The world needs standardisation, and Sitra answers the call

The pre-standardisation work on the fair data economy led by Sitra was handed over through the Finnish Standards Association SFS to the European Committee for Standardization (CEN). The final document, the CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA), will be published on the CEN website in spring.

The pre-standardisation concerned three topics: management of identity, consent and log data, as they are key to fair data economy services. Within these topics, the work covered requirement specifications.

The pre-standardisation work carried out was, as suggested by the name, preliminary work. The resulting requirement specifications are not the end of the work, but its beginning. The Sitra-led work can only become a standard once the standardisation organisation includes it in its official work programme and it has been approved in accordance with the rules of the organisation.

The work began in 2018, with Sitra agreeing on the launch of pre-standardisation work with CEN in order to support the fair data economy and compatibility of services. The project plan was published on the CEN website and a public launch meeting was organised in January 2019.

“Companies, research institutions and universities can use the results of our work in their own projects,” says Markus Kalliola, Senior Lead at Sitra, about the significance of the work. “EU-funded projects in particular will benefit from the document published by the European Committee for Standardization, as they are valued in the assessment of funding applications.”

The results of the standardisation work have already been used in the recent version 2.5 of Sitra’s IHAN Blueprint (PDF).

“More than 10 European fair data economy specialists took part in the work. We would like to thank all of them for their co-operation,” says Kalliola.

The results of the standardisation and the blueprint were discussed at the Sitra-organised IHAN Tech Check 2020 event on 22 January 2020. Watch a recording and review the materials.

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