Data space experts gathered in The Hague
A first-ever Data Spaces Symposium was organized in The Hague between the 21st and the 23rd of March 2023. The event attracted 700 visitors and 150 experts appearing on 5 stages. It featured the Annual Conference of the Data Spaces Support Centre and a Data Spaces Deep-Dive Day bringing together many enthusiastic individuals representing businesses and various public organizations.
VTT invested strongly and participated with 10 experts representing the technical, legal as well as business aspects of the data spaces field. This level of engagement reflects the variety of skills that are needed to boost the European data economy. Data spaces, by offering trusted and scalable ways to share data, will have a broad effect on our society. They will transform the way we collaborate, make business, share new business goals and behave in a society.
We can draw four conclusions from the event:
Public effort and funding are important to ignite the data economy
Various presentations and discussions in the symposium revealed a wide consensus on the fact that the development of data spaces requires regulation and public effort. Regulation is needed to establish rules for a fair data economy and to build trust in data sharing, to mention but the most obvious benefit. Consequently, regulation provides a framework for companies to pursue partnerships and investments, or R&D prospects, for instance, that would otherwise not emerge. While the European Data Strategy laid the foundation for European Data Spaces, both general (notably the Data Act and the Data Governance Act) and domain-specific (like in the case of health data) regulation are needed. New regulation dealing with data sharing in the field of climate change, for example, is underway.
As for publicly initiated and funded projects, they are crucial especially for identifying regulatory needs, for developing best practices in creating, managing and operating data spaces and to promote experimentation and new ways of working. We got an update on many such experiments including the Gaia-X lighthouse projects Catena-X and Mobility Data Space. Both EU and national initiatives are flourishing in many domains such as health, mobility, industry, green deal, agriculture and circular economy.
New instruments are needed to avoid fragmentation
For data spaces to work to their full potential, market players must work together and agree on many practical, legal and technical aspects. It is imperative that different data spaces share objectives and are technically compatible and that solutions can be transferred from one context to another and replicated. The Hague symposium introduced several platforms and initiatives that aim at such interoperability and portability.
The Data Spaces Business Alliance unites industry players in the search of technical convergence of their respective approaches. It brings together Gaia-X European Association for Data and Cloud AISBL, the Big Data Value Association (BDVA), FIWARE Foundation, and the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA) – and the 1000+ stakeholders they together represent. The Data Spaces Support Centre is funded by the European Commission as part of the Digital Europe Program. The organization has the purpose of defining common requirements, establishing best practices and making different technologies and standards available. It has released a Starter Kit and a Glossary to help companies with data space development. As for a third example, a Dutch initiative for coordinating data space development and sharing expertise was unveiled at the Hague symposium: The Centre of Excellence for Data Sharing and Cloud or CoE-DSC.
In addition to organizations, also methodological instruments, such as the IDSA Rule Book, are developed to ensure synergies and interoperability between data spaces.
SMEs have a golden opportunity
As the importance of having data spaces that can work together increases, there will be a growing demand for practical and hands-on services. It is a golden opportunity for many small and medium-sized enterprises. The Hague symposium featured a small exhibition area where such companies showcased their services related to data ecosystems. These services can take different forms, such as providing data spaces as a service or creating customized data spaces based on specific needs. In any case, what SMEs can offer is particularly valuable: they can make it easy to establish and operate a data space.
Experimentation plays a crucial role in developing new tools and services, thereby creating new opportunities for service providers. This can be especially important in situations where different sectors need to collaborate, as it can be challenging to navigate the complexities of data governance in such cases.
The data space community is thriving
As a final conclusion from the three-day event, we are pleased to note that the data space community is thriving. Indeed, the workshops that took place on the third day were met with enthusiasm. How to protect data providers from misuse and establish trust was perhaps the most burning topic. Specifically regarding individuals’ personal data, it was agreed that provisions related to sharing it should be included in the blueprint of data spaces from the very beginning. It is something of concern for all and not only dedicated organizations like MyData.
As the data economy penetrates the society, it is crucial to consider a variety of perspectives and voices to ensure its fairness and to safeguard data sovereignty, the owners’ right to control their data. We hope to see even more interdisciplinary considerations and initiatives. We also hope to see new ways of working together with the purpose of identifying benefits, supporting new players, building solutions and technologies and setting standards for interoperable systems.
Events like the Data Spaces Symposium serve as ideal platforms for co-creating the future of the data economy.
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