Animation and pilot dataset help explain linked open data

Europeana has launched an animation to explain linked open data and its benefits for users and data providers.

Europeana is publishing data for 2.4 million objects under an open metadata licence - CC0, the Creative Commons’ Public Domain Dedication. The data openly available to the public and private sectors to develop applications for smartphones and tablets and create new web services and portals.

The concept of linked open data is attracting Europe’s major national libraries: the Bibliothèque nationale de France recently launched its rich linked data resource, while the national libraries of the UK, Germany and Spain, among many other cultural institutions, have been publishing their metadata under an open licence.

Support for open data innovation is at the root of Europeana’s new Data Exchange Agreement, the contract that libraries, museums, and archives agree to when their metadata goes into Europeana.

This agreement has been signed by national libraries, leading national museums and many of the content providers for entire countries, such as Sweden’s National Heritage Board. The new Data Exchange Agreement dedicates the metadata to the Public Domain and comes into effect on 1 July 2012, after which all metadata in Europeana will be available as open data.