Ontotext’s GraphDB Powers UK Parliament’s New Data Service

In recent years, technology has fundamentally changed the way we consume data and information. Both individuals and businesses are overwhelmed by the vast amounts of data generated every step of the way.

Government institution are no exception to this trend. In their efforts to improve user experience, they are trying to make better sense of their data and to interpret it in the context of other world knowledge.

One such institution is the UK Parliament. The organization has a lot of knowledge to share. But in order to make this knowledge more accessible, first they had to make the available information more accurate, more useful and more connected.

UK Parliament Picks Ontotext’s Semantic Graph Database

In their quest to address the public needs for their data, the UK Parliament’s data experts have turned to Semantic Technology – a technology that forges connections between various datasets and empowers more relevant search results. Consequently, the data service built for the new website for Parliament modernizes the way it consumes and shares data in order to better express the rich relationships hidden in it.

One of the important components of this new data service is Ontotext’s semantic graph database GraphDB. It provides the core infrastructure for solutions where modelling agility, data integration, relationship exploration and cross-enterprise data publishing and consumption are essential.

GraphDB powers http://www.legislation.gov.uk and https://data.gov.uk/ . This first is a portal for publishing the original and revised versions of UK legislation as well as archives and records for everyone interested in following the work of Parliament. The second helps users find open data published by government departments and agencies, public bodies and local authorities. This data is readily available for users to learn more about how UK government works, to carry out research or to build new applications and services.

The new data service for Parliament has recently launched a web interface to help users and applications access and query the semantic data in a semantic graph database.

Why Semantic Technology?

So, why does Semantic Technology is best suited for building, expressing and showing relationships between various seemingly unconnected datasets?

In its core, Semantic Technology formally defines and links data on the web or within an organization in a way that machines can process. By developing languages to express rich, self-describing interrelations of data, it enables machines not only to handle long strings of characters and index tons of data, but to also store, manage and retrieve information based on meaning and logical relationships.

Unlike relational databases, semantic graph databases identify, disambiguate and interlink data based on meaning. Because of that, they can also infer relationships that are not explicitly stated, creating new knowledge out of existing facts.

How Ontotext’s Graph Database Enhances UK Parliament’s Data Service

In the past, the complex set of long-established rules and relationships that define UK Parliament’s work were not captured in enough detail. As a result, the information was hard to find, too complex and often duplicated. This made the previous website confusing and difficult to use.

The new data service of the UK Parliament breaks down information silos and provides a semantic representation of the richly interconnected data. It offers a flexible and friendly interface for users and applications to easily access the database. Also, linking Parliament data to external sources makes it easier for users to find, understand and repurpose.

The power of GraphDB to represent data in a meaningful interconnected way transforms the UK Parliament data service and helps it reach a larger public with more useful, more accurate and more connected information.

Ready to discover how our semantic graph database can fit your data discovery and integration needs?