Working with building blocks is a bit like being a kid again, creating something big with a pile of Lego pieces, teaming up with your buddy at a Lego playdate. First you have to think hard about what you want to achieve and then you have to find the right pieces to make it happen. There is no “one size fits all” solution the blocks can offer but the colorful pieces are very helpful to accomplish your plan.
Data spaces grow from the bottom up. A data space is a collection of use cases, a bunch of users that interoperate and trust to share data for a certain purpose, creating value for the users. “Creating data spaces means making choices” declares FIWARE’s Juanjo Hierro. The project i4Trust is about making those choices. The aim is delivering a framework to the market that organizations can use to bringing data spaces to life: agreeing on language for these spaces (standard data models, data exchange API, common mechanism for identity and access management), offering models for interoperability. Already 73 SMEs are involved and work on a set of experiments since January 2022 – from 14 European countries.
We need secure, transparent, sovereign access to data in a unified fashion
Moreover, there are standardized ways of doing a payment, of making a telephone call or sending an email message all over the world, but the way to share data is not yet unified. Secure, transparent, sovereign access to data in a standardized fashion is needed. Data spaces provide that and data sovereignty is guaranteed. “Regardless of the business you are in or what you do,” underlines Douwe Lycklama of INNOPAY “It impacts us all.”
Realising data sharing use cases with common building blocks
The Data Sharing Coalition (DSC) which IDSA is part of develops use cases as a stepping stone towards large scale data sharing – across domains. After exploring possibilities, data spaces are designed, sharing is implemented and governance and agreements are organized. Be it in agriculture supporting farmers, in banking for “green” loans or in fighting crime like human trafficking: DSC is developing the cases.
Technology and legal regulation have to go hand in hand, iSHARE is playing a big role here. Bringing trusted building blocks to data spaces: iSHARE’s legal framework enables overall legal coverage and data space specific legal coverage. Which building blocks are you going to use for your use case? “FIWARE, iSHARE and the design principles for data spaces are a fundamental basis for you”, says Gerard van der Hoeven from iSHARE.
Data spaces as a service
Especially timely is the project PAIRS by Advaneo, a longtime member of IDSA, that is making crises manageable. The key offerings of PAIRS are data spaces infrastructure (building blocks) & a data marketplace. In trusted data hubs you can safely manage and monetize your data. You can use your sensitive data in a collaborative project without ever revealing it to the other parties but still feed the algorithm, explains Dennis Weber of Advaneo. This data sovereignty is central for decision makers from businesses and the public sector. IDS based data spaces are used with the IDS Connector – in the areas of energy, health and manufacturing. Existing solutions are used to build individual ones in three months.
At the Hannover Messe / end of May 2022 you can learn how IDS supported PAIRS will increase your resilience with model crisis scenarios, consequences forecast and recommended actions. Come to IDSA’s booth to check it out!
Data spaces is an inspiring concept that creates a lot of enthusiasm. Like Lego it offers many choices – basically you could view IDS is your buddy for a playdate to help you realize your vision.
