During our Community Meeting of November 2024, we already showed a snapshot of the first version of the Data Spaces Interoperability Compass to our community as we entered into the next phase – the review period. We processed the feedback of many different reviewers: from data sharing initiatives and service providers to experts from TNO and the CoE-DSC. We can now officially share the first initial version of the Data Sharing Interoperability Compass (DSIC). This is a MVP – a minimal viable product – which we will improve on over the next years based on further user-input. We spoke with Gijs van Houwelingen and Yekaterina Travkina, both part of our DSIC team, about what the DSIC is, why it’s important, how it was created, what its current status is, and what the next steps are.
Download the first initial version of the DSIC
Practical guidance and tools to achieve interoperability
There are a lot of regulations and initiatives that focus on data sharing, interoperability and data spaces, both in the Netherlands and on a European level. But there is no clear overview and it’s difficult to be aware of everything that is happening, which creates confusion. Gijs says: “That’s why the DSIC team created the Data Spaces Interoperability Compass (DSIC). It is a set of user-friendly guidelines to ensure that data can flow across different data sharing environments. The DSIC consists of two elements, namely a user manual (which is a living document) and a set of tools.” An example of a tool that has already been created is the Dutch Data Sharing Landscape scan. This allows people to discover the current 47 Dutch data sharing initiatives and 83 service providers. “Together, the two elements provide practical guidance and they should allow data sharing initiatives, service providers, and policy makers to navigate the interoperability landscape.” Gijs continues: “In 2027/2028, we want to have moved closer to an interoperable data sharing landscape in the Netherlands. And ultimately, we hope that the DSIC can also contribute to the work on data space interoperability in Europe.”
The value potential of data sharing
Facilitating more use cases that require cross-domain data sharing (across sectors and/or across borders) is a next step in the development of data spaces. In many cases, most value – economic or otherwise – can be generated when data is exchanged and combined across various domains, instead of within one domain. Gijs says cross-domain data sharing offers much new value potential. “Say you want to move a container with goods from Rotterdam to Paris. This means you cross three borders. But you need to be able to share data with e.g. your French client. Allowing companies to share data across national borders is clearly a value generator.” Another example of great value potential is sharing data between the energy and mobility domain. “Because of the energy transition, it’s important to understand how the energy systems function. Smart charging of electric vehicles requires exchange of data between vehicles (mobility domain) and companies responsible for the functioning of the energy grid (energy domain). This would allow them to (automatically) create a better planning for the charging of vehicles.”
But it is difficult to realise this cross-domain data sharing, because stakeholders such as data sharing initiatives, service providers and policy makers are still missing practical guidance and tools that are easy to navigate and use on how to become interoperable. Yekaterina explains: “We wanted to provide clarity, create visibility, and help our community to get acquainted with the whole landscape. And also to provide an open place to explore what they can do together with us to further this landscape. The overall aim of the DSIC is to aid cross-domain data sharing and thus aid the development of data spaces.” Yekaterina continues: “Currently, Common European Data Spaces (CEDs) are arranged per sector (e.g. mobility, health), but the ultimate future vision of the EU is that participants in any data space can ‘talk’ to one another and exchange data. The DSIC team tries to unravel where we stand now and what things we observe that will aid the process of getting to this end goal and ways to prepare for this.”
Creating the DSIC: sources and challenges
Gijs explains that the living document and the set of tools that they have now, was created using various resources. “It was based on the existing internal knowledge within the CoE-DSC, TNO, and INNOPAY. We also conducted interviews with members of the CoE-DSC community. In addition, we spoke with experts and organised various workshops and sessions that were attended by many of the representatives of the large data sharing initiatives and service providers in the Netherlands. Furthermore, we conducted desk research and we keep track of EU legislative documentation. From time to time, we refer back to the Data Sharing Canvas and we use the DSSC blueprint to give people an overview of the building blocks and possible design options.” Yekaterina adds: “It’s important to mention that our work isn’t happening in a vacuum. We are always in touch with our community and parties like for example the Data Spaces Support Centre (DSSC), IDSA, and Gaia-X. We work in an agile way, want to co-create and be aligned with other efforts”
The concepts of trust and identity pose a challenge. Yekaterina says: “If parties are in different data spaces, you don’t have information about e.g. the onboarding process and the standards of each of the data spaces. That’s why it’s difficult to establish trust. Furthermore, you need a digital identity that you can trust so you can authenticate and authorise parties with the high level of certainty about someone’s identity. Questions such as ‘Are you using the same trust frameworks?’ (especially across borders) and ‘Who issued an identity for you?’ need to be discussed and answered.”
Next steps: creating more tools and listening to the community
This initial version of DSIC has been reviewed by everyone who has been involved in DSIC so far, from data sharing initiatives and service providers to people from TNO and the CoE-DSC. Yekaterina: “One of the main things that stood out, was that people want more guidance on implementations of different building blocks. This is something we will definitely dive more into this year, which will result in an enriched landscape scan for implementations. But we are proud to have the first initial version of the DSIC available now, and are looking forward to enhance it further.”
Download the first initial version of the DSIC
Yekaterina continues: “The past year, the DSIC team focused on the Trust & Discoverability building blocks. This year, we will create more tools, such as federation matrices to analyse the level of interoperability between your own and another initiative or to position your own data space in relation to other data spaces. Other tools will be contextual decision trees, for example to make design decisions within data spaces (aimed at maximum interoperability) or to see which regulations apply to you. This is necessary, because there is no one size fits all.” If you want to learn more, make sure to register for the Data Sharing Festival which takes place on February 4 and 5. The DSIC team will present a session, in which they explain their journey so far and talk about the plans for the next years.
Register for the Data Sharing Festival
Discover the DSIC
Make sure you read the DSIC document and see if there are tools that can help you take next steps. Do you have any ideas, other input, or feedback? Please reach out to the DSIC team via: dsic@coe-dsc.nl
