Launching a new Linked Data service

We’ll soon be launching the next iteration of our Linked Data Service at http://data.ordnancesurvey.co.uk. In preparation we have created a beta version (http://beta.data.ordnancesurvey.co.uk) which has been designed for you to have a play around, test and review against your current applications.

We launched Linked Data in April 2010 and have seen a continued growth of the use in government and research. This has allowed us to develop a deeper understanding of the use of Linked Data, which we have used to develop an improved service, it’s easy to use and access adhering to new standards making the data more open.

In summary, the improvements we have made are:

• Developed a data hub that provides access to all our Linked Data datasets, with integrated search to enable anyone to easily locate resources of interest.
• Embedded OS OpenSpace maps to show the geographic location chosen.
• Separate datasets, which will allow you to narrow down your searches. For example, if you are looking for postcode information, you can query just the Code-Point Open Linked dataset.
• Improved metadata for each dataset such as publication dates, licensing terms and coverage.
• SPARQL 1.1 compliant endpoints for all datasets, which provide more functionality for querying our Linked Data.
• Redesigned search API based on the OpenSearch specification and with support for geography based queries.
• Support for the Open Refine Reconciliation API, which will allow you to more easily link your data with ours.
• All new API documentation and interactive tools for all API’s, including integrated example resources and queries.

If you are using our current Linked Data service, we would really appreciate if you could take a look at the beta service and test against your current applications. If you have any feedback, please contact the Linked Data team by sending an email to linkeddatawebsite@ordnancesurvey.co.uk

If Linked Data is new to you and you want to find out more, data.gov.uk provides overviews, videos and examples of other government departments Linked datasets.