As part of the re-launch of its eGovernment Activity, W3C has started a new Government Linked Data Working Group.
The mission of the new Working Group is to provide standards and other information which help governments around the world publish their data as effective and usable Linked Data using Semantic Web technologies.
This group will develop standards-track documents and maintain a community website in order to help governments at all levels (from small towns to nations) share their data as high quality ("five-star") linked data. This group is exclusively focused on data publication using Semantic Web standards, deployed on the Web following linked data principles, as introduced by Tim Berners-Lee in 2006, in Linked Data.
The group will produce W3C Recommendations on a set of best practices for publish Linked Data and on a list of recommended RDF vocabulary terms to use in information about certain common concept areas.
For more information see:
The 5-star schema for Linked Data:
http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html
W3C eGovernment Interest Group Charter:
http://www.w3.org/egov/IG/charter-2011
W3C Government Linked Data Working Group:
http://www.w3.org/2011/gld/wiki/Main_Page