
However, in many cases, data is still locked in information
systems and databases and is represented using sharing machine-readable data on the Web
different, usually not aligned, vocabularies and schemas. for use by public administrations, business
In Europe, access to government data, and the possibility to freely and citizens.”
use it, is seen as an enabler for Open Government and a goldmine
of unrealised economic potential. Open Data usually refers to
public records (e.g. on transport, infrastructure, education, and
environment) that can be freely used and redistributed by anyone - The four design principles of Linked Data put forward by
either for free or at marginal cost [1]. Tim Berners-Lee in 2006 [2].
But opening-up data, e.g. in Open Data portals, often happens in 1. Use Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) to uniquely
an ad-hoc manner, and in many cases thousands of datasets is identify things (data entities)
published without adhering to commonly-agreed data and
metadata standards and without reusing common identifiers. 2. Use HTTP URLs, corresponding to these URIs, so that
information can be retrieved
Hence, a fragmented data-scape is created, where
finding, reusing, integrating and making sense of data from 3. Provide metadata using open standards such as RDF
different sources is a real challenge.
Linked Data can respond to these challenges and can be an enabler
4. Include links to related URIs, so that people can discover
of eGovernment transformation, leading to smarter and more more things
efficient government services and applications, and fostering
creativity and innovation in the digital economy. [1] http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-11-1524_en.htm
[2] http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html
2
3. Case study: How Linked Data is transforming eGovernment
ISA online search
EU Linked Data ISA produces best ISA produces ISA is carrying out Linked
Introduction service based on References
initiatives practices vocabularies Government Data pilots
Linked Data
How can Linked Data help transform
eGovernment? “Open data initiatives are expected to
promote transparency, foster
The Directive on the re-use of public sector information (known
as the PSI directive) encourages public administrations to adopt collaboration across government and
open data policies, allowing broad use of their data records. beyond, allow the creation of new,
Linked Data principles enable data to be delivered in both
machine- and human-readable formats. Making government innovative, added-value services, and
data available on the Web enables greater transparency and improve the quality of decision-
accountability, and makes possible more informed choices [3].
making.” [4]
Linked Data enables public administrations to define links (i.e.
relationships) between related datasets of others. Putting data
into such a context creates new knowledge and fosters creativity
Linked Data enables the flexible virtual integration of
and innovation. Now, governments can come up with smarter
government data, through linking, without requiring to
and more efficient public services and applications, and
redesign information systems and to centralise data in data
businesses and individuals can develop new tools and services
silos. This will facilitate the collaboration between different
in order to work with, analyse, and make sense of the data.
public sector agencies in the provision of common services.
The Linked Data paradigm does not impact the ownership of
Re-using data, commonly-agreed metadata (e.g. vocabularies
the original data. Relationships between data are established,
and taxonomies) and common identifiers (i.e. URIs) ensures
but everyone keeps full control of their original data [3].
semantic interoperability when information systems exchange
data, thus making the provision of cross-border public services
easier, and creating economies of scale which are likely to result
in significant savings.
[3] Bizer, C.; , "The Emerging Web of Linked Data," Intelligent Systems, IEEE ,
vol.24, no.5, pp.87-92, Sept.-Oct. 2009
[4] Ding, L., Peristeras V., Hausenblas M., "Linked Open Government Data," IEEE
Intelligent Systems, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 11-15, May-June 2012
3
4. Case study: How Linked Data is transforming eGovernment
ISA online search
EU Linked Data ISA produces best ISA produces ISA is carrying out Linked
Introduction service based on References
initiatives practices vocabularies Government Data pilots
Linked Data
Looking at the future Present Future
Data shared using the Data shared using the
At present most information systems store data in relational databases eXtensible Markup Language Resource Description
and make its exchange possible according to well defined structures, (XML) Framework (RDF)
usually using XML schemas. Sharing data according to some sort of
schema has been the technological paradigm of the last decades because it Rules (e.g. SWRL) and
enables computer programmes to process data efficiently. However, when XML Schema (XSD) used as a SPARQL used as a means to
means to validate data validate data and infer facts
these schemas evolve, information systems using them(as data providers
or data consumers) need to be adapted accordingly. Over time
maintaining these schemas requires significant effort and can be quite Re-use of vocabularies and
Structure is central to reuse reference data is a means of
inflexible – especially when the pace of change is high. i.e. reuse of XSDs achieving common meaning
This is a key reason for the emergence of a new paradigm for data
exchange centred around the Resource Description Framework (RDF). Data is stored in a relational
According to its publisher, W3C, “RDF has features that facilitate data Data is stored in RDF graphs
database
merging even if the underlying schemas differ, and it specifically supports
the evolution of schemas over time without requiring all the data
Specialised SOAP-based Web Lightweight RESTful Linked
consumers to be changed” [5]. In RDF, data is organised in graphs around
Services make access to data Data services make access to
subject-predicate-object statements and can be queried using SPARQL. data possible
possible
These and other related standards are the foundations of Linked Data.
