IHAN standardisation workshops

Sitra’s IHAN® project aims to build the foundation for a fair and functioning data economy. CEN-CENELEC workshops are part of this work. A more detailed description of the workshops can be found on the web pages of the European Committee for Standardization, CEN-CENELEC.

The workshops are relatively informal, consisting of consensus-building groups, and are open to any interested party that wishes to participate directly. They are particularly suited to innovative experimental topics, often in connection with the output from research and innovation projects. Their results are published as a CEN or CENELEC Workshop Agreement (CWA). The CWA documents will be approved by a consensus of specialists and organisations involved in the workshop. A sufficient degree of consensus is determined by the chairman of the workshop.

What are we doing?

Sitra’s goal with the workshop is to refine the technical requirements of the IHAN architecture’s key concepts through an open process. We hope that the open CEN-CENELEC workshop attracts experts from other organisations, thus making the requirements better and wider accepted.

At the end of the workshop, the resulting CWA document will be owned by CEN-CENELEC, to be released through its official channels. The document can be downloaded for free for three years, after which its lifespan may be extended for another three years. However, the CWA document is only a milestone. The ultimate goal is for CWA to be further developed by CEN-CENELEC either as a technical committee document or even as a European Standard (EN).

How will the work proceed?

We will convene for a kick-off meeting on 22 January 2019 at Sitra’s premises in Helsinki. At the meeting, we will go through the concept of the workshop, intellectual property rights (IPR) issues and any comments on the work plan, and we will approve the work plan after reaching a consensus. See the draft of the agenda.

After the kick-off meeting, the actual work will begin according to the work plan. The current view is that work will be done in three work streams according to the preliminary work plan. Each work stream will be chaired by a Sitra expert and can progress independently by producing a part of the final CWA document. Work streams can agree on the working methods freely and they are likely to include desktop study, technical writing, discussing draft comments together, and face-to-face and virtual meetings.

• You can sign up to the kick-off meeting by emailing the workshop secretary: elina.huttunen@sfs.fi.
• At the kick-off meeting you can sign up for one or more work streams.
• If you are not able to attend the kick-off meeting, you can sign up at a later date by sending an email to elina.huttunen@sfs.fi to request more information on the ongoing work streams and how to get involved.
• When signing up, each participant in the workshop must agree on the rules of CEN-CENELEC and sign the participation form, which you can obtain from the secretariat.

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Markus Kalliola

Programme Director, Sitra International Programmes