Data Exchange Glossary by Dawex

The most important Data Exchange notions explained

As the data economy is expanding, all surrounding topics are being impacted where new initiatives are undertaken, markets are being regulated and structured, new concepts are arising, new notions are being defined, new words are being used. This dynamic calls for grasping a new vocabulary and getting familiar with new wordings, notions and subjects. This glossary is intended to clarify terms and source definitions to help you navigate through the data economy and the world of data ecosystems.

Data - Data refers to any collection of facts, figures, statistics or representation of information that can be processed, analyzed, and used to gain insights and make decisions.

Data act - The Data Act (DA) is a regulation proposal by the European Commission calling for harmonized rules on fair access to and use of data. The DA is aimed at 1) setting up the rules for facilitated access to connected devices data, 2) rebalancing negotiating powers to prevent misconducts in data exchange contracts, 3) simplifying cloud and edge service providers switch, 4) allowing public sector bodies access data in case of public emergencies, 5) preventing unlawful transfers or accesses to data by non-EU governments. The Data Act was proposed by the European Commission in February 2022 and is currently being discussed.

Data broker - A data broker is a company that acquires data from data providers, then typically aggregates, enriches or transforms it for the purpose of adding value to it. Resulting data products are then licensed to data acquirers –all this without establishing a direct commercial relationship between data providers and data acquirers.

Data circulation - Data circulation is the movement of data within or across industries, ecosystems or markets, including the exchange or sharing of data products between organizations, to achieve economical, social or environmental purposes.

Data commercialization - Data commercialization, also known as data direct monetization, is the process of distributing data products to other organizations against a quantifiable economic or monetary counterpart.

Data Exchange Advisory - Data Exchange Advisory are expert services aimed at helping organizations in defining and delivering a successful data exchange strategy. Advisory typically covers market and ecosystem analysis, data exchange use cases identification, business planning, organization, go-to-market and growth strategy.

Data Exchange Platform - A data exchange platform delivers all necessary capabilities to manage data exchanges under various business models, meeting compliance, security and privacy requirements. A data exchange platform addresses the needs of the orchestrator operating the platform as a trusted intermediary, as well as the needs of the data providers and data acquirers engaged in trusted data transactions.

Data exchange roadmap - A data exchange roadmap refers to the planning describing major steps to be undertaken in order to deliver a data exchange strategy. It covers data exchange governance, technology, data products management, go-to-market, organization and operations.

Data exchange strategy - A data exchange strategy aims at defining the strategic approach to create value from data distribution, data sourcing, data sharing and/or data ecosystem orchestration.

Data exchange traceability - Data exchange traceability refers to the ability to trace the exchange of data throughout its lifecycle. This process is used to ensure that data transaction is accurate, complete, consistent and compliant with regulations.

Data Governance Act - The Data Governance Act (DGA) is a European regulation aimed at boosting data exchanges and data sharing by regulating 1) data intermediation service providers, 2) the re-use of publicly-held, protected data, and 3) the sharing of data for altruistic purposes. Both personal and non-personal data are in scope of the DGA, which entered into force on June 23, 2022 and with the application date set to September 24, 2023.

Data license - A data license is a contractual agreement which describes the conditions under which the data acquirer can use the data once acquired, such as duration, sub-licensing rights, territory etc.

Data licensee - A data licensee is a legal person who is granted usage rights for data by a data licensor.

Data licensing - The process where a data licensor is granting rights to a data licensee to access and use one or several data products made available by the data licensor, at terms and conditions described in a data license agreement.

Data licensor - A data licensor is a natural or legal person who owns usage rights for data and grants these rights to a data licensee.

Data producer - A data producer is a natural or legal person, a device or any software that generates data.

Data product - A data product is a collection of data under various formats. It is then packaged by the data provider with the associated description metadata, licenses, terms of use and offering details to make it ready for data exchange.

Data transaction - Data transaction refers to a unique immutable, i.e. unmodifiable unit of data access or exchange, logged, treated in a coherent and reliable way independent of other data transactions.

A data transaction requires trust between participants, regulatory compliance, contractualization, licensing, technical exchange management and traceability.

Data transaction in a distributed mode - Data transactions in a distributed mode rely on a network topology where nodes are exchanging data with each other peer-to-peer.

Distributed systems are suited for use cases where trust in participants is pre existing, allowing direct transfer between parties.

Data transaction in a managed mode - A data transaction in a managed mode refers to a data transaction where an intermediary acts as a trusted third party. The data flows from the data provider to the acquirer via the third party, which manages trust, cataloging and traceability. Managed systems are suited when trust must be enforced by a third party.

Data usage authorization - A data usage authorization is a legally binding agreement made by and between a data producer and a data provider specifying the terms & conditions on the usage of the data.

Data valorization - Data valorization is the process of turning data into data products in order to generate revenue streams, share insights, information or knowledge to take actionable decisions.