Dublin, 8th April 2020: The Central Statistics Office (CSO) leads a Digital transformation project that aims to use Linked Open Data to facilitate communication and dissemination of European statistical data. The project, referred to as the Linked Open Statistics (LOS) project, forms part of a wider European Statistical System (ESS) project for digital communication, user analytics and innovative products (DIGICOM). It aims to enhance publication and analysis of statistical data by transforming it to Linked Open Data which allows data from different sources to be more easily connected and queried.
The CSO commissioned LOS project has key involvement from an Irish consortium consisting of the SFI ADAPT Centre, Insight Centre, and Derilinx, who use technology and innovation to increase access to Central Statistics Office data to the benefit of European statistics users in innovative data analytics and business intelligence.
Speaking on the project Eoin Mac Cuirc, Assistant Principal IT Systems User Support Central Statistics Office (CSO) said: “The seminal work produced by this Irish consortium, in collaboration with CSO, showcases the rich vein of innovative talent available in Ireland to mine complex technological challenges that are perplexing the greatest technical minds in Europe. This technology will enable rich nuggets of information buried in bottomless layers of data across the ESS to be brought to the surface, by anyone, generating new insight to address critical social, economic and environmental challenges.“
Commenting on the ADAPT Centre involvement, Professor Declan O’Sullivan, ADAPT Principal Investigator and Professor in Computer Science at the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin said:
“There are many benefits to publishing EU statistical data in this format, such as making it easier to discover datasets, along with specific details within them, and facilitating an EU-wide analysis of statistical data from member countries. The ADAPT Centre’s expertise in Linked Open Data is providing the CSO with best-in-class technical support for this initiative.”
Derilinx CEO Deidre Lee said, “The project facilitates the dissemination of European statistics to a wide range of users to improve the use and integration of statistical data which can result in evidence-based decision-making, rich business intelligence, and advanced data innovation.“
A statistical data publication portal has been developed by the consortium to support the NSO partners with the transformation and publication of their data, which is available here: https://losd-data.staging.derilinx.com/
The four European statistical institutes involved in the DIGICOM project include Bulgaria, France, Italy and Ireland. The LOS project will provide them with greater flexibility with regard to publication of datasets, and help build capacity by training personnel in the technologies used for publication of datasets so they can be in a position to handle the conversion of their respective countries’ statistical data to RDF, an accepted model for data interchange on the Web.
The ADAPT Centre has extensive experience in developing Linked Open Data systems having worked with other Government agencies to provide more accessible data. In addition, Professor O’Sullivan was recently appointed to Ireland’s Open Data Governance Board (ODGB). The Open Data Governance Board (ODGB) was established by the Irish Government to provide strategic leadership and governance in line with best international practice in the area of Open Data.
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