Brussels, 02/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - Data collection and exploitation is a growing fast. On Wednesday 2 July, in response to demands from industry and grassroots stakeholders, the European Commission called on national governments to wake-up to this “big data” revolution. Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes said: “It's about time we focused on the positive aspects of big data. Big data sounds negative and scary, and for the most part it isn't. Leaders need to embrace big data”.
The main problems identified by the Commission in public consultations on big data are:
1) lack of cross-border coordination;
2) insufficient infrastructure and funding opportunities;
3) a shortage of data experts and related skills;
4) fragmented and overly complex legal environment.
The Commission proposes definite initiatives to solve these problems:
1) setting up a big data public-private partnership to fund game-changing big data ideas, in areas such as personalised medicine and food logistics;
2) creating an open data incubator (within the Horizon 2020 framework), to help SMEs set up supply chains based on data and use cloud computing more;
3) proposing new rules on data ownership and liability of data provision for data gathered via the internet of things (machine to machine communication);
4) mapping of data standards, identifying potential gaps;
5) establishing a series of supercomputing centres of excellence to increase the number of skilled data workers in Europe;
6) creating a network of data processing facilities in different member states.
The Commission will scale-up or continue: - expanding investment in 5G technology (already €700 million committed to a public-private partnership) through international agreements such as the June agreement between European Commission and South Korea (see EUROPE 11101). It will also consolidate the grand coalition for digital jobs, and the opening up education initiative to plug the skills gap. Best practice guidelines for public authorities and open data will also be published. (IL)