ICT tools for creating, expanding and exploiting statistical linked Open Data

Abstract

A major part of Open Data concerns statistics such as financial and social indicators. Accurate and reliable statistics provide the solid ground for performing analyses that support businesses and governments in understanding the world and making better decisions. More importantly, the combination of statistical figures coming from disparate sources can unveil unexpected and unexplored insights. The adoption of the Linked Data principles and technologies has promised to facilitate data integration at a Web scale. In this paper, we describe the development of tools that support the whole lifecycle of linked statistical data including creation, expansion, and exploitation. Our approach is based on actively engaging organizations handling statistics as part of their everyday activities. The final technological outcome is the OpenCube Toolkit, a software platform that includes a set of relevant tools.