Ivan Herman of the W3C reports, “The W3C Government Linked Data Working Group has published two Last Call Working Drafts: The RDF Data Cube Vocabulary. This is an RDF vocabulary for publishing multidimensional data, particularly statistical data. It is compatible with the cube model that underlies SDMX (Statistical Data and Metadata eXchange), a widely used ISO standard. The Data Cube Vocabulary brings essential SDMX elements to RDF, providing a standard way for governments to publish statistical information as Linked Data. Comments are welcome through 08 April.” Read more

The W3C Government Linked Data Working Group has published four public working drafts. The first is for Data Catalog Vocabulary (DCAT): “DCAT is an RDF vocabulary designed to facilitate interoperability between data catalogs published on the Web. This document defines the schema and provides examples for its use.”

The second is for the RDF Data Cube Vocabulary. The description states, “There are many situations where it would be useful to be able to publish multi-dimensional data, such as statistics, on the web in such a way that it can be linked to related data sets and concepts. The Data Cube vocabulary provides a means to do this using the W3C RDF (Resource Description Framework) standard.” Read more

Bob DuCharme recently discussed the value of linked data in US law. DuCharme notes, “At a recent W3C Government Linked Data Working Group working group meeting, I started thinking more about the role in linked data of laws that are published online. To summarize, you don’t want to publish the laws themselves as triples, because they’re a bad fit for the triples data model, but as online resources relevant to a lot of issues out there, they make an excellent set of resources to point to, although you may not always get the granularity you want.” Read more

The W3C has launched a new Government Linked Data Working Group. According to the W3C, the mission of the new group “is to provide standards and other information which help governments around the world publish their data as effective and usable Linked Data using Semantic Web technologies… In addition, W3C renewed today the eGovernment Interest Group, a forum for building and strengthening the community of people who use or promote the use of W3C technologies to improve Government. That group identifies and discusses essential areas of technology and related policy issues.” Read more