The ISA programme of the European Commission is attentive to this Semantic-based data inter-
System integration
paradigm shift and is running an action on semantic interoperability. This linking
action is putting these standards and technologies together for improving
eGovernment, at EU-wide level. The results of this action will then be re- Data and schemas are Data and vocabularies are
used by Public Administrations in the Member States to implement open assumed to be complete assumed to be incomplete
data policies, to open up their base registries and to ease data exchange (Closed World) (Open World)
across borders.
Each data entity has common
Each data entity has a unique
and inter-linked
identifier at information
identifiers, across information
system level
systems, at Web level
[5] http://www.w3.org/RDF/ 4
5. Case study: How Linked Data is transforming eGovernment
ISA online search
EU Linked Data ISA produces best ISA produces ISA is carrying out Linked
Introduction service based on References
initiatives practices vocabularies Government Data pilots
Linked Data
From Technical to Semantic To make communication effective, data formats needed to be
harmonised, thus improving syntactic interoperability [6]. Only in the
interoperability late 1990s standards like XML became widely adopted. However, XML
and related technologies (XSD, Web Services, SOAP, WSDL) left one
In the last decades, interoperability has been a key topic for both problem open: the need of sharing “off-line” a common naming scheme
the IT industry and governments. The road leading to effective and agreeing upfront on the meaning and on strict data typing. Mutual
system-to-system communication has always been paved with understanding was impossible otherwise.
many obstacles: proliferation of standards, non-compatible
technologies, high costs for data transformation and mapping. In the 2000s, thanks to semantic standards like RDF and OWL, a new
step has been achieved: semantic interoperability [6], which entails
Different technologies and protocols have been created to address reaching consensus on the meaning of data elements and the
the issues above. The advent of the Internet in the 1980s relationships between them. Semantic interoperability requires
constitutes the first major milestone, with the standardisation of developing common vocabularies to describe data entities, and ensures
TCP and IP protocols, which made world-wide system-to-system that these are understood in the same way by communicating parties [8].
communication and technical interoperability [6] a reality.
Linked Data is an enabler of semantic interoperability. The evolution of
However, at that time, systems were still “speaking different semantic and Linked Data technologies is summarised in the following
languages”. slide.
1980s 1990s 2000s onwards
RDF, OWL,
Semantic
Interoperability
SPARQL
Levels
HTML, X WSDL, SOAP,
Syntactic ML Web Services
TCP/IP,
Technical The Internet
HTTP
5
[6] As defined by EC’s European Interoperability Framework: http://ec.europa.eu/isa/documents/isa_annex_ii_eif_en.pdf
6. Case study: How Linked Data is transforming eGovernment
ISA online search
EU Linked Data ISA produces best ISA produces ISA is carrying out Linked
Introduction service based on References
initiatives practices vocabularies Government Data pilots
Linked Data
Key milestones for Linked Data, particularly for eGovernment
The large research ISA Member State
initiative on Linked representatives endorse key
SPARQL, the query Open Data (LOD2) and Linked Government Data
language for RDF, the LOD Around The specifications
published as W3C Clock (LATC) project are
recommendation launched under FP7 http://joinup.ec.europa.eu/n
RDF published as W3C ews/isa-member-state-
recommendation http://www.w3.org/TR/r http://lod2.eu/ representatives-endorse-key-
http://www.w3.org/RDF df-sparql-query/ http://latc-project.eu/ specifications-e-government-
interoperability
>
2004 2006 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Tim Berners-Lee publishes
The UK Government W3C establishes the Government
the 4 Linked Data principles
released data.gov.uk. Linked Data (GLD) Working
Pioneer in linked Group
government data they
contributed to set the http://www.w3.org/2011/gld
example world-wide.
