Re: Civic apps and Linked Data

Hi Frans,

I think there is a chicken-and-egg problem there. Governments won't release
Linked Data since they don't see the value of doing so because nobody uses
it (at least that's what employees from several government have told me).

I disagree with Kinsgley in terms that Linked Data is not complicated, it
is more complex than releasing CSV files. The evidence for me is the fact
that very few governments have actually released LOD platforms :-) I think
there is an intrinsic value of LOD that can't be obtained by releasing
3-star data, however in many of these situations people can make short term
plans (i.e., release in whatever format you have, don't spend too much time
on modeling, converting, etc.).

>From the point of view of developers, I don't see as many tools to use LOD
as for using CSV, JSON, etc. I think this is a critical point in
encouraging the use and publication of LOD.



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


On Wed, Jun 26, 2013 at 11:45 AM, Frans Knibbe | Geodan <
frans.knibbe@geodan.nl> wrote:

>  Hello Alvaro,
>
> I think a big reason is the lack of data. I believe that if governmental
> institutions in my country would publish their data as five star data there
> would be a boom in development of civic apps, and in the publication of
> other data sets as Linked Data too. As things stand now, the core of
> national or regional data that is published as Linked Data is so small that
> it can very easily be ignored. There is no critical mass.
>
> Regards,
> Frans
>
>
> On 26-6-2013 16:03, Alvaro Graves wrote:
>
>  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
>
>
>
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