On Tuesday 27 May 2014, the Flemish ICT Organisation (V-ICT-OR) has launched the OSLO 2.0 building blocks during its general assembly in Mechelen, Belgium. The building blocks are meant to increase interoperability inside and between local administrations in Flanders. During a short plenary session, the key points of OSLO 2.0 were presented. Participants, coming from local administrations across the whole region, could then share and deepen their knowledge during targeted workshops.
The OSLO 1.1 Vocabulary extends the ISA Core Vocabularies to include properties and relationships needed by local administrations, like family composition or persons acting on behalf of a registered organization. The OSLO Vocabulary is available both as RDF and XML schemas. A pilot has been published demonstrating the use of the OSLO Vocabulary to link organizations and addresses from different datasets.
To complement the vocabulary, OSLO 2.0 proposes guidelines for implementing web services. The guidelines define a URI strategy along with the operations that the URIs must answer. By standardising the service protocol, OSLO aims to minimize the number of services pursuing the same goal.
Following the successful example of the Netherlands, OSLO 2.0 introduces the Software Catalogus, a repository of open standards, software packages, and service providers. With this tool, reusing the Dutch platform, local administrations can quickly learn which provider or package implements which standard, increasing awareness and, in the long run, use of open standards.
City/Location: Mechelen, Belgium