http://www.w3.org/DesignIss
ues/LinkedData.html
http://5stardata.info/
6
7. Case study: How Linked Data is transforming eGovernment
ISA online search
EU Linked Data ISA produces best ISA produces ISA is carrying out Linked
Introduction service based on References
initiatives practices vocabularies Government Data pilots
Linked Data
Key Linked Government Data
initiatives in the Member States BE - Interconnecting Belgian National and Regional Address
Data
http://location.testproject.eu/BEL/
DK – Good basic data for everyone
http://uk.fm.dk/publications/2012/good-basic-data-for-everyone
EC – Open Data Portal
http://open-data.europa.eu/open-data/linked-data
EU – Financial Transparency System
SE http://fts.publicdata.eu/page/startpage
GR – Legal Entities & Public Spending
http://linkeddata.ihu.edu.gr:8080/rdf-browser/
http://publicspending.medialab.ntua.gr/
DK
UK IT – Linked Data Guidelines
http://www.digitpa.gov.it/notizie/linee-guida-open-data-interoperabili
NL
SE – Linked Open Data Sweden
http://www.ida.liu.se/~evabl45/lodsweden.sv.shtml
BE UK – Government Linked Data Working Group
http://data.gov.uk/linked-data
http://education.data.gov.uk/
http://location.data.gov.uk/
http://law.data.gov.uk/
IT GR NL - Geonovum.nl
http://www.geonovum.nl/
7
8. Case study: How Linked Data is transforming eGovernment
ISA online search
EU Linked Data ISA produces best ISA produces ISA is carrying out Linked
Introduction service based on References
initiatives practices vocabularies Government Data pilots
Linked Data
7 Good Practices for publishing Linked Data [7]
Model the data
Re-use vocabularies whenever possible
Name things with persistent URIs
Publish human and machine readable descriptions
Convert data to RDF
Specify an appropriate license
Host the Linked Dataset publicly and announce it!
[7] W3C’s Cookbook for Open Government Linked Data http://www.w3.org/2011/gld/wiki/Linked_Data_Cookbook
8
9. Case study: How Linked Data is transforming eGovernment
ISA online search
EU Linked Data ISA produces best ISA produces ISA is carrying out Linked
Introduction service based on References
initiatives practices vocabularies Government Data pilots
Linked Data
Type of Data Structured e-Government Data Text
A Linked Data architecture for data
integration
RDF -izers
Entity
Linked Data can be used for integrating data housed in different Data Preparation for CVS,
Extractor
XML , Excel
types of sources, in different formats, both structured and
unstructured. We put forward an architecture for that, inspired
by the work of Heath & Bizer [8].
Data Storage
The first step is to design and assign persistent URIs to the data RDF Files
Relational Data Source
and describe it in RDF using commonly-agreed metadata. In the Database with APIs RDF Store
case of structured data (e.g. stored in relational
databases, CSV, Excel or XML files), RDF wrappers, exporters and
APIs can be adapted and used for transforming it to RDF and CMS with Custom
Persistent RDB-to-RDF Linked Data
publishing it on the Web or any other shared environment data URIs Wrapper
RDFa Linked Data
Interface
Web Server
Output Wrapper
stored in structured sources. Whereas for unstructured data (e.g. a
series of news stories or business reports), entity extractors and
Data Publication
text mining techniques have to be employed for discovering the
data entities to be published as Linked Data. Linked Data
While data is being represented in RDF, it should be linked to
other data coming from trusted sources, in order to provide
context and enrich its meaning. Data Search and Re-use
- SPARQL
Endpoint
After Linked Data is published, any system capable of running
semantic queries (using the SPARQL query language) can extract
and re-use the relevant information.
No need for complex Semantic queries can
system-to-system integration be optimised for large sets of data
[8] http://linkeddatabook.com/editions/1.0/ Use of good practises on persistent
[9] https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/semic/document/10-rules-persistent-uris No need for strict data typing
URI design is key for re-use [9] 9
10. Case study: How Linked Data is transforming eGovernment
ISA online search
EU Linked Data ISA produces best ISA produces ISA is carrying out Linked
Introduction service based on References
initiatives practices vocabularies Government Data pilots
Linked Data
What is the role of the ISA programme?
ISA action 1.1 promotes semantic interoperability through Linked Data.
