XOMGL
Encyclopedia
XOMGL is an XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....

-based open standard
Open standard
An open standard is a standard that is publicly available and has various rights to use associated with it, and may also have various properties of how it was designed . There is no single definition and interpretations vary with usage....

 for the exchange of large amounts of government data between a municipal agency and regular citizens and developers creating web-based mapping applications. It is part of the OMG Standard
OMG Standard
The OMG standard seeks to promote the free flow of information between government agencies and citizens by establishing a common set of technical standards for organizing and sharing public data.-Summary:...

, which seeks to promote the free flow of information between government agencies and citizens by establishing a common set of technical standards for organizing and sharing public data.

Types of data

The XOMGL format is good for organizing and distributing digitally many types of government data, including crime, building permits, restaurant health reviews, pollution sources, political contributions, property values, traffic accidents, sex offenders, and historic sites.

Fields

It has just enough required fields to allow easy updates and the plotting of data on online maps. It also has enough optional data to allow categorization, filtering, date ranges, images, external links, and latitude and longitude. It provides all of this without overwhelming the end user, providing too much irrelevant data, and displays in an easy to read and manage format.

Usage examples

A government agency would make data available on its website with either static links to files in this format, or queryable versions that allow users to filter the data by last updated date, date range, category, etc.

The XML and JSON
JSON
JSON , or JavaScript Object Notation, is a lightweight text-based open standard designed for human-readable data interchange. It is derived from the JavaScript scripting language for representing simple data structures and associative arrays, called objects...

 versions can be used to automate data importing into web-based software applications, while the CSV
Comma-separated values
A comma-separated values file stores tabular data in plain-text form. As a result, such a file is easily human-readable ....

 version allows regular people to browse, filter, sort, edit, and re-purpose the information with only spreadsheet software knowledge.

Formats vs. Standards

Note there is a distinction between data standards and data formats. A data format like KML
Keyhole Markup Language
Keyhole Markup Language is an XML notation for expressing geographic annotation and visualization within Internet-based, two-dimensional maps and three-dimensional Earth browsers. KML was developed for use with Google Earth, which was originally named Keyhole Earth Viewer. It was created by...

, GeoRSS
GeoRSS
GeoRSS is an emerging standard for encoding location as part of a Web feed. GeoRSS is an emerging standard for encoding location as part of a Web feed. GeoRSS is an emerging standard for encoding location as part of a Web feed. (Web feeds are used to describe feeds ("channels") of content, such as...

, JSON
JSON
JSON , or JavaScript Object Notation, is a lightweight text-based open standard designed for human-readable data interchange. It is derived from the JavaScript scripting language for representing simple data structures and associative arrays, called objects...

, XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....

, CSV
CSV
CSV may refer to:* Clerics of Saint Viator* Common Stored Value Ticket* Confederación Sudamericana de Voleibol* Character Strengths and Virtues* Christian Social People's Party* Community Service Volunteers...

, and others describe how to format data to make it machine readable by specific applications. A data standard defines which fields/columns are needed to make raw data usable in these formats. Information in the XOMGL standard can be machine-output to any of the above listed data formats.

Example XOMGL format






















































The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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