Data Catalog Vocabulary/DERI dcat Demonstrator

dcat is an RDF vocabulary developed at DERI as an interoperability model for government data catalogs. To describe data catalogs dcat provides a set of instructions on how to reuse existing vocabularies terms and defines new classes and properties when no suitable ones exist.

dcat design was informed by analysis of seven existing catalogs: data.gov, data.gov.uk, data.australia.gov.au, data.govt.nz, statcentral.ie, London Datastore, and datasf.org.

The purpose of the analysis was to identify commonalities in structure and best practices. The figure below shows an overview of the model

vocabulary specification available at http://vocab.deri.ie/dcat

As a feasibility study, a demonstration was built. It contains data.gov, data.australia.gov.au, datasf.org, data.london.gov.uk; uses mainly dcat; but also FOAF, Dublin Core, and SKOS.

The data contains Catalogs, datasets, and the downloadable data description.

Linked data interface available here

Possible entry points:

• catalogs
• sample dataset
• Catalogs Categories/themes

SPARQL endpoint available here.

Sample Catalog Description:

     <http://lab.linkeddata.deri.ie/govcat/resource/catalogs/data.australia.gov.au>
     a       dcat:Catalog ;
     rdfs:label "data.australia.gov.au" ;
     dcat:dataset <http://lab.linkeddata.deri.ie/govcat/resource/catalogs/data.australia.gov.au/datasets/406> ,
                  <http://lab.linkeddata.deri.ie/govcat/resource/catalogs/data.australia.gov.au/datasets/80> , 
                  <http://lab.linkeddata.deri.ie/govcat/resource/catalogs/data.australia.gov.au/datasets/416> , 
                  .
                  .
                  .
                  ;
     dcat:themeTaxonomy <http://lab.linkeddata.deri.ie/govcat/resource/data.australia.gov.au/categoryScheme> ;
     skos:prefLabel "data.australia.gov.au" ;
     foaf:homepage <http://data.australia.gov.au> .

Sample Dataset Description:

     <http://lab.linkeddata.deri.ie/govcat/resource/catalogs/data.gov/datasets/989>
     a       dcat:Dataset ;
     rdfs:comment "The Common Core of Data Local Education Agency Universe Survey consists of data submitted annually to NCES...";
     rdfs:label "Common Core of Data Local Education Agency Universe Survey" ;
     dct:accrualPeriodicity  "annual" ;
     dct:created "11/1/1987" ;
     dct:description "The Common Core of Data Local Education Agency Universe Survey consists of data submitted annually to NCES...";
     dct:modified "10/22/2009" ;
     dct:publisher
      <http://lab.linkeddata.deri.ie/govcat/resource/catalogs/data.gov/agencies/Department_of_Education/subagencies/National_Center_for_Education_Statistics> , 
                   <http://lab.linkeddata.deri.ie/govcat/resource/catalogs/data.gov/agencies/Department_of_Education> ;
     dct:references "<a href=\"http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/data_resources.asp\">http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/data_resources.asp</a>" ,
                    "<a href=\"http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/\">http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/</a>" , 
                    "<a href=\"http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/pubagency.asp\">http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/pubagency.asp</a>" , 
                    "<a href=\"http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/pdf/pau071agen.pdf\">http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/pdf/pau071agen.pdf</a>" ;
     dct:spatial "school district" ;
     dct:temporal "School Year" ;
     dct:title "Common Core of Data Local Education Agency Universe Survey" ;
     dcat:dataDictionary "<a href=\"http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/data/txt/pau071alay.txt\">http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/data/txt/pau071alay.txt</a>" ;
     dcat:dataQuality "Yes" ;
     dcat:distribution <http://lab.linkeddata.deri.ie/govcat/resource/catalogs/data.gov/distributions/989/2296> ;
     dcat:granularity "school district" ;
     dcat:keyword "elementary school" , "public school" , "school universe survey" , "fte classroom teacher" , "enrollment" ,
     "school characteristics" , "common core of data" , "secondary school" , "school directory" ;
     dcat:theme <http://lab.linkeddata.deri.ie/govcat/resource/catalogs/data.gov/categories/education> ;
     skos:prefLabel "Common Core of Data Local Education Agency Universe Survey" ;
     foaf:homepage <http://www.data.gov/details/989> .

Sample Distribution (data file) description:

     <http://lab.linkeddata.deri.ie/govcat/resource/catalogs/data.australia.gov.au/datasets/119/distributions/63>
     a       dcat:Download ;
     rdfs:label "Downloadable distribution of Queensland Wetlands Data – Wetlands" ;
     dct:format "ESRI Shape Files" ;
     dcat:accessURL <http://www2.australia.gov.au/datasets/States%20&%20Territories/QLD/IQATLAS.QLD_WETLAND_SYSTEM_100K_A.zip> ;
     dcat:size [
                rdfs:label "(639MB)" ;
                dcat:bytes "670040064" .
               ].