Standardization
Best Practices
organizations are working ISA is developing best practices for applying
on best practices Linked Data technologies to eGovernment
• Cool URIS [14]
• Linked Data principles [15]
• GLD working group [16] Pilots
ISA is carrying out Linked
Standardization Government Data pilots
organizations are
working on Linked Industry is creating software
Data standards
• SPARQL [10] • Triplestore
• SPARQL engine
Vocabularies
• RDF [11] ISA is developing a set of
• RDFS [12] • RDF middleware
vocabularies for eGovernment
• OWL [13]
Standardization
organizations, academia, i
ndustry and governments
are creating vocabularies
Online search service
ISA offers an online search service for ICT
• SKOS [17] specifications, based on Linked Data technologies
• DCMI [18]
• FOAF [19]
[10] http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/ [15] [http://www.w3.org/standards/semanticweb/data
[11] http://www.w3.org/RDF/ [16] http://www.w3.org/2011/gld/wiki/Main_Page
[12] http://www.w3.org/RDF/ [17] http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/
[13] http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-features/ [18] http://dublincore.org/
[14] http://www.w3.org/TR/cooluris/ [19] http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/ 10
11. Case study: How Linked Data is transforming eGovernment
ISA online search
EU Linked Data ISA produces best ISA produces ISA is carrying out Linked
Introduction service based on References
initiatives practices vocabularies Government Data pilots
Linked Data
ISA produces good practices
“ISA provides good practices and
ISA provides good practices and practical examples to help public
administrations apply Linked Data technologies to eGovernment. The
practical examples to help public
following are some studies already available on Joinup: administrations apply Linked Data
technologies to eGovernment.”
Study on URI design [20]
This study explores good practices on the publication of Uniform
Resource Identifiers (URI) sets, both in terms of format and of their
design rules and management.
All studies produced by ISA’s
Case study - Interconnecting business registers with the Core
semantic interoperability initiative
Business Vocabulary [21] are available for download on
Joinup through the Semantic
The business case underscores the potential of the Core Business
Interoperability Community
Vocabulary as the foundation for a common semantic standard for
(SEMIC) [23]
interconnecting business registers in Europe and beyond.
Case study - How to describe organizations in RDF using the
Core Business Vocabulary and the Organization Ontology? [22]
This case study explains how organizations can be described in RDF
[20] https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/semic/document/10-rules-
using the Core Business Vocabulary and the Organization Ontology. To persistent-uris
do this, it provides an example of a real organization, [21] https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/asset/core_business/document/interconnecting-
PricewaterhouseCoopers Enterprise Advisory a legal entity registered in business-registers-core-business-vocabulary
the Belgian company register, which is then described in RDF using [22] https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/asset/core_business/document/describe-
organizations-rdf-core-business-vocabulary-and-org-ontology
these specifications. 11
[23] https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/semic/description
12. Case study: How Linked Data is transforming eGovernment
ISA online search
EU Linked Data ISA produces best ISA produces ISA is carrying out Linked
Introduction service based on References
initiatives practices vocabularies Government Data pilots
Linked Data
ISA produces Core Vocabularies
The Core Vocabularies
What is a Core Vocabulary?
abide by the Linked
A Core Vocabulary is a simplified, reusable, and extensible data model
that captures the fundamental characteristics of a data entity in a Data principles
context-neutral fashion. Core Vocabularies can be used in
interoperability agreements for enabling information They promote the use of common identifiers for
systems, developed independently, to exchange information, thus organizations in the form of URIs.
making it possible for information to travel across borders and
domains. They can be easily combined with other Linked Data
vocabularies.
The first three Core Vocabularies developed by ISA, namely Core
Person, Core Location and Core Business (renamed to Registered
They can easily be extended with new classes and
Organization) [24], have been undertaken by the Government Linked attributes to fulfil new domain requirements.
Data Working Group (GLD WG) of W3C [25]. A fourth Core
Vocabulary, the Core Public Service, is currently under development.
Why is it useful? Find more about the Core Vocabularies on
Joinup
Although there are many cross-border public services in the
EU, citizens and businesses are still not receiving them in a seamless
and efficient way. When citizens of one Member State receive services
CORE
in another, the necessary exchange of data is often hampered by
PUBLIC
SERVICE
incompatible data standards and specifications. Core Vocabularies help VOCABULARY
describe data entities by defining their components. They are designed
to become the foundation of new, context-specific vocabularies to be
used for exchanging public sector information. They can also be used as
[24] https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/core_vocabularies/description
pivotal vocabularies for mapping and aligning other vocabularies. [25] http://www.w3.org/2011/gld/
12
13. Case study: How Linked Data is transforming eGovernment
ISA online search
EU Linked Data ISA produces best ISA produces ISA is carrying out Linked
Introduction service based on References
initiatives practices vocabularies Government Data pilots
Linked Data
ISA is carrying out Linked
Government Data pilots Link
Address
Look up
Address
Identif ier Notation
EC INSPIRE TEAM DATA CONSUMER Disambiguate
Review lookup, disambiguate, link
Interconnecting Belgian National and Regional SPARQL End Point
DATA CONSUMER ORIENTED
USE CASES
Address Registers Address data as linked data
Common Data models
INSPIRE
RDF
This pilot uses the Core Location Vocabulary [26] to Repository
publish and inter-link data from the address registers of LOGD INFRASTRUCTURE
the three Belgian regions, namely UrBIS in the Brussels
sample address data in native format
Region, CRAB in the Flanders and PICC in Wallonia, and
the Belgian National Geographic Institute (NGI).
