The International Data Spaces Association (IDSA) stands as a founding member within the newly formed Eclipse Dataspace Working Group (EDWG), which operates under the Eclipse Foundation. This partnership marks a significant step in building a robust open-source ecosystem to establish global standards and software components for sovereign data sharing through data spaces.
IDSA and the Eclipse Foundation will use the Eclipse governance framework to accelerate the development of an expanding open-source ecosystem for data spaces. The focal point of this endeavor is to deliver universally accepted standards and enterprise-ready software components, propelling the establishment of data spaces for secure data sharing.
The EDWG will synchronize multiple open-source projects with the functional requirements defined in the IDSA Rulebook, IDS Reference Architecture Model, and Certification Scheme.
“The formation of the Eclipse Dataspace Working Group represents a significant milestone in our pursuit to shape a harmonized data sharing landscape. Aligning open-source projects with IDSA’s fundamental work on data sovereignty and trusted data sharing will accelerate the market uptake of IDS-driven software solutions.”
Lars Nagel, CEO of IDSA
IDSA’s groundwork for sovereign data sharing in data spaces
In the IDSA Rulebook, IDSA describes at an organizational level the interaction of roles and components in a data space, which create the foundation for trust and core functions of a data space. It clarifies the business level structures and processes of a data space.
The IDSA Reference Architecture Models (RAMs) provide additional details on how functional requirements of a data space and design decisions on the architecture of individual components can be implemented to achieve the desired degree of data sovereignty needed to fulfill the promise of trusted data exchange in a data space.
The Dataspace Protocol (DSP) is at the very core of the technical implementation of every data space component and guarantees interoperability between components, data space participants and data space governance authorities. The protocol specification follows the functional requirements of the business processes described in the IDSA Rulebook based on consensually agreed industry requirements.
Contribution to the Dataspace protocol’s specifications
To broaden participation and drive community consensus, IDSA invites global developers to contribute to the DSP’s specification. The DSP will transition to an Eclipse Specification Project, combining IDSAs definition of the Dataspace Protocol with a technical compatibility kit (TCK), which is provided as Open-Source Software.
While IDSA focuses on functional requirements in collaboration with industry experts, the Eclipse Dataspace Protocol Specification project will ensure an open, versatile, and high-quality technical protocol standard, supported by a community of committers and contributors.
“With our partnership with the Eclipse Foundation we are changing the way how people can contribute on a global level to make code sustainable, re-usable and lasting. The Eclipse governance framework is the tool of choice to make great specifications possible.”
Sebastian Steinbuss, CTO of IDSA
The collective efforts of IDSA and the other partners in the EDWG aim to expedite the creation of trusted data sharing and digital sovereignty on a global scale.
