Short history
For a couple of weeks, the Open Data Product Specification has gained a significant amount of attention globally. This is partially due to publicity of the related academic article about it.
Jarkko Moilanen was invited to join the ranks of data platform development company in Dec 2018. 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 Data Product Toolkit.
The 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. The Open Data Product Specification version 1.0 was published in 5th Frb 2022.
Bayer - the medical industry giant
Just recently the medical industry giant Bayer expressed interest in the Open Data Product Specification.
Alexandra Grebe de Barron is one of the Data Product Owners in the industry and works for the Bayer. She is a digital lead, drives initiatives towards the digital transformation of Bayer Pharma.
As product manager, she builds FAIR data science products around Real World Data and offer flexible data integration services across functions by applying industry standards like W3C (linked data). As FAIR data enthusiast, she promotes the FAIR Data principles and build FAIR Data Assets together with and for our data scientists in HealthCare. (FAIR=Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable)
towards a consortium
Previously I had a fruitful discussion with Alberto Firpo from Agile Lab about it. They have also developed open data product specification just like we have. We discovered that our models complement each other nicely. Both organizations have approached the specification from different perspectives. Both organizations have also kept arising Data Mesh concept in mind. A combination of the viewpoints and results from both works probably increases the value and acts as the first base of the joint specification.
We have taken the 1st step toward establishing a consortium around the open data product specification. Aims of the consortium are yet to be agreed, but for sure development of the specification is one. Another one might be pushing the standard to be at the core of EU level data economy and strategy.
We are planning to have a roundtable discussion with interested companies about the standard, data mesh and the future. Contact me to know more.
Get familiar with the standard
The Open Data Product Specification is openly available, it is open-sourced (in Github) and open for improvements.
