Opening up public sector data is becoming a top priority for governments throughout Europe and North America. We are pleased to announce the launch of the new Greek open data hub, developed and hosted by OKFN Greece. The data hub integrates the Open Knowledge Foundation’s open source data cataloging software CKAN, which is also the basis of the UK, the European and the US portals.
Open data can be used in smart city services, financial monitoring, decision support systems and numerous other applications. The problem is finding them. Supposing you wanted to make a shiny new smartphone app, requiring a combination of geospatial data, some cultural facts and a photo collection. You know this data does exist, but you are also aware that you are going to have a hard time finding their providers, discovering their outgoing links and their license. All of this involves a significant investment of time.
Ordinary citizens, too, are made to invest precious time hunting down and combining data, such as the location of the nearest Job Centre, plus information on how to get there by public transport.
This is why we need data hubs where publishers can use, promote, and advertise all their datasets together. Citizens will also catalog a dataset if it is useful to them and maybe to others. Once the datasets reach a critical level, links between them are discovered and developed, multiplying the value of the datasets and dynamically increasing their significance. Combine this with live data previews, a smart search system and a powerful API and you have taken open data to the next level.
The Greek open data hub includes:
- The Open Data repository (http://ckan.okfn.gr). This section of the site is built using the CKAN platform (like the EU & UK sites).
- Examples of applications using Greek linked open data, like Greek DBpedia (DayLikeToday, DBpedia game) and visualizations with data from the Clarity Program, the municipalities etc.
- A live demo where anybody will be able to submit a SPARQL query and chart its results with Google Chart Editor.
- Information about the Greek Linked Open Data cloud – a visual network representation of the Greek Linked Open Data Cloud. OKFN Greece is constantly working on making this one huge!
Find out how you can use the hub, contribute to it, and get involved on our blog!
Charalampos is coordinating the OKFN Greece National Group and teaching in the Web Science MSc Program at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
ΚΑΛΗ ΕΠΙΤΥΧΙΑ ΣΥΝΑΔΕΛΦΟΙ!