Data Interoperability: The Land Portal experience of open data management



 

Open Data principles and standards do not only make information more easy to find and accessible on the user-end, but are also critical for machines to be able to read and understand the information. The Land Portal Foundation is an online resource that directs users to the great variety of sources that publish land related data and information online.

The Land Portal website hosts metadata (information about information) that is linked directly to the websites of data provides. Every single piece of information available on the Land Portal is enriched according to Open Data standards and principles. This means that the metadata - the information describing what the information is about - is arranged through commonly agreed standards - making sure that all the information is categorised so that users can determine which dataset, publication, and other resources are relevant to their needs. By applying these Open Data principles and standards, the information becomes more searchable and discoverable for users.

When many online databases - on both global and local levels - are linked together, we establish an 'information ecosystem'.  In this Webinar, Lisette Mey, Information Management Officer at The Land Portal, discusses her experience of supporting the move from silo and stand-alone databases, to an online information ecosystem. This is helping to improve the potential impact of each knowledge piece significantly because all the fragmented data sources are linked together.

 

About the Panelist

Lisette Mey is a Dutch lawyer who has been working as Information Management Officer at the Land Portal Foundation for almost four years. She manages the open metadata repository in the Land Portal website, holding well over 47,000 resources from over 1,200 different publishers to date. Lisette has been working with the Land Portal’s partners worldwide to help them build their capacities in publishing their information according to Open Data principles.