The four Dublin Local Authorities with NUI Maynooth have announced the establishment of ‘Dublinked’, an innovative new data-sharing network. The network is seeking to link data, sectors, skills and people to generate new commercial opportunities for the Dublin Region. Dublinked will also provide the Dublin Region’s first Open Data Platform which makes public data available for research and reuse. To enable the start up phase of this project IBM Research is providing, on a non exclusive basis, a platform of open collaboration technologies and research tools.
John Tierney, Dublin city manager, speaking on behalf of the four Dublin Local Authorities, says: “Dublin, like all cities, is complex to plan, manage and service. The amount of public information produced by us and other public service providers is breathtaking but can be difficult to assimilate. In creating Dublinked we are calling on the expertise within all sectors to help develop solutions to regional challenges and avail of opportunities to test those solutions in our City, towns and neighbourhoods.”
The Dublin Local Authorities will use Dublinked as their main vehicle to identify entities with appropriate skills and expertise for collaboration and research projects.
The initial information sets on environment issues, planning and traffic will be available to the public from Autumn 2011 at www.dublinked.ie. It is intended that data on other topics and from other public bodies will be made available in subsequent releases. Open Data initiatives in other City Regions such as Amsterdam, London and San Francisco have demonstrated that data sharing initiatives can drive the development of new applications, products and companies. Fingal Open Data pioneered the open data concept in the Dublin region.
Membership will be available to interested commercial, academic and public bodies by contacting dublinked@nuim.ie. Becoming a member of Dublinked will allow participating organisations to attend events, respond to research requests, and to work to develop solutions to regional challenges. The first event will be held this autumn.