Porsche Cayman Some rights reserved by Nikos Koutoulas
★ | Available on the Web (whatever format) but with an open licence, to be Open Data |
★★ | Available as machine-readable structured data (e.g. excel instead of image scan of a table) |
★★★ | as (2) plus non-proprietary format (e.g. CSV instead of Excel) |
★★★★ | All the above plus, Use open standards from W3C (RDF and SPARQL) to identify things, so that people can point at your stuff |
★★★★★ | All the above, plus: Link your data to other people’s data to provide context |
Usually means PDF, or worse, a screenshot of something.
You need to be a (sighted) human to access the information.
CSV* is King:
* Comma Separated Variables
An excellent example of what can be done with 3 star data.
SHA PCT PRACTICE BNF CODE BNF NAME ITEMS NIC ACT COST QUANTITY PERIOD Q30 5D7 A86003 0101010G0AAABAB Co-Magaldrox_Susp 195mg/220mg/5ml S/F 18 52.24 48.71 10000 201206 Q30 5D7 A86003 0101010N0AAAAAA Antacid/Oxetacaine_Oral Susp S/F 1 97.42 89.77 300 201206 Q30 5D7 A86003 0101010R0AAABAB Simeticone_Susp 40mg/ml S/F 2 4.9 4.58 100 201206 Q30 5D7 A86003 0101021B0AAAHAH Gppe Liq_Gaviscon S/F 2 4.45 4.17 1000 201206 Q30 5D7 A86003 0101021B0AAALAL Sod Algin/Pot Bicarb_Susp (Aniseed) S/F 3 11.8 10.97 1300 201206 Q30 5D7 A86003 0101021B0BCAAAC Gastrocote_Tab 2 14.04 13 400 201206 Q30 5D7 A86003 0101021B0BEADAJ Gaviscon Infant_Sach 2g (Dual Pack) S/F 6 65.78 60.79 330 201206 Q30 5D7 A86003 0101021B0BEAIAL Gaviscon Advance_Liq (Aniseed) S/F 14 85.8 79.49 9450 201206 Q30 5D7 A86003 0101021B0BEAKAQ Gaviscon Advance_Liq (Peppermint) S/F 11 55.76 51.71 5850 201206 Q30 5D7 A86003 0101021B0BEAQAP Gaviscon Advance_Tab Chble 500mg Mint 4 21.76 20.17 480 201206
Why is http://business.data.gov.uk/id/company/04285910
better than
SHA PCT PRACTICE BNF CODE BNF NAME ITEMS NIC ACT COST QUANTITY PERIOD Q30 5D7 A86003 0101010G0AAABAB Co-Magaldrox_Susp 195mg/220mg/5ml S/F 18 52.24 48.71 10000 201206
Why is http://business.data.gov.uk/id/company/04285910
better than
SHA PCT PRACTICE BNF CODE BNF NAME ITEMS NIC ACT COST QUANTITY PERIOD Q30 5D7 A86003 0101010G0AAABAB Co-Magaldrox_Susp 195mg/220mg/5ml S/F 18 52.24 48.71 10000 201206
(Because you can look it up; because you can refer to a URI in any context, unlike 'Q30' which only means something in a specific context).
NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite Some rights reserved by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center