IDS as a Foundation for Open Data Ecosystems

Abstract

Open data is a popular and flourishing concept. The availability of open and structured data is the foundation of new business models, citizen engagement, and scientific research. However, open data still faces many issues to unfold its full potential, including usability, quality, legal, privacy, strategic, and technical barriers. In addition, the public sector remains its main provider, while industry stakeholders are still reluctant to participate in open data ecosystems. In this article, we present an architecture to overcome these drawbacks by utilizing the concepts, specifications, and technologies provided by International Data Spaces. We developed a prototype to demonstrate and evaluate the practical adoption of our architecture. Our work shows that IDS can act a vital foundation for open data ecosystems. The presented solution is available as open source software.