6 Blockchain, Data Sharing and Web 3.0
Approximately 80% of data is closed (organisational) or personal – large volumes
remain untapped behind firewalls. Secondary or tertiary uses of this data are not
realised or known. The organisations that own closed data and the direct interactions
between consumers and producers are essentially best positioned to dominate
the market and create new business models that will lead to a successful digital
transformation of a utility. How is it possible to unlock water sector proprietary
data in faster, better and more trusted ways? The water sector has historically
had trust issues with proprietary data. However, the potential benefits of open
data (data that anyone can access, use and share) need to be considered, specifically
by opening up previously closed data to data innovators. Data can be best considered
as an ‘e-infrastructure’ to facilitate this. Water companies are heavily reliant on
data, but there are often concerns over data quality. A move to more standardised
information representation for interoperability is needed for the future, resulting
in independence from any particular computer software system and leading
to standardised interfaces, technical information models and convertibility to
XML and Web 3.0 formats. Web 3.0 refers to a semantic web, which is a
Fig. 4 The larger digitalization landscape that water companies operate within: data sources,
issues and actors
14
S. R. Mounce
Approximately 80% of data is closed (organisational) or personal – large volumes
remain untapped behind firewalls. Secondary or tertiary uses of this data are not
realised or known. The organisations that own closed data and the direct interactions
between consumers and producers are essentially best positioned to dominate
the market and create new business models that will lead to a successful digital
transformation of a utility. How is it possible to unlock water sector proprietary
data in faster, better and more trusted ways? The water sector has historically
had trust issues with proprietary data. However, the potential benefits of open
data (data that anyone can access, use and share) need to be considered, specifically
by opening up previously closed data to data innovators. Data can be best considered
as an ‘e-infrastructure’ to facilitate this. Water companies are heavily reliant on
data, but there are often concerns over data quality. A move to more standardised
information representation for interoperability is needed for the future, resulting
in independence from any particular computer software system and leading
to standardised interfaces, technical information models and convertibility to
XML and Web 3.0 formats. Web 3.0 refers to a semantic web, which is a
Fig. 4 The larger digitalization landscape that water companies operate within: data sources,
issues and actors
14
S. R. Mounce