by Angela Guess
Bernadette Hyland has argued that Linked Open Data makes the most sense in tough economic times. She states, “Back in April 2011, I wrote about the US Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to publish facilities data that was locked up in a proprietary database and made available in as Web service via the Facilities Registry System. EPA like many agencies provides a tremendous amount of content via Web services to their respective Web sites. But the information they provide is often: (1) hard to find; (2) difficult to navigate; and (3) one cannot get hold of the raw data.”
She continues, “Experience has shown that publishing Linked Open Data is the most efficient and responsible way for government agencies to be transparent, efficient and responsibly manage their information assets in an era of rapidly shrinking budgets. Today’s Web technology allows us to go further by publishing government collected content using Linked Data Principles. In the last two years, many government agencies have opened up their content in support of their agency’s missions and in accordance with the US Administration’s Open Government Initiative. The result in the US has been many useful datasets published as open data. All steps in the right direction, for sure!”
photo credit: Fire At Will [Photography]
