Nederland Opens Data: Shared Data Store

Waag noticed that the development of the democratic process and the networked society is closely linked. The internet provides a way to shape the relation between the government and the society (citizen, business world, science and culture) in many new ways. This goes for both the communication options as for the way and form of providing services by the government. A showcase concerns a service for developers and companies to store and share information about citizens in a safe way, in which citizens do not lose their ownership of the stored data.

The Shared Data Store (SDS) is a (web) service for personal data storage which allows for making parts of the data public and keeping parts private. In a future version these two access levels will be expanded to allow for more fine-grained control of levels of access. Development of the SDS was inspired by 'digital vault' and 'vendor relationship management' ideas, crowd-sourced data gathering, 'citizens' science' projects and the open data discussion in general.

The SDS is a first step in combining the world of open, public data (not necessarily only government data) with personal and private (or corporate) data. Through offering a single API it becomes easier for application developers to allow for rich functionality where both private and public data are combined in one application; with enhanced benefits for the user as well as the developer and the public in general.

The SDS would be a first step in combining open, public data (not neccessarily restricted to government data) with personal or private (or corporate) data. By offering an API, it would be easier for developers to build smart applications that use both private and public data; thus having advantages for users, developers and the public in general.