The ‘triples’ of RDF data can be stored in a specialised database, called a triple store, against which queries can be made in the query language SPARQL.

Source: ODH

Public transport routes, timetables and real time data are valuable but difficult candidates for open data. Even when they are published, data from different transit authorities and companies may not be available in compatible formats, making it difficult for third parties to provide integrated transport information.

A principle of the public administration and democratic political system. Governments and other public sector bodies are said to be transparent when their workings and decision-making processes are well-understood, properly documented and open to scrutiny. Transparency is one of the aspects of open government. An increase in transparency is one of the benefits of open data.

Tab-separated values (TSV) are a very common form of text file format for sharing tabular data. The format is extremely simple and highly machine-readable.

Source: ODH

All data has some structure, but ‘structured data’ refers to data where the structural relation between elements is explicit in the way the data is stored on a computer disk. XML and JSON are common formats that allow many types of structure to be represented. The internal representation of, for example, word-processing documents or PDF documents reflects the positioning of entities on the page, not their logical structure, which is correspondingly difficult or impossible to extract automatically.

A set of predefined re-use conditions in a digital format, preferably compatible with standardised public licences available online.

Source: OD Directive

A published specification for, e.g., the structure of a particular file format, recommended nomenclature to use in a particular domain, a common set of metadata fields, etc. Conforming to relevant standards greatly increases the value of published data by improving machine readability and easing data integration.

Structured Query Language, a standard language used for interrogating many types of database. See → query.

Source: ODH

A table of data and calculations that can be processed interactively with a specialised spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice Calc.

Source: ODH

A service that accepts Sparql queries and returns answers to them as Sparql result sets. It is best practice for dataset providers to give the URL of their Sparql endpoint to allow access to their data programmatically or through a web interface.