LEVERAGING DATA SPACE EXPERIENCE
The construction of data spaces does not start from scratch! Many piloting activities have been already carried out internationally by different associations and organisations interested in data sharing and there is also a substantial wealth of practical knowledge in Europe concerning the key ingredients and recipes for building data sharing ecosystems. Feasible architectural and governance patterns have already been identified in the context of pilots, and in some cases turned into technical or business specifications.
European data spaces should leverage these examples, supported by the adoption of a design process based on the principle of composing and assembling independently developed elements with clearly defined – and preferably standardised – interfaces. Besides favouring reusability, this strategy would substantially reduce development effort and time-to-market, as well as increase reliability by leveraging tried and tested components. Considering this, the top-down requirement elicitation process described in high-level requirement identification, should be complemented with a bottom-up analysis of existing alternatives. Some of these provide no technical specification, staying at the level of design principles. However, others provide architecture and interface specifications, and even open source implementations of key building blocks.
DATA SHARING INITIATIVES
Specification of a federated open data infrastructure based on European values | |
Reference architecture for international data spaces including a governance model and adoption strategy | |
Open-source implementation of standards enabling the development of portable and interoperable smart solutions | |
An open specification to enable participants to store their data securely in decentralised data stores | |
Building Blocks providing basic digital services developed in the context of the Connecting Europe Facility, an EU funding instrument | |
Decentralised data exchange protocol enabling data owners and consumers to publish, discover, and consume data in a secure, privacy-preserving fashion | |
EU-wide, standards-based geospatial data sharing infrastructure built on the legal requirements of the INSPIRE Directive, offering open source-based components |
CONCEPTUALISING DATA SPACES FROM EXISTING IMPLEMENTATIONS
The data sharing initiatives described above are varied, offering different sets of characteristics, implementing various management and governance mechanisms and prioritising different quality attributes. This represents a promising starting point for common European data spaces, as a wide range of conceptualisation styles could already be partially supported by existing implementations, including for instance (looking at the technical architecture):
Centralised data catalogues offering high performance, auditability and productivity features
Federated data sharing ecosystems, following algorithm-to-data and edge-computing principles, offering stronger control, scalability and portability characteristics;
Fully decentralised systems, e.g., blockchain-based for transparency and auditability, or personal information management systems, prioritising confidentiality, interoperability and portability qualities.
NEXT STEPS
These are just some examples of the range of architectures already evaluated in the context of European and global data sharing initiatives. A next step could include the analysis of these initiatives against the functional and non-functional requirements already presented in your data spaces journey. This would pave the way for the identification of promising building blocks for common European data spaces, and for the adoption of approaches from a set of field-tested options. It would also represent a step towards the definition of more concrete and measurable requirements, gradually breaking down high-level priorities into more granular ones. A systematic definition of requirements rooted in EU policy needs, combined with the analysis and reuse of lessons learned and building blocks from existing data sharing initiatives, would accelerate the design, development and deployment of European data spaces, promoting European competitiveness and digital sovereignty.
Suggested Section: Data Space Governance
Understand how Governance can configure and coordinate the necessary actions by different organisations that make a data space work and meet its objectives.