Presentation by Andrew Woolf at GeoNext 2013 (http://www.geonext.com.au)

1. Geo-linked data: towards deep integration of
location in the web of data
Dr. Andrew Woolf, Bureau of Meteorology

2. Information explosion
http://www.economist.com/node/21537922

3. Big data
http://strataconf.com/

4. Data journalism
http://www.guardian.co.uk/data

5. Data for development
http://data.worldbank.org/

6. Location
http://tweetping.net
“everything happens
somewhere”
“80% of data is spatial”

7. BoM: environmental intelligence
http://www.eea.europa.eu/highlights/
beyond-gdp/beyond-gdp-final-technical-paper

8. Spatial integration
neo-geography
semantic web
SDI GIS
SOA big data
HPC cloud

9. Spatial data infrastructure?
2010
2020
http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/index.cfm/pageid/44

10. Neo-geo?

11. Linked-data: ‘just enough’ integration
“small pieces, loosely joined”

12. Location: a killer app for linked-data?
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13. Document web
1. URI document identifier 3. Standard format (HTML)
4. Hyperlinks
2. Resolves with something useful

14. Linked-data principles
1. Use URIs as identifiers for Things
http://sws.geonames.org/2172517
2. Make them actionable
→ http://www.geonames.org/2172517/canberra.html
3. Return information following standards
→ http://sws.geonames.org/2172517/about.rdf
4. Link to other information objects
<rdfs:seeAlso rdf:resource="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Canberra"/>
http://www.w3.org/TR/cooluris/
http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html

15. Linked-data querying: SPQRQL
SELECT ?name ?country
WHERE
{
http://www.geosparql.org
?city gs:nearby(-33.9 151.2 10) .
?city gn:name ?name .
?city gn:inCountry ?country
}
----------------------------------------------------------
| name | country |
==========================================================
| "Sydney" | <http://www.geonames.org/countries/#AU> |
| "Wollongong" | <http://www.geonames.org/countries/#AU> |
| "Katoomba" | <http://www.geonames.org/countries/#AU> |
| "Cessnock" | <http://www.geonames.org/countries/#AU> |
| "Newcastle" | <http://www.geonames.org/countries/#AU> |
| "Nowra" | <http://www.geonames.org/countries/#AU> |
| "Goulburn" | <http://www.geonames.org/countries/#AU> |
| "Forster" | <http://www.geonames.org/countries/#AU> |
| "Orange" | <http://www.geonames.org/countries/#AU> |
| "Taree" | <http://www.geonames.org/countries/#AU> |
----------------------------------------------------------

16. Five stars of open data
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17. UK geo linked-data
•CKAN platform for data.gov.uk
•Extended to support metadata and
CSW
•Ordnance Survey
http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/
oswebsite/ontology
http://data.ordnancesurvey.co.uk
•Bathing water quality explorer
http://environment.data.gov.uk/lab/
bwq-web.html
http://data.gov.uk/library/designing-uri-sets-for-location

18. Linked data for open government
• OAIC principles on open public sector information
– WHAT but no HOW
• Linked-data provides a standard implementation approach
for open public sector information

19. BoM linked data
lab.environment.data.gov.au

20. BoM linked data

21. BoM linked data

22. BoM linked data
SELECT ?sitename ?districtname
WHERE {
?site rdf:type acorn-site:Site.
?site rdfs:label ?sitename.
?site gn:locatedIn ?district.
?district rdfs:label ?districtname.
?district gn:parentADM1
<http://lab.environment.data.gov.au/id/rainstate/NewSouthWales>.
}
TIBOOBURRA POST OFFICE New South Wales Western Far Northwest
WILCANNIA (REID ST) New South Wales Western Far Northwest
COBAR MO New South Wales Western Upper Darling
BOURKE AIRPORT AWS New South Wales Western Upper Darling
WALGETT AIRPORT AWS New South Wales Northwest Plains W
MOREE AERO New South Wales Northwest Plains E
GUNNEDAH RESOURCE CENTRE New South Wales Northwest Slopes S
INVERELL (RAGLAN ST) New South Wales Northern Tablelands W
… …

23. Australian Government Linked Data
Working Group (AGLDWG)
• Ad-hoc group established August 2012
– BoM, OSP, CSIRO , AGIMO, DRALGAS, NAA, GA, ABS
• Terms of reference
– Develop technical guidelines and best practice on the use of ‘linked-
data’ by AG agencies
– Inform the development of data.gov.au as a platform for publishing
Commonwealth PSI
– Promote the benefits and encourage adoption of ‘linked-data’ for
publishing Commonwealth PSI
– Where appropriate, undertake specific activities and coordinate
projects in pursuit of these objectives
• Seeking formal endorsement

24. AGLDWG activities
• URI rules https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/
system/uploads/attachment_data/file/60975/
– Drawing on UK work designing-URI-sets-uk-public-sector.pdf
• Deployment architecture
– DNS config, hosting infrastructure, data.gov.au
subdomains …
• Ontologies and vocabularies
– W3C ORG, PROV ontologies, AGIFT

25. Thank you…
Andrew Woolf
a.woolf@bom.gov.au