What is Linked Data?

Linked data transforms data from isolated files into a connected web of information. When enterprises publish internal data following linked data principles, every dataset becomes discoverable, navigable, and joinable - without pre-built integrations.

This is especially powerful for large organisations with thousands of datasets across departments. Instead of building bespoke ETL pipelines between every pair of systems, linked data creates a self-describing data network where new connections emerge automatically.

Externally, linked data enables organisations to tap into the growing ecosystem of open linked data - government statistics, scientific databases, geographic data, and industry standards - enriching internal data with authoritative external context at zero cost.

Linked data builds on three core web technologies:

URIs: Every entity - a person, product, concept, or dataset - gets a globally unique identifier that looks like a web address.

HTTP: These URIs are dereferenceable - when you follow the link, you get structured data about the entity (typically in RDF).

RDF: The data returned uses the RDF model (subject-predicate-object triples), and includes links to other URIs, creating a navigable web of data.

Tim Berners-Lee proposed a five-star rating for linked data quality: from one star (data available on the web in any format) to five stars (all of the above plus links to other people’s data). The goal is to reach five stars where practical.

BBC: The BBC publishes linked data for its programmes, artists, and topics. Every BBC web page about a topic is backed by a structured linked data URI, enabling consistent cross-linking across BBC services.

Government open data: The UK’s data.gov.uk and the EU’s data.europa.eu publish thousands of datasets as linked data, enabling researchers and citizens to combine statistics across departments and countries.

Libraries and museums: The Library of Congress, Europeana, and the British Museum publish catalogue data as linked data, enabling scholars to trace connections across collections worldwide.