Simplifying data access: the energy data collection (EDC) project.

The massive amount of statistical and text data available from government agencies has created a set of daunting challenges to both research and analysis communities. These problems include heterogeneity, size, distribution, and control of terminology. At the Digital Government Research Center we are investigating solutions to these key problems. In this paper we focus on (1) ontological mappings for terminology standardization, (2) data integration across data bases with high speed query processing, and (3) interfaces for query input and presentation of results. This collaboration between researchers from Columbia University and the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California employs technology developed at both locations, in particular the SENSUS ontology, the SIMS multi-database access planner, the LKB automated dictionary and terminology analysis system, and others. The pilot application targets gasoline data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Energy Information Administration of the Department of Energy, the Census Bureau, and other government agencies.