An apification approach to facilitate the access and reuse of open data

Abstract

Nowadays, accessing open data is a difficult task since current Open Data platforms do not generally provide suitable strategies to access their data. Moreover, Linked Open Data requires knowledge in different technologies, which is a challenging task especially for novice developers. In order to manage this open data, Web APIs with accurate documentation are highly recommended features that not all platforms include. Providing these APIs would help developers to easily access data, but this access is still limited for end-users, particularly those with disabilities. Therefore, there is a gap between open data and users in which our APIfication approach can help by creating APIs for available datasets. It consists of a model-based generation of suitable APIs with natural language documentation to access open data, a universal API to access linked open data easily and a Web augmentation framework to improve data accessibility, helping users with disabilities. Accordingly, the aim of this PhD is to provide suitable mechanisms to easily access and reuse open data.