In future, Smart Cities need to be connected and networked with each other and with their citizens. However, the public sector is slow in implementing end-to-end digital services, let alone in achieving cross-border interoperability. Governmental silos will have to dissolve in order to achieve these goals. The development of Linked Base Registries is seen as a part of a solution to overcome this hurdle. This session reports on the development of the 5-star Linked Open Data Address Register.

The first product released by the Flemish Government in line with the Linked Data principles is the Central Reference Address Database (CRAB), containing well over 3 million addresses and their geographical coordinates. The addresses are synchronised in real time between 308 local governments and the Linked Base registry.

In the first part of this workshop we will explain how the address data was aligned to international data specifications via the ‘Open Standards for Linked Organisations (OSLO) programme’. We will show how we build this platform with the ambition to create reusable linked open data building blocks and we will elaborate on the chosen technologies that implement the solution.

In the second part we’ll give you a jump-start on the how to query the address registry using the RDF query language (SPARQL) and explain how you can integrate the addresses into your own applications. Finally we will gather ideas for the future roadmap through an ideation session.

This keynote session on 5-star linked open data address register will take place from 2:30 pm to 3 pm in the Auditorium at Open Belgium 2017.