The LinkedGov extension for Google Refine is a plug and play module that semi-automatically cleans up messy, unformatted government data.

The technical documentation can be found here: http://wiki.linkedgov.org/index.php/Google_Refine_extension

As the data is cleaned and formatted, the user is asked to specify things and answer questions about their data, which in turn creates mappings that transform the user's imported tabular data into graph data - specifically - RDF (a linked data format).

The extension offers a number of wizards that carry out cleaning, linking or enriching tasks on the data. For example, a cleaning wizard may ask the user if there's a column containing dates - and which format(s) the dates are in (e.g. 02/05/2012, 02-May-2012...). The wizard is then able to process and reformat the dates into a standardised, globally acceptable format (ISO8601).

The linking wizard is able to perform automatic reconciliation against linked data endpoints on the web - linking them to their online definitions. For example, a column containing department name abbreviations (e.g. MOD, BIS, HMRC...), could be automatically reconciled to their identifiers on data.gov.uk (e.g. http://reference.data.gov.uk/doc/department/bis). By linking the values to their online definitions - whole new paths of information can be accessed for each department.

Icon credits

Labelling panel icon
http://www.iconfinder.com/icondetails/58692/128/tag_icon

Linking panel icon
http://www.iconfinder.com/icondetails/10447/128/chain_link_web_icon

Wizard panel icon
http://www.iconfinder.com/icondetails/23628/128/magic_wizard_icon

Date and time wizard
http://www.iconfinder.com/icondetails/47536/128/calendar_date_event_icon

Measurements wizard
http://www.iconfinder.com/icondetails/6610/128/design_graphics_measure_package_ruler_school_icon

Geolocation wizard
http://www.iconfinder.com/icondetails/51901/128/compass_navigate_se_south_east_icon

Address wizard
http://www.iconfinder.com/icondetails/37591/128/16_addressbook_icon

Enumeration wizard
http://dryicons.com/free-icons/preview/colorful-stickers-icons-set/

Labelling panel - keys
http://dryicons.com/free-icons/preview/colorful-stickers-icons-set/