Open and Shared Data

As organizations increasingly need to use data as a strategic resource, sharing and collaboration around data are becoming more relevant. How sharing and collaboration occur depends on an organization's underlying purpose and goals. The openness can regard data shared between business units within an individual organization, but also between organizations where contractual forms and technical platforms limit the dissemination and application of data. In addition, data can be made openly available for the benefit of dissemination and free use in services developed by third parties.

However, choosing the right level of openness and form of accessibility requires consideration of, for example, business and integrity-related aspects. Technical aspects also require review, for instance, regarding the design and application of platforms, processes, and formats that can scale to the intended scope. It is also important to work proactively with developers and other users of the organization's data, to understand how data creates value for the user and how this can be improved. Requirements for enabling data access are also critical to avoid future data lock-ins.

Many of the technical and organizational skills required to deal with these challenges are part of the so-called "soft digital infrastructure." These are essential skills (e.g., standards, frameworks, processes, principles, and tools) that should be developed and applied by actors planning to collaborate, share or use any type of data. Within RISE, we have experience in applied research and active collaboration to support both industry and the public sector in building these skills. Areas we work in include, for example:

• Processes and methods for handling, publishing, and using open and shared data
• Facilitation and coordination of sharing and collaboration around open and shared data
• Implementation, selection, and design of standards and specifications for data that promote interoperability between services and data portability.
• Benefit analyses of effects from publishing and using open and shared data.

Our overall goal is to help our partners and society at large use, share and collaborate on open and shared data in a secure, sustainable, and value-creating way. This way, we hope to contribute to an accelerated and value-creating digital transformation in both the Swedish industry and the public sector.