http://www.w3.org/TR/vocab-data-cube/">RDF Data Cube Vocabularity</a>

PART OF LINKED DATA 
<section rel="bibo:Chapter" resource="#ref" typeof="bibo:Chapter" id="introduction" class="informative">
<!--OddPage--><h2 id="h2_introduction" role="heading" aria-level="1"><span class="secno">2. </span>Introduction</h2><p><em>This section is non-normative.</em></p>

<p>
Statistical data is a foundation for policy
prediction, planning and adjustments and
underpins many of the mash-ups and visualisations
we see on the web. There is strong interest
in being able to publish statistical data in a web-friendly format
to enable it to be linked and combined with related information.
</p>

<p>
At the heart of a statistical dataset is a set of observed values
organized along a group of dimensions, together with associated metadata.
The Data Cube vocabulary enables such information to be represented
using the <abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-rdf-syntax/">RDF</a>
(Resource Description Framework) standard and published following the
principles of
<a href="http://linkeddata.org/">linked data</a>.
The vocabulary is based upon the approach used by the SDMX ISO standard
for statistical data exchange. This <em>cube</em> model is very
general and so the Data Cube vocabulary can be used for other data sets
such as survey data, spreadsheets and OLAP data cubes [<cite><a href="#bib-OLAP" class="bibref">OLAP</a></cite>].
</p>

<p>
The Data Cube vocabulary is focused purely on the
publication of multi-dimensional data on the web. We envisage a series of modular
vocabularies being developed which extend this core foundation. In
particular, we see the need for an SDMX extension vocabulary to support the
publication of additional context to statistical data (such as the encompassing Data
Flows and associated Provision Agreements). Other extensions are possible to
support metadata for surveys (so called "micro-data", as encompassed by <a href="http://www.ddialliance.org/">DDI</a>)
or publication of statistical reference metadata.
</p>

<p>The Data Cube in turn builds upon the following existing RDF
vocabularies:</p>
<ul>
  <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/">SKOS</a> for concept schemes</li>
  <li><a href="http://sw.joanneum.at/scovo/schema.html">SCOVO</a> for
core statistical structures</li>
  <li><a href="http://purl.org/dc/terms/">Dublin Core Terms</a> for metadata</li>
  <li><a href="http://rdfs.org/ns/void-guide">VoiD</a> for data access</li>
  <li><a href="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/">FOAF</a> for agents</li>
  <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/ns/org#">ORG</a> for organizations</li>
</ul>


<section>
  <h1>Chapter 2.1 RDF and Linked Data</h1>

<p><em>Linked data</em> is an approach to publishing data on the web, enabling
datasets to be linked together through references to common concepts.
  The approach [<cite><a href="#bib-LOD" class="bibref">LOD</a></cite>]
recommends use of HTTP URIs to name the entities and concepts so that consumers of
the data can look-up those URIs to get more information, including links
to other related URIs.
RDF [<cite><a href="#bib-RDF-PRIMER" class="bibref">RDF-PRIMER</a></cite>]
provides a standard for the representation of the
information that describes those entities and concepts, and is returned
by dereferencing the URIs. </p>

<p>There are a number of benefits to being able to publish multi-dimensional data, such as statistics,
using RDF and the linked data approach:</p>
<ul>
  <li>The individual observations, and groups of observations, become
(web) addressable. This allows publishers and third parties to annotate
and link to this data; for example a report can reference the specific
figures it is based on allowing for fine grained provenance trace-back.</li>
  <li>Data can be flexibly combined across datasets sets (for example <em>find all
Religious schools in census areas with high values for National
Indicators pertaining to religious tolerance</em>). The statistical
data becomes an integral part of the broader web of linked data.</li>
  <li>For publishers who currently only offer static files then
publishing as linked-data offers a flexible, non-proprietary, machine
readable means of publication that supports an out-of-the-box web API
for programmatic access.</li>
  <li>It enables reuse of standardized tools and components.</li>
</ul>