The Joy of Data - A Cookbook for Publishing Linked Government Data on the Web

Many governments have recently mandated the open publication of more information to the public, in attempts to facilitate the maintenance of open societies and in support of governmental accountability and transparency initiatives. Publication of structured data on the World Wide Web is in itself insufficient; in order to make use of such data, members of the public can best absorb data when it can be used with other published data. Linked Data approaches address key requirements of open government by providing a family of international standards and best practices for the publication, dissemination and reuse of structured data. Further, Linked Data, unlike previous data formatting and publication approaches, provides a simple mechanism for combining data from multiple sources across the Web. This chapter provides a six-step “cookbook” to model, create, publish and announce government Linked Data. We’ll highlight the role of the World Wide Web Consortium, an international standards organization and its member organizations who are currently driving specifications and best practices for the publication of governmental data. The chapter concludes with guidance on the social contract government agencies implicitly adopt when they publish Linked Data on the Web.