From Open Data To Linked Data

 

We live in a connected society, where devices and data are being pulled together to profoundly change business, our personal lives, society and even nations. In this introduction to this PublicTechnology.net Agenda, I want to try to outline, in non-technical terms, some of the benefits to the sector (and ultimately the taxpayer) of extracting and linking data.

 

I say “some of the benefits” because, like Twitter, Facebook and the internet itself, this technology will provide visibility and intelligence that will profoundly change the world in unpredictable ways.

 

If, as a CEO, CIO or CFO, you were told that you were not using one of your biggest assets to manage the structural change in the sector then I imagine it would, at the very least, start alarm bells ringing. That however is the case for most public sector organisations in the UK. They hold, locked within systems, vast quantities of data, which sits there, unconnected, providing no business value - it’s just junk taking up space.

 

Pioneers of Open Data in the sector like the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, whose story you will be reading in the Agenda, have seen considerable benefits since councillors took it upon themselves to publish all council spend over £500, including an increase in customer satisfaction of 25%.

 

Making non-sensitive data available to everyone in the form of Open Data not only fosters trust, it gives rise to more thoughtful spending decisions (reduced costs) and more efficient working practices (improved services).

 

Open Data is a force for good and a means for public sector transformation which can help address the challenge of engaging service user and citizens around cost management decisions in a time of austerity. So while Open Data is a step in the right direction, it is actually Linked Data services that can drive the sector towards adopting the more commercially astute, entrepreneurial spirit that is clearly needed to meet the challenges faced. At the start of this introduction I touched upon the connected society; the Internet has, through the global provision of information, effected the fastest and most fundamental change in the way people operate. Linked Data will take this a step further by providing new levels of sharing and connecting information across organisations, individuals and the Web.

 

Readers are probably wondering if there is a catch - or worse, a huge associated cost? The good news is that the cost is negligible and huge quantities of data can be linked in minutes by leveraging existing data assets – semantic technologies provide an adaptive layer that help bridge and talk across multiple existing systems without having to start from scratch – evolutionary not revolutionary.

 

Tags are applied (to any category you may wish to define - geographic, supplier, organisations, equipment, currency, services, costs etc) to Open Data so that anyone (with a browser), anywhere, can search and cross reference data in any combination to find out about things they want to know, or make discoveries they hadn’t even considered. Of course, the more we can do to promote optimised standard ways of recording data, the faster we’ll get there, but it is not a pre-requisite. From September, services provided by the NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care will link datasets from primary and secondary care which will enable professionals in the NHS, pharmaceutical industry, academia and elsewhere to access unequalled levels of information about the journeys of patients through the care system and the outcomes of different treatments.

 

Linking data could immediately make the resolving of Freedom of Information (FoI) requests easier to manage, but bigger picture a council could research the actual cost of back-office services, or the cost of frontline services, between councils, at cost per head or department, against customer satisfaction levels. This level of information could be used to drive down costs across the sector, encourage collaboration with suppliers, increase the opportunities for SME suppliers and deliver better services.

 

The potential of Linked Data is only limited by its availability, and whilst we are already working with a number of organisations to improve their transparency, more public sector bodies need to take the Open Data they are already required to publish (and that which they are not) and link it.

 

All the indications from the Cabinet Office suggest that we will see increased use of Linked Data, and pressure to act will grow. Aside from potential mandates, I think that given its potential it will inevitably sidestep barriers to change and replace silos. In fact, in the not so distant future, we will take Linked Data for granted and question how we prospered without it.

 

If you’re not embracing this change you may miss the benefits - your data may become less and less useful as it become increasingly isolated from the emerging Web of data, and the wealth of knowledge which has accumulated online. So I urge public sector organisations in the UK to lead the way - to act now, be proactive, bring your data alive and create value from your greatest asset.

 

It’s an area I am passionate about and would be delighted to speak with public sector organisations that are considering increasing their transparency or are already leveraging data, to discuss how collaborations can be formed for the greater good.

 

Contact us to find out how we can try and help you make the move from Linked to Open, too.