July 7, 2020

The IDS Launching Coalition Celebrated their Achievements

When you are planning to climb high mountains like the K2 or Mount Everest you will most probably plan to stay for some time in one of often many base camps. These base camps are not only sited at the entry points to the track routes which lead you to the summit, but they are also sited at a already relevant altitude to allow you for acclimatization.
Christoph Mertens

or how we are building a base camp for data sovereignty

Before such a base camp is built usually decades pass where first reconnaissance explorations lead by pioneers take place to find track routes and to proof that it is possible to get to the summit at all.

The mountain we are climbing is “Mount Data” and its summit is called “Data Sovereignty”. And yes, first adventures people were already at the very top, finding track routes and showing that it is possible to reach the summit. There have been many projects and demonstrators that proofed this already (IDS@BKMBOOST 4.0additive manufacturing demonstrator, here you can find more success stories). Together with many experts on the topic of data economy (including our current EU commissioner Thierry Breton1) we believe that amongst other aspects the quantity and accessibility of data must be increased dramatically. From the perspective of IDSA this can only be achieved if those who own the data can be completely confident about the use and safe storage of the data. – data sovereignty.

Let us get back to the “Mount Data”. To climb it, to reach “Data Sovereignty” and to do this with a relevant number of climbers that make a change for the data economy, we have to provide the required infrastructure. An infrastructure that allows climbers from all over the world to not have to care about basic things, like digital identities, certification, and an competitive offering of IDS Connectors for those who do not want to implement them on their own.

The IDS Launching Coalition is building the base camp at Mount Data with all this. This base camp will allow you as a climber who wants to reach Data Sovereignty to reduce your risk by allowing you to accommodate to the altitude and ensuring accessibility of the trail routes to the summit.

We plan to have the base camp ready on November 30th. In the meantime, we hope you prepare yourself for the ascent and we meet at our opening celebration. Follow our activities by looking out for #IDSgoLive on Twitterand LinkedIn and of course the IDSA Blog. For our members we prepared a Jive space with more details and background stories.

Also feel free to have a look at the stream of our Launching Coalition Fest, where we show you some relevant work that already has been achieved:

Climb on and stay safe!

Author: Christoph Mertens
Christoph Mertens is Head of Adoption at IDSA.

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