Design and implementation of a Linked Data platform

The Ordnance Survey were the first public sector organisation in the UK to publish Linked Data. Their Linked Data provides an essential geographical backbone for integrating public sector data from across the entire government.

I lead a 3-man team – Julian Higman, Benjamin Nowack and myself – on a 6 month project to develop a new Linked Data platform for the Ordnance Survey. The goals for the project were to:

• Move from a hosted solution to one that the Ordnance Survey could run and operate themselves
• Provide additional APIs and functionality to deliver additional value for developers
• Completely refresh the user experience to create a more engaging Linked Data website, including integration of Ordnance Survey mapping products

I was responsible for the main architectural decisions and API design, worked with the client to identify and agree on requirements and priorities, as well as hands-on implementation of platform functionality.

As a distributed team, we ran the project using agile methodologies, delivering continuous releases to the Ordnance Survey right from the start of the project. The public beta launched in April 2013 and the live site is due to launch in May 2013.