The fourth issue of the TOELI Research Paper features an article by Silvia Martinelli and Carlo Rossi Chauvenet on the development of new smart services in the dialogue with Big Tech, inspired by the experience in Data Valley.

Within the offer of products and services, the use of data and algorithms in the industrial sector has led to a paradigm shift that has affected both the forms of production and the means of exchange. The smart product, intended as personalized and connected, has created an ecosystem around the physical product of operators involved and services offered to the final customer.

Thus, in these years and this historical moment, data-based business models are multiplying, all based on new forms of use of the information collected in them. At the same time, there is a growing interest in having access to additional databases to generate new correlations and new services to be offered to end-users, whether consumers, businesses, or even public bodies.

“The paradigm shift described is enabled by the creation and management of the data flow. These can be personal data entered by the user or generated during interaction with the product, or those collected by sensors and relating to the surrounding environment, or even those collected by thousands of other applications with which the product and its user necessarily interact.Data, as an intangible asset, is not subject to deterioration due to its use and is therefore also defined as a “non-rival asset”. This makes it possible to use it for various purposes and on several occasions, extracting new value each time.Thus, in recent years and this historical moment, data-based business models have multiplied, all based on new forms of use of the information collected in them. Nonetheless, there is a growing interest in having access to additional databases, to generate new correlations and new services to be offered to end-users, whether consumers, businesses or even public bodies.However, the sharing of data and its re-use in innovative ways within the creation of newsmartproducts and services face some obstacles.

Firstly, the use of data, where personal or even anonymized to the point of anonymity, requires, as is well known and necessary, the application of all the principles, precautions, and procedures laid down in our legislation for the processing of personal data.

Secondly, the sharing of data between different entities, private or public, requires agreements, partnerships, or the construction of new legal structures for the management of datagovernanceand for the regulation of all potential problems that may arise from the sharing itself. In particular, it will be necessary to make an agreement on the possibilities and modalities of taking future decisions, the sharing of risks and the predetermination of responsibilities, and the protection of the investment made.A prerequisite for the sharing itself is, moreover, the meeting that generates it, the identification of the desired partner becoming fundamental, that is: (i) companies possessing or able to acquire the required datasets; (ii) companies managing the interface or the product or the sensor that dialogues with the user or the environment to be reached.

Third, but again a fundamental precondition is a technical interoperability between software. The latter is, in fact, pivotal for real-time communication between systems, fordata quality,and to reach the final customer, by accessing the desired interface or product“.

The paper further presents the case study of Data Valley, where the project aims “to respond to this need for sharing and integration, also carefully assessing the contractual and compliance elements, both between the SMEs themselves and between them and subjects that are normally less accessible to them: the large technology multinationals“.

Read the full paper on TOELI website.

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