The

LinkedGov extension

for Google Refine

@danpaulsmith

What is LinkedGov?

A community project aiming to

make public data more usable

@danpaulsmith

CleaningImproving access

EnrichingLinking

@danpaulsmith

Import existing

data(CSV, Excel,

XML)

Cleaning tasks

Question site

data.linkedgov

.org

LinkedGov database

& core components

Data flow

(Data is stored as machine-readable data)

✔✖

What is Google Refine?

“A power tool for working with messy data”

“cleaning it up”,

“ transforming it”,

“extending it”,

“and linking it”

@danpaulsmith

@danpaulsmith

Spreadsheet software

Spreadsheet software Google Refine

Single-cell editing Bulk-editing

Create & input data Use & transform existing data

Document-based Data-based

Allows extensions to be installed

@danpaulsmith

Transposition, multi-valued cells, clustering, faceting, filtering

@danpaulsmith

What does the LinkedGov extension do?

@danpaulsmithImage curtosey of http://download.chip.eu

Typing wizards

@danpaulsmith

Date & time Measurements Geolocations Addresses

Other wizards

@danpaulsmith

Columns to rows Rows to columns Blank values Codes and symbols

@danpaulsmith

@danpaulsmith

Cleaning

@danpaulsmith

Enriching

@danpaulsmith

What a machine understands before

(CSV, TSV, Excel)

@danpaulsmith

number word number word date number number

number word number word date number number

number word number word date number number

number word number word date number number

number word number word date number number

Column

Row

Column Column Column Column Column Column

RowRowRowRow

What a machine understands after

(machine-readable format)

@danpaulsmith

Celsius string kWh Postcode date m3 metres

Celsius String kWh Postcode date m3 metres

Celsius string kWh Postcode date m3 metres

Celsius string kWh Postcode date m3 metres

Celsius string kWh Postcode date m3 metres

PostcodeName Gas/hourTempWater/hourDate Height

BuildingBuilding

BuildingBuildingBuilding

The power of linking

@danpaulsmith

PostcodesLatitude & longitude Dates Measurements

GP Surgery address dataNHS geo data

GP Surgery energy use data

NHS events data

@danpaulsmith

Import existing

data(CSV, Excel,

XML)

Cleaning tasks

Question site

data.linkedgov

.org

LinkedGov database

& core components

Data flow

(Data exists as linked data)

✔✖

Cleaning tasks

@danpaulsmith

@danpaulsmith

Import existing

data(CSV, Excel,

XML)

Cleaning tasks

Question site

data.linkedgov

.org

LinkedGov database

& core components

Data flow

(Data exists as linked data)

✔✖

Question site

@danpaulsmith

@danpaulsmith

Import existing

data(CSV, Excel,

XML)

Cleaning tasks

Question site

data.linkedgov

.org

LinkedGov database

& core components

Data flow

(Data exists as linked data)

✔✖

data.linkedgov.org

@danpaulsmith

Feedback & questions

@danpaulsmith

http://linkedgov.org - Website

http://wiki.linkedgov.org - Wiki

@LinkedGov - Twitter

#linkedgov – IRC (Freenode.net)