The US has launched open data standards that were originally developed in Ireland, John Kennedy reports. He writes, “The open data movement is in full swing and tools and standards created in Ireland are to prove pivotal to open data employed by the US government. It emerged today that agencies in the US Government have adopted a set of web tools and standards developed in Ireland by researchers at NUI Galway’s Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI). DERI’s technologies are being utilised by Data.gov, a portal developed to bring an unprecedented level of transparency to the US government. DERI’s research, which is funded by Science Foundation Ireland, focuses on enabling networked knowledge, using the latest semantic web and linked data technologies.” Read more

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The Semantic Tech & Business Conference (SemTechBiz) is coming to San Francisco on June 3-7! Join us for case studies, innovative panels, tutorials, and keynotes that will provide you with practical advice, hands-on guidance, and breakthrough approaches to solving business problems with semantic technology. Passes go up $200 at the door. Sign up now and save !

Leigh Dodds, CTO of Kasabi and a past SemTechBiz speaker, recently wrote an article proclaiming the open data revolution. Dodds writes, “Open data is now mainstream. Spurred on by the US and UK governments vying over who could be the most open, there are now open data activities in many regions around the globe. Under the ‘Government as Platform’ rubric, you can find the public sector exploring social media, conducting experiments in citizen engagement and crowd-sourcing, and casting a spotlight on their own activities through various transparency initiatives. Almost all of those initiatives are being driven by the demand for and publishing of open data.” Read more

Phil Archer recently commented on the work of the Global Linked Data Working Group: “Its charter is divided in two parts. First it is defining a set of Best Practices in this area — guidelines designed to make it easier for the public sector to make more of its data available as 5 star linked data. The document is evolving and, like most W3C standards, the editor’s draft is publicly visible. Secondly, the GLD WG is chartered to standardize or, where necessary, create vocabularies that help to increase interoperability of data sets. The choice of vocabulary terms can make all the difference between data sets being interoperable and impenetrable. If you are describing a creative work the chances are you’ll use Dublin Core’s terms for things like title and creator. But where are the equivalent stable vocabularies for public sector data?” Read more

The Open Knowledge Foundation has launched their first Mediterranean area group, OKFN-Greece. The article states, “The global scientific community, as well as plenty governments globally, have evaluated the potential and the benefits that services based on LOD can offer. The result of this assessment is a novel, global, collaborative effort that aims to contribute in this direction. The Open Knowledge Foundation is one of the key players in this effort, with frequent informative and hands-on meet-ups. Moreover, using the data hubs based on the OKFN’s CKAN platform, global open data is published and verified to be part of the LOD cloud. Finally OKFN apps, like Where Does My Money Go, OpenSpending, and Europe’s Energy demonstrate the value added of Linked Open Data.” Read more

Mark Ballard has commented on the UK’s Department of Business, Innovation and Skills’ recent action to dissolve the Public Data Corporation “while its confused policy Cabinet joint Office initiative team works out how to make open data workable. The Cabinet Office rushed out a revamped Open Data strategy on 29 November, ‘delivering on its commitment to establish a Public Data Corporation’. BIS had already established the Public Data Corporation as a private company on 11 November 2010. But the company had laid dormant for a year while the departments and the Local Public Data Panel worked out how to get an HM data-set free-for-all round the vast bellies of such comfortable institutions as the Ordnance Survey, Land Registry and Met Office.” Read more

Andy Oram recently commented on Massachusetts’ newest open government venture, Open Checkbook. Oram writes, “On December 5, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick joined with state treasurer Steven Grossman to create an open government initiative with the promising moniker Open Checkbook. The site launched to some acclaim and has received over 220,000 hits. I decided to take a look at what’s offered and what’s missing from this site, and to ask someone in the government here in Massachusetts to describe their thinking in creating the site. The results can give us some insight into the effort it takes at each stage to release government data–and even more significantly, what it takes to increase the data’s value.” Read more

The Obama administration is seeking the public’s input on the US Open Government National Action Plan. Aneesh Chopra writes, “The Plan was developed through a process that involved extensive consultations with external stakeholders, including a broad range of civil society groups and members of the private sector, to gather ideas on open government.  As we continue our work to implement the National Action Plan, we want your help.  Specifically, we’d like your input and recommendations on how to improve and help facilitate public participation – your participation – in government.” Read more

Steven VanRoekel and Aneesh Chopra recently shared some exciting news about the growing reach of open government initiatives. They wrote, “Last week, President Obama’s unprecedented efforts to advance open and transparent Government reached an important milestone. As part of a joint effort by the United States and India to build an open government platform, the U.S. team has deposited open source code– an important benchmark in developing the Open Government Platform that will enable governments around the world to stand up their own open government data sites.” Read more

What do you get when you join up machine-readable representations of federal government agencies’ strategic plans and spending on IT resources? Expressing these as Linked Data adds value in that it becomes easier to correlate and mash up information, and even to determine how or whether technology implementations are helping to achieve agencies’ big-picture goals.

At next week’s Semantic Tech & Business Conference in Washington D.C., George Thomas, Change Agent at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will discuss connecting these dots in a session entitled, Realizing the GPRMA using Government Linked Data. The Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010 requires that agencies publish strategic plans, which they’re often doing as Word or PDF documents, on their websites. Meanwhile, the IT Dashboard website is the space for federal agencies to provide details of federal information technology investments. “So the idea of using Linked Data to realize GPRMA suggests we can do better in connecting or linking the strategic goals with the IT resource expenditures,” says Thomas.

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NYC Open Data has created a new Tumblr blog to showcase datasets and visualizations that the organization makes available to developers. According to the blog’s About Us page, “As part of Mayor Bloomberg’s commitment to transparency and innovation, over 800 (and counting!) city datasets are now online for anyone in New York or around the world to explore and access via an API for deeper, real-time integration into apps and websites.” Read more