[open-government] ANN: Open Data Grab Kit

Thu Nov 18 23:25:43 UTC 2010

Hello all,

Anyone who is involved in converting the growing number of
spreadsheets and CSV files out there, to RDF, might be interested in a
project that we've kicked off, called the Open Data Grab Kit. It
comprises two components -- an updated version of the excellent XLWrap
application, and a set of templates. Both parts are housed in GitHub
projects.

The idea is to make the process of conversion from CSV files to RDF as
transparent and reproducible as possible. At the moment it's not
always clear what 'cleansing' has gone on behind the scenes to get
data into a triple-store, but with the Grab Kit we can all see exactly
what steps are involved in a particular template.

We hope that the number of templates will grow as people apply the
technique to local authority spend data, health information, central
government data, and more. (The project has been seeded with templates
for a few of the local authorities, with more to follow.)

Some background, as well as links to the GitHub repositories and a
discussion group, are here:

  <bit.ly/aL4bD0>

Regards,

Mark Birbeck