Linking the Commonwealth’s Data

Posted by:
Kate Geyer, Integration Engineer, Information Technology Division

What if looking up data were more like browsing the web than searching a database? What if you could find data just by browsing? Linked data, an effort to connect data sets on the web, aims to do just that. By describing the datasets well--by location, topic, content--finding the data you want will be just like using Wikipedia. The Open Data Initiative is working to bring that ease of use to Massachusetts public data.

The Massachusetts Open Data Initiative is a project to make public data freely available for use and re-use. We publish the Data Catalog, one central place for Massachusetts data, browsable by topic. Every dataset has a few descriptors--what agency is responsible for it, a brief description, how often it's updated. We're paying attention to publishing data in a structured way, in standard formats like JSON and CSV's. The next step is describing that data is a structured way. We're working on describing the Data Catalog with standard vocabularies published by DERI and Sunlight Labs.

Our goal is a catalog not only browsable by topic, but by city or town, or year, or the term that makes sense to you. Just like a library cross-references material, we want to bring that flexibility to the Commonweath’s data. The Data Catalog continues to grow--new datasets are added and existing datasets are updated. We want that data to be easy to navigate and use.

The most important part of the Open Data Initiative is making the Commonwealth’s data available to everyone. Open formats, standard vocabularies, and linked data are some tools we are using to accomplish that.  Browse through the catalog! We have a Twitter account and Google Group for you to post questions and get answers.

 

Comments

[Steve Ardire]

Hi Kate - really good stuff and you should take a look at
Citizen DAN Community Indicators System http://citizen-dan.org/details.html

The general idea being....
Step 1) publish data in open, machine-readable forms ( like World Bank et al has done )
Step 2) aggregate & map various forms of open datasets (web, streams like Twitter,enterprise) into useful open semantic frameworks
Step 3) bring more citizen engagement into the process, to invite the public into a dialog about and contribute to the data to in order to shape policy.

We just completed proof of concept for 1st Canadian city.

The public unveiling of Citizen DAN will be made at SemTech 2010 http://semtech2010.semanticuniverse.com/sessionPop.cfm?confid=42&proposalid=2960

The first open source release of the full Citizen DAN baseline system is scheduled by the end of 2010.

[Kate Geyer]

Thanks for the comment, Steve. Citizen DAN looks like a great project—thanks for the suggestion.

[Frederick Giasson]

Hi Kate!

Have you noticed that Citizen DAN is built on top of structWSF and conStruct? I mention that because I know that you are subscribed to both mailing lists :)

Okay, I have to admit, it was not clear from the citizen dan website. So we will make that clearer in the following days.

So, it is just for your information since you were apparently already interested in these other projects.

Thanks!

Take care,

Fred

[Kate Geyer]

Hi Frederick! I did notice that, but thanks for pointing it out.

[David James]

Hi Kate,

A couple of things.

1. The National Data Catalog, a Sunlight project, went live today:
http://nationaldatacatalog.com

2. The National Data Catalog is not yet importing from MA, but we'll add it to the list. We have a list of government data catalogs here:
http://wiki.sunlightlabs.com/Government_data_catalogs

3. Here at the Sunlight Labs we are also thinking about data catalog interoperability:
http://wiki.sunlightlabs.com/Government_Data_Catalog_Guidelines

Thanks,
David

[Kate Geyer]

HI David,

Thanks for the comment. The Sunlight API is definitely on our radar as we’re moving on this (as is the dcat vocabulary and CKAN). Key for us right now is interoperable, open and fast.

Thanks, Kate

[Firesprinklersuk.blogspot.com]

Making it browsable by city, topic, year etc really does help and makes it far easier to access the data you are looking for. Thanks for your hard work, much appriciated. Dave @ Fire Sprinklers