Civic apps and Linked Data

Hello everyone,

A few days ago I attended ABRELATAM'13 an unconference focused on Open Data
in Latin America. I proposed a session about Open Data + Linked Data to
discuss how semantics and LOD in general can help government and civi
organizations. I want to share the main ideas that emerged from the
conversation:

- SW/LOD sounds really cool and the direction where thing should move.
- However there are many technical aspects that remain unsolved
- Since for many people having a relatively good solution using CSV, JSON,
etc. is easier, they don't want to use SW/LOD because it is an overkill and
too complicated.

So my question is: Why we don't see lots of civic apps using Linked Data?
Where are the SW activists? Why we haven't been able to demonstrate to the
hacker community the benefits of using semantic technologies? Is it because
they are hard to use? They don't scale well in many cases (as a googled
pointed out)? Are we too busy working in academia/businesses?

I know very few civic apps using semantic technologies and I don't think I
have seen anyone that has made real impact in any country. I would love if
you can prove me wrong and if we can discuss how can we involve more
activists and hackers into the SW/LOD community.


Alvaro Graves-Fuenzalida
Web: http://graves.cl - Twitter: @alvarograves