[epsi-coord] Response of EC to standardization topic report. Fwd: Topic report on open data and standardization

Wed Feb 27 16:14:32 GMT 2013

I am currently working on it.
Tom

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Op 27-02-13 16:11 schreef Ton Zijlstra <ton.zijlstra at gmail.com>:

>Hans, Tom,
>
>is there a finalized version now of this TR, with the feedback below
>taken into account ? We need to publish this ASAP. Please create
>finalized TR in PDF and alert Daniel
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>Interdependent Thoughts
>Ton Zijlstra
>
>ton at tonzijlstra.eu
>+31-6-34489360
>
>http://zylstra.org/blog
>
>Share your real life open data experiences,
>observations and anecdotes:
>http://epsiplatform.eu/content/share-your-story
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>On Thu, Jan 17, 2013 at 11:22 AM, Ton Zijlstra <ton.zijlstra at gmail.com>
>wrote:
>>
>> Hans, Tom,
>>
>> is there a final version now of this TR? One that I can publish?
>>
>> best,
>> Ton
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Interdependent Thoughts
>> Ton Zijlstra
>>
>> ton at tonzijlstra.eu
>> +31-6-34489360
>>
>> http://zylstra.org/blog
>>
>> Share your real life open data experiences,
>> observations and anecdotes:
>> http://epsiplatform.eu/content/share-your-story
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 8:13 PM, Ton Zijlstra <ton.zijlstra at gmail.com>
>>wrote:
>>>
>>> hi Tom, Hans,
>>>
>>> See below the feedback of the Commission on the TR on standardization.
>>>
>>> Can you guys prepare a revised version? Thanks!
>>>
>>> best,
>>> Ton
>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> Interdependent Thoughts
>>> Ton Zijlstra
>>>
>>> ton at tonzijlstra.eu
>>> +31-6-34489360
>>>
>>> http://zylstra.org/blog
>>>
>>> Share your real life open data experiences,
>>> observations and anecdotes:
>>> http://epsiplatform.eu/content/share-your-story
>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>> From: <Katalin.IMREI at ec.europa.eu>
>>> Date: Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 4:06 PM
>>> Subject: RE: Topic report on open data and standardization
>>> To: ton.zijlstra at gmail.com
>>> Cc: Szymon.LEWANDOWSKI at ec.europa.eu
>>>
>>>
>>> Dear Ton,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thank you for this draft topic report on open data and standardisation.
>>>
>>> We have carefully read through your document and also asked our
>>>colleague who is an expert in standardisation issues to make comments.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Please find our comments below my current message.
>>>
>>> We are looking forward to receiving the revised version of the report
>>>once our comments are integrated in it.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thank you again.
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>>
>>> Katalin
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> A general comment: the interesting question of whether to pursue the
>>>strategy of opening up as much raw data as possible (regardless of
>>>standards) or of publishing only standardised data does not seem to be
>>>sufficiently elaborated on in the document. Maybe some further efforts
>>>could be made to address this question in more details.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> As regards the technical aspects touched upon in the report, there
>>>seem to be some elements that might be worth having a second look at:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Page 4:
>>>
>>> On the other hand, increasing emphasis is being put by the open data
>>>community on the importance of linked data. An essential element of
>>>such linked data is that they are standardised, preferably according to
>>>open standards. However, public bodies often create datasets solely
>>>with the view of meeting their own specific needs, without considering
>>>the possible use of the data for others (as do private companies), and
>>>they are often dependent on proprietary software that is in many cases
>>>even specifically created for them by software and management system
>>>vendors. Hence, making available government data in a standardised form
>>>takes time, effort and money, and, as a consequence, conflicts with
>>>providing Œraw data now¹.
>>>
>>> Here, it might be worth referring to the RDF standard for data
>>>representation that the concept of Linked Data is based on (and which
>>>can indeed be considered as an open standard).
>>>
>>> When referring to the proprietary software, it could be made clearer
>>>how this impacts on the data and interoperability, i.e. by the fact
>>>that proprietary software often implies the usage of proprietary data
>>>formats that make interoperability difficult.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Section 3.5: The Semantic Web
>>>
>>> Here, it might be worth mentioning that the Semantic Web standards are
>>>also the basis for the Linked (Open) Data approach.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Page 9:
>>>
>>> Some file standards are closely tied to the type of data that is being
>>>published. To a data owner, it will be immediately clear whether or not
>>>these standards are suitable to be used in or for a specific dataset.
>>>Examples include Google¹s KML format for geocodes, .MP3 and other audio
>>>files for sound data, etc. Even though the difference with the
>>>Œregular¹ file formats is somewhat academic, the main distinguishing
>>>factor with these file types is the presence of a Œcontext¹. E.g. music
>>>data might be expressed (even though not easily played) as a
>>>spreadsheet, but a spreadsheet will not be stored as an MP3-file.
>>>
>>> Here, it seems to me as though two distinct issues were mixed up:
>>>while KML is a data markup language (i.e. a metadata standard like
>>>Dublin Core mentioned in the next paragraph), Mp3 is a data compression
>>>standard.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Page 9:
>>>
>>> Other standards relate to the representation of the attributes and
>>>characteristics of the data. For instance, the Dublin Core standards
>>>are part of the Resource Description Framework of XML[1].
>>>
>>> Dublin Core is not part of RDF but it is a metadata standard that can
>>>be represented in RDF or XML.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Page 9:
>>>
>>> The file format for linked data files is usually RDF (for Resource
>>>Description Framework), which in itself is a file-format standard.
>>>RDF[2] allows the publisher to link to the semantic web, thus supplying
>>>a context for the data.
>>>
>>> Rather than being a file format, RDF is a data representation standard
>>>which can be serialised in different file formats.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Page 9:
>>>
>>> This is due to the fact that the RDF contains links (uniform resource
>>>identifiers or URI¹s) to entities or relations that are stored within
>>>ontology-databases such as DBPedia.
>>>
>>> From the position of the brackets, it sounds as if URIs were links.
>>>Instead, anything that can be identified with a Uniform Resource
>>>Identifier can be referred to by RDF. Objects stored in databases like
>>>DBpedia are just one such example.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Section 5.1
>>>
>>> However, provided that the data is sufficiently valuable, we have also
>>>seen that a number of companies and civic groups have started to
>>>reformat the data and building datastreams that are of higher quality.
>>>
>>> The notion of datastreams (which implies a continuous transmission of
>>>data might not be the right term in this section. Instead, data in
>>>general might rather be implied here.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>>
>>> [1] http://dublincore.org/.
>>>
>>> [2] http://www.w3.org/RDF/
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Katalin IMREI
>>>
>>> Policy Officer
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> European Commission
>>>
>>> DG CONNECT
>>>
>>> Unit G3  Data Value Chain
>>>
>>> *        EUFO 1/178, L-2557 Luxembourg/Gasperich
>>>
>>> (        +352-430-135-133
>>>
>>> Ê        +352-430-130-269
>>>
>>> 8         katalin.imrei at ec.europa.eu
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
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