A Conversation with Stefaan Verhulst on Data Collaboratives

On September 13th, we had the privilege to host Stefaan Verhulst, Founder of The GovLab and the DataTank, at IE University for a fireside chat with Miguel Otero-Iglesias, Research Director of our Digital Revolution and New Social Contract program, on the social impact of Data Sharing partnerships.

Below are some key takeaways from the conversation:

– To foster a healthy Data Economy, we must confront the “critical mismatch between data supply and demand.” Often, valuable information remains untapped, failing to address pressing social, economic, and political issues. For instance, data collected for one purpose, like cell-phone records, could be re-used to analyze migration patterns.

– Data Collaboratives, an emerging model of cross-sector collaboration, offer a solution by bringing together “otherwise siloed data” for the greater public good. Examples include APIs and Data Fellowships.

– To tackle the absence of trust both among the general public we should establish a “social license for re-use”, engaging for instance different communities to ask them how they want their data to be used and re-used and for which purposes. We should also consider launching initiatives such as the 100 Questions to “map the most pressing, high impact questions that could be answered if relevant datasets were made available”.

If you missed the conversation and wish to explore Stefaan Verhulst’s comprehensive solutions for making Data Collaboratives systematic, sustainable, and responsible, read our latest policy brief. This publication also contextualizes the discussion within the framework of the Data Act proposed by the European Commission.