Data is generated by many crucial social processes, yet the potential of vast swathes of information remains untapped. Successive UK governments have recognised that greater openness about spending can cut waste and increase value for the taxpayer particularly in times of austerity. Researchers from the University of Southampton have played a pioneering role in meeting the challenge to open up these millions of items of data to the public.
Society is changing because of major developments enabled by the Web. Open innovation allows anyone to participate and contribute to the generation of new insights, content and knowledge. It challenges those who have a vested interest in closed data and methods, restricted markets and knowledge. The next generation will have at their disposal a web of linked data. They will be able to find things much more easily, leading to the rapid emergence of new ideas, products and services, disrupting existing business models. The web connects people, computers and data to produce systems much more powerful than the component parts. These systems will be essential to solve the challenges humanity faces, from climate change to public health, social inequality to crisis management.
Research at Southampton has driven the development of the open data movement, showing how transparency of data can revolutionise how business is conducted, how communities work together and how public services are delivered.
Southampton Professor of Artificial Intelligence Sir Nigel Shadbolt has directed the EPSRC’s Advanced Knowledge Technologies (AKT) project that has sought to harness the power of data by developing new ways of standardising how it is presented online. The AKT project also influenced the development of the Semantic Web that aims to transform the unwieldy, unstructured information online into a machine-readable web of data.
A collaboration between the AKT project and the Office of Public Sector Information led to the UK government identifying linked data as a way to publish public sector information. The pilot study showed that governments and public sector bodies could adopt Semantic Web technology to disseminate, share and use non-personal public data.
Following on from this project the research team has been awarded additional funding to carry out further research into the Web of Linked Data.