The endless possibilities of Linked Data
What is Linked Data?
Linked Data is the key to interoperability. It’s an approach to structuring data so that organizations can interconnect their datasets across different systems. It’s a way of sharing data that is comprehensible to both humans and machines.
Why Linked Data?
Organizations and governments capture a lot of data. This data often remains siloed within the organization. The Linked Data approach ensures that data is consistently described, encompassing aspects such as structure (how is this data structured?), decentralized ownership (who owns this data?), quality of the data, and the data itself. The shared understanding facilitated by Linked Data models mitigates discrepancies and makes combining information easier across organizations and municipalities.
Imagine: when referring to a city, you don’t need to manually define the city. Instead, you can refer to the existing ID of the city (e.g. City 2816) and get all of the up-to-date details about this city. This ID simplifies data integration across borders and contexts. Linked Data allows for everyone to talk about the same thing, using the same language. It’s a technology with enormous potential.
Or consider the monitoring of water data: multiple entities, such as VMM, provinces, Aquafin, De Vlaamse Waterweg, cities, and firefighters, all capture data on water quality, flooding and river levels. Every organization measures this water data in a slightly different way. For example, when measuring water levels, you might look at the average level over a quarter-hour period, or you could record peak levels. Every sensor measures data differently. By aligning with standardized data models that create universal definitions for terms like ‘water level’, ‘river’ and ‘stream’, Linked Data allows these various data sources to integrate smoothly, providing a holistic and actionable view of water management.
Linked Data as the key enabler for data spaces
Moreover, linked data is widely considered the cornerstone for data spaces. By describing data in a clear and universal manner, according to European and Flemish standards, we pave the way for innovative data spaces where all Linked Data about a specific domain (e.g., water, health, mobility) is combined and easily accessible for different parties. Furthermore, these data spaces come with built-in legal agreements on data sharing, which bypass the typical roadblocks of bilateral permissions and lengthy negotiations.
Let’s look back at our previous example about water data. By building a water data space, it becomes possible to create predictive models about flooding predictions or flooding consequences without needing to knock on every organization’s door and ask for their data. Instead, we can use the shared, universally defined data within the water data space to build applications. Just imagine the richness of all these data sources combined, the way forward is infinite.
At Sirus, we focus on making these data spaces a reality by setting up the necessary technological frameworks and ensuring that the data definitions are clear and interoperable. We are deeply involved in various data spaces, including the water data space, the mobility data space, the tourism data space and the urban data space (Urban Sense).
What do we do with Linked Data?
Sirus is a pioneer in deploying Linked Data for complex data integration projects. We have helped shape this domain through extensive involvement in all major Linked Data projects in Belgium. Our strategic role ensures that the technologies and standards developed in Flanders find application and relevance across Europe.
Defining the implementation data model
First, we define the implementation data model. What kind of sensors are used to measure your data? And in what format? How will we offer this data? How will we structure this data in alignment with existing standards? For VMM, for example, we thought about how to define water quality data. In other projects we model how to report (water and air) emissions or how to define tourism data.
Data publishing
We map clients' existing systems to ontologies (data structures encompassing all relevant entities in a domain and the properties and relationships between them), facilitating seamless integration. For instance, we help VMM share water quality data in line with the Flemish OSLO definitions and Smart Data space principles and technologies, ensuring they can connect to broader data ecosystems.
Building data spaces
We map clients' existing systems to ontologies (data structures encompassing all relevant entities in a domain and the properties and relationships between them), facilitating seamless integration. For instance, we help VMM share water quality data in line with the Flemish OSLO definitions and Smart Data space principles and technologies, ensuring they can connect to broader data ecosystems.
So, why Linked Data and data spaces?
Because these technologies not only help organizations and governments gain more insights and value from their data, but also support citizens and households in managing their energy consumption, understanding the impact of climate change, and improving mobility. By combining insights from all relevant parties, the possibilities are endless.
Linked Data across various sectors
Our work with Linked Data is broad, spanning several domains. We’ve mapped out tourism data, applied Linked Data in the mobility sector, modeled emissions and water quality data, and implemented Linked Data in Smart City contexts with Urban Sense.
Partnerships
These organizations are part of the Linked Data ecosystem:
Curious to know more about Linked Data?