A demo of the pilot is available at:
http://location.testproject.eu/BEL/ UrBIS - Brussels CRAB - Flanders PICC - Wallonia NGI – National Civil register
Capital Region Geographic Institute
DATA SOURCES
ADMS SW Pilot - Sample AMDS.SW Software
Descriptions from national and regional forges
This pilot aims at publishing sample descriptions of
reusable, open-source software from national and
regional forges in Europe in HTML+RDFa, RDF- “The pilot demonstrates how to link address data
XML, and Turtle formats using the AMDS.SW
vocabulary [27].
coming from the 3 Belgian address registers and
NGI using the Core Location Vocabulary”
[26] https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/asset/core_location/description
[27] https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/asset/adms_foss/news/sample-amdssw-
13
software-descriptions-cenatic-and-apache-published
14. Case study: How Linked Data is transforming eGovernment
ISA online search
EU Linked Data ISA produces best ISA produces ISA is carrying out Linked
Introduction service based on References
initiatives practices vocabularies Government Data pilots
Linked Data
ISA online search service based on
Linked Data technologies
ISA has launched a new online service to make it easier for public
15 Partner organisations
administrations to find and reuse IT specifications (i.e. semantic 6 partner organisations from Members States
assets), based on Linked Data technologies [28]. More than 1300
assets from fifteen organisations, shown in the figure, including
several Member States and standardization bodies, can be found 2 partner organisations from European Institutions
via the European Commission Joinup Portal [29].
By increasing the visibility and promoting the reuse of semantic 3 partner organisations from Standardisation Bodies
assets, the European Commission fosters semantic interoperability
among information systems developed in different Member States.
4 partner organisations from other stakeholders
What is ADMS?
This service is powered by the Asset Description Metadata Schema
(ADMS) [30]. This is a standardised metadata vocabulary that helps
public administrations, standardisation bodies and other
stakeholders to document their semantic assets in a uniformed and
structured manner (e.g. name, status, version, where they can be
What are semantic assets?
found on the Web, etc). In other words, ADMS defines a common
way to describe semantic assets. Semantic assets are highly reusable metadata (e.g. xml
schema, generic data models) and reference data (e.g.
code lists, taxonomies, dictionaries, vocabularies) that
are used by public administrations, in their information
systems, to share information.
[28] https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/cesar/news/european-commission-
launches-online-service-promote-semantic-interoperability
[29] http://joinup.ec.europa.eu/
[310 https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/asset/adms/description 14
15. Case study: How Linked Data is transforming eGovernment
ISA online search
EU Linked Data ISA produces best ISA produces ISA is carrying out Linked
Introduction service based on References
initiatives practices vocabularies Government Data pilots
Linked Data
Contact us Visit our initiatives
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/contact
SOFTWARE
FORGES
Further reading about Linked Data COM M UNITY
ADM S.
SW
CORE
PUBLIC
SERVICE
VOCABULARY
http://www.semantic-web.at/LOD-TheEssentials.pdf
http://linkeddatabook.com/editions/1.0/ Get involved
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6237454
Follow @SEMICeu on Twitter
Disclaimer
The views expressed in this document are purely those of the writer and may not, in any circumstances, be
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interpreted as stating an official position of the European Commission. The European Commission does not
guarantee the accuracy of the information included in this study, nor does it accept any responsibility for any use
thereof. Reference herein to any specific products, specifications, process, or service by trade
name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its
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endorsement, recommendation, or favouring by the European Commission. All care has been taken by the author to
ensure that s/he has obtained, where necessary, permission to use any parts of manuscripts including
illustrations, maps, and graphs, on which intellectual property rights already exist from the titular holder(s) of such
rights or from her/his or their legal representative.
This Case Study was prepared for the ISA programme by PwC EU Services EESV 15
Editor's Notes
NL: did some editing in the text. NL: edited the future column.
NL: renamed Best to Good.
NL: replaced the title of the slide.
NL: Various changes implemented in text and also discussed with Saky.