THE OPEN DATA REVOLUTION:

transforming the landscape for land governance data

Laura.meggiolaro@landportal.info

Objectives of the Land Portal

■ Increasing access to information for all land governance stakeholders, with a particular focus on those in the Global South, leading to more informed debates and innovative solutions on land governance at the local, national, regional, and global levels.

■ Facilitating diffusion and scaling up of best practices on land tenure.

■ Supporting improvements in land rights monitoring.■ Increasing understanding of the interconnections between land

and development issues.■ Identifying and addressing land governance information gaps.

Four Core Land Portal Services

■ Land Portal Hub – A central entry-point into the Land Portal, providing user registration, cross-site searches, newsletter subscriptions, and information on news and events.

■ Land Library – Aggregating and indexing key research and publications on land governance from a wide range of partner organizations, and providing intuitive access to these resources

■ Land Book – Providing a thematic, regional and country-level overview of key contextual and actionable land governance information, revealing both trends and gaps in available information, visualized through an interactive world map

■ Land Debate – An open discussion forum catalyzing and curating dialogues and high-level debates amongst land experts and practitioners. Hosting a central debate space, and providing the platform for bespoke thematic, personal or event-specific blogs.

Land Portal Theory of ChangeAlthough there is a wealth of information and data online about land governance, their visibility, accessibility, consistency and completeness vary enormously.

Linking this information together, actively addressing gaps in the available information, and providing a range of ways for the information to be accessed and shared will increase the use and usefulness of the available information. This will turns into better decision making and policy which is based upon evidence.

An Open Development Approach

■ Open sources – Using existing open source tools to build the Land Portal.

■ Open content – Licensing content in ways that allow it to be freely redistributed and remixed through Creative Commons licenses, or placing content in the public domain.

■ Open data – Publishing structured data in machine readable, standardized formats under open licenses that allow anyone to re-use it.

■ Open culture and collaboration – Ensuring there is capacity for formal and informal collaboration with partners, and engaging in regular interaction with a wide community of stakeholders and interested parties.

What is Linked Open Data?

■ Linked Open Data is a way of enriching, connecting, and linking data in structured, machine readable and standardized formats under open licenses. Linked Open Data enables the same content to be represented in multiple ways in different places simultaneously.

Advantages of Linked Open Data

■ Efficient use of resources Linked Open Data reduces redundancy by building upon and the work of others rather than replicating existing systems.

■ Increased information quality Linked Open Data encourages the standardization of metadata and data formats, which makes data more reliable and credible.

■ Creates added value By connecting directly to other data, Linked Open Data allows users to discover, use and reuse information in new and unintended ways.

■ Identification of gaps in information Linked Open Data allows data errors to be highlighted and corrected.

■ Enhances transparency Linked Open Data creates the means for citizens and advocacy groups to hold the private sector and governments to account.

WHAT IS AN INFORMATION ECOSYSTEM?

One way street or an improved information ecology?Scattered and Dispersed Information

Towards an information ecosystem

Building an information ecosystem based on Linked Open Data (LOD

Stimulating data collection and use at the country level & building the capacity of our local partners

Harmonizing taxonomy with

the FAO AGROVOC

thesaurus and translating all

terms into local languages;

Significantly improving

interoperability and maximizing

use of linked data;

Increase efficiency of data

sharing with automated technical solutions;

Sharing and curating data

and information to make it easily discoverable and

reusable;

Develop learning material and

data to illustrate major land

related trends in the region and in

specific countries;

facilitate partnership for

information exchange and

stimulate dialogue among

partners;

Enable reuse of information and

data;

Introduce standards that

make data more reliable and

credible.

The Land Portal and Open Development Mekong

What specifically has this partnership accomplished?■ Technical developments that have transformed Open Development

Mekong data into Linked Open Data, enabling harvesting of content that is publish

■ Strengthened the interoperability of the Land Portal and Open Development Mekong by harmonizing the taxonomies of both organizations and translating terms and concepts into local language;

■ Expanded the local network of local partners and promoting and supporting the use of Linked Open Data.

■ Created a reusable WordPress importer to bring Open Development Mekong data and information into the Land Portal.