Dublin, 27 June 2011,

(by Ton Zijlstra)

Today a new platform for linked data from the Dublin region has been launched, DUBlinked.ie. This platform seeks to bring together the data streams that are part of and result from urban environments. An initial 100 data sets should be available in September or October.

Some excerpts from the about page: "Dublin, like other populated places, produces very large volumes of data centered around the interactions of its citizens within the city environment. DUBlinked has been created to harness this rich digital resource, made up of static and dynamic datastreams that are sensed and recorded across a range of sectors including transportation, communication, housing, utilities, environment, retail, recreation and making them readily accessible within an Open Platform to a wider audience in order to develop new information services, mobile apps and next generation technologies for managing our cities."

According to DUBlinked, it builds off the pioneering work of Fingal Open Data which has championed the open-data concept in Dublin.

DUBlinked is (according to the FAQ) an initiative by the Dublin Region Local Authorities (DLAs) and NUI Maynooth to facilitate data-driven innovation in urban environment. It will do this by:

• releasing data held by the DLA's, including data that would not normally be considered public.
• providing a mechanism for other people and organisations to share data pertinent to the Dublin Region.
• providing a structured mechanism for engaging with the local authorities to develop and trial new products and services.
• encourage collaboration and innovation through a series of workshops and events.

Access to resources and activities will be on an equitable and transparent basis.DUBlinked.ie intends to go well beyond what is currently seen as the scope of open government data: "There are many open-data initiatives around the world, what we are specifically trying to do in DUBlinkedis release data that would not be normally considered as "open data". This particularly refers to the realtime operational data for the city - such as the water and traffic networks. These datasets often have additional constraints that prevent them from being released in an open-data fashion. Our objective is to provide a trusted zone in which this more restricted set of data can be accessed and used to develop new products and services. The data-owners can be assured on who can access the data,and how the data will be used. Developers will be able to access data currently unavailable anywhere else in the world. Our hope is to be able to transition as much data as possible to a fully public status as the initiative matures. This model also extends to privately held data which may also become available through the network."

Adding real time data is of interest as it is one of the key technology components for concepts such as 'cognitive cities'.

During the SharePSI workshop in May, Tim McCarthy of the National University of Ireland Maynooth, gave a presentation about the rationale behind DUBlinked.ie: