“Linked Data is about publishing and connecting structured data on the Web, using standard Web technologies to make the connections readable by computers, enabling data from different sources to be connected and queried allowing for better interpretation and analysis.”
Tim Berners-Lee outlined four principles of Linked Data:
- Use URIs as names for things.
- Use HTTP URIs so that people can look up those names.
- When someone looks up a URI, provide useful information, using the standards (RDF*, SPARQL).
- Include links to other URIs, so that they can discover more things.
- Flexible data integration: LOGD facilitates data integration and enables the interconnection of previously disparate government datasets.
- Increase in data quality: The increased (re)use of LOGD triggers a growing demand to improve data quality. Through crowd-sourcing and self-service mechanisms, errors are progressively corrected.
- New services: The availability of LOGD gives rise to new services offered by the public and/or private sector.
- Cost reduction: The reuse of LOGD in e-Government applications leads to considerable cost reductions.