Protocol-enabled relationships

Deploying the Protocol Stack is a systems-level intervention. Itdescribes the factors or preconditions that we need in place in order for a Data Commons to function.

We think this is true at the scale of a small local data sharing initiative involving a handful of organisations, right up to the national and global scales.

The commons protocols enable low-friction, high-trust data integration and reuse. This is essentially having the rules of the road available for forming a quick and safe relationship between data providers and users. The diagram – an example using personal data – shows how I can share my story withanother party, safe in the knowledge that I have at least equal influence in that relationship.

A protocol-enabled community

The resulting data ecosystem that is enabled by the Protocol Stack creates a community where data reuse and integration can happen at scale and at lowcost due to the high trust and control the protocols afford.

The Internet protocol ushered in the ability for a wide range of solutions to increase value for users – email, web pages, file sharing, social media, etc. Financial regulation aids citizens and organisations to transact money safely with all of the social and institutional protocols that govern those kinds of transaction.

By the same token, data sharing protocol should allow a community that enables, not disables, innovation and engagement in the reuse and integration of data to drive value. It will do this because it solves the current big problem, that there are no standards for consent, control, licensed reuse, etc, so it is difficult to form data sharing relationships.