Bob Bailey: The Value of Identifiers

1. Bob  Bailey,  Chief  Informa2on   Architect   Local  Open  Data  –  Reaping  the   Benefits,  21st  April  2015     Informa?on  Iden?ty  and  Open   Data  
2. Open  Data:  It’s  simple  (?)   2   Publisher   Consumer   The  hope:  “I’ll  just  publish  what  is   already  in  my  database  on  the  web   under  an  open  license”     The  reality:  “Why  is  usage  of  the   data  I’ve  published  so  low?”   The  hope:  “I’ll  create  some  great   value  by  joining  these  3  open   licensed  datasets  together”     The  reality:  “It’s  so  expensive  to   create  a  quality  integra?on  of  data   from  mul?ple  publishers”  
3. Informa?on  Iden?ty   In  any  exchange  of  data,  conveying  the  iden%ty  of  the  things  being  described  is  cri?cal  to  the  data  being  used  appropriately   In  a  federated  informa?on  sharing  environment,  iden?ty  must  be  agreed  if  a  data  exchange  is  to  be  precise   o Cant  be  controlled  or  imposed  as  in  a  single  domain  system   o Cant  be  mapped  or  interpreted  as  the  result  is  not  precise  enough     Reaching  agreement  is  a  social  ac?vity,  not  an  inherently  technical  one     3  
4. Independent  collec?ve  agreement  is   Difficult   4   A   B   C   1   2   3   Publishers   Consumers  
5. Common  reference  points   5  
6. A  useful  common  reference  point   •   Specifically  maintained  for  iden2ty  reference  &  not  as  a  side-­‐effect   •   Use  /  context  independent  –  focus  is  on  geXng  community  support  &   network  mass   • Unambiguous,  consistent  interface,  doesn’t  need  interpreta?on   • Well-­‐described  &  maintained  rela?ve  to  the  real  world   • Stable  meaning,  persistent,  temporal   •   Coverage  &  granularity  reflect  community  needs   •   Dependable  support  over  ?me   •   Everyone  knows  that  everyone  else  can  freely  access  and  use  it   • Open  licensed   • Known  quan?ty  to  plan  against   • Creates  a  network  effect     6  
7. An  example   7   hbps://permid.org/1-­‐4295861160    
8. HELP  TO  GROW     THE  OPEN  DATA  COMMONS   MANAGE  THE  COMPLEXITY   OF  THE  WEB   DISCOVER  AND  CONNECT     TO  OTHER  DATA  SOURCES     REALIZE  THE  VALUE!   hWp://theodi.org/guides/data-­‐iden2fiers-­‐white-­‐paper   hWp://thomsonreuters.com/site/data-­‐iden2fiers/