The specification is based on 200+ data product cases. This is the first comprehensive attempt to standardize data product model in machine-readable format. The specification captures data product's technical, business, legal and ethical aspects in one package. The developer experience has been built with help of application developers to ensure excellent usability.
It all started in 2019
The specification is not an idea invented last week. Jarkko Moilanen was invited to join the ranks of a data platform development company in Dec 2018 and lead the development as Chief Development Officer. In May 2019 Jarkko had worked with multiple data operating companies and discovered the need to build new tools - business tools for data owners. This resulted in the creation of the Data Product Toolkit. The Data Product Toolkit however was somewhat crippled without underlying machine-readable data product standard; something that binds together business, technology, legal and ethical aspects of the data product. The idea of Open Data Product Specification was born around Sept 2019. However, the idea was buried under other development tasks and the dream almost died. Sept 2021 Jarkko resurrected the standardization idea and quickly drafted the first version of the specification in cooperation with Jussi Niilahti. Now the Open Data Product Specification version 1.0.0rc01 has been published in Jan 2022.
The specification is based on 200+ data product cases. The developer experience has been built with help of application developers.
In the "Open Data Product" focus is on the latter words and the prefix 'open' refers to the openness of the standard. Any kind of connotations to open data (a different thing) are not intentional, intended, or desirable.
What is it?
Technical specification of a machine-readable data product metadata model. It defines the objects and attributes as well as the structure of digital data products. The specification is not all about technology, but it has four built-in aspects:
Technical (infrastructure & access)
Business (pricing & plans)
Legal (licensing & IPR)
Ethical (privacy & mydata)
International standards are a vital tool in ensuring products and services are interchangeable and compatible across borders, removing barriers to trade, reducing production and supply chain costs and building confidence in business services and protecting consumers.
Data Economy growth requires standards
The Data Product Specification aims for the same impact in the Data Economy as what OpenAPI specification did for the API Economy.
The data products and data as a service solutions are spread around increasing amount of market places, tool stack for the data product design, development and management is a wild west, consumers have a hard time knowing what they are purchasing or how to compare data products to find a best possible fit in their situation. In short, the data economy lacks a data product standard. By working together and openly, we can increase interoperability, growth, and data reuse with help of shared specification
A critical part of the data value chain
The specification enables frictionless value chain development operations between data product design tools, data marketplaces, data platforms, and data pipelines. The standard enables multichannel multi-headed hydra solution output.
