Is your Linked Open Data 5-star rated?

Author: Simone Onofri

I am a Senior Consultant / Project Manager with 10 years of experience in IT field – working with an Italian security firm active in EMEA area – carrying projects in Ethical Hacking, Security Operation Center and Secure Software Development Life-Cycle areas. Worked with Semantic Technologies since 2007.

With a strong passion about Security, Psychology, Education, Technology and Arts, I like to search and create new links between these topics, putting in practice Pareto’s definition of Creativity.

In 2006 Sir Tim Berners-Lee [1] – the inventor of Word Wide Web – wrote a document about Design Issues of Linked Data [2], explaining the meaning of and the reasons for linking data in the world of Semantic Web. In fact, Semantic Web is not just about putting data on the web, but also to create links between data.

Now we have the technology to put data on the web [3], the ability to publish our data in the Cloud and also proper licensing schemes, such as the UK’s Open Government License [4] or Italian Open Data License [5].

But question is about links. In 2010 document was updated “in order to encourage people — especially government data owners — along the road to good linked data” with a great “star scheme” to rate published datasets. “In the beginning” data is online but without an open license. With an Open license, a dataset can gain the 1st star: the Open Data level. Then, the level grows from 2nd to 4th when using proper formats and pointers. In order to get the 5th star, data must be linked: Linked Open Data.

Star(s)	Explanation
One star	Data is available on the Web with an Open Data License, whatever format (e.g. image).
Two stars	Data is available on the Web with an Open Data License, in a machine-readable format, even if proprietary format (e.g. excel).
Three stars	Data is available on the Web with an Open Data License, in machine readable non-proprietary format (e.g. csv).
Four stars	Data is available on the Web with an Open Data License, in a machine readable non-proprietary format which uses URI (e.g. possibility to point data).
Five stars	Data is available on the Web with an Open Data License, in a machine readable non-proprietary format which uses URI and it is linked to other data (e.g. Linked Open Data).

Linked Open Data is a concept similar to the definition of creativity attributed to Vilfredo Pareto [6]. Creativity is “create new links”, and Linked Open Data is the creativity needed for our Smart Cities! Have you some data? Label it with some badges offered by DERI [7].

References
[1] http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/
[2] http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html
[3] http://www.w3.org/standards/semanticweb/
[4] http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/2/
[5] http://www.formez.it/iodl/
[6] http://www.gandalf.it/m/strat02.htm#e
[7] http://lab.linkeddata.deri.ie/2010/lod-badges/