Smart Industry No.1 2022

Interview
Circular Reasoning
What is Dawex?
Dawex helps facilitate the circulation
of data among various stakeholders.
We are developing data
exchange platforms that can be
used by many different types of
organisations, whether private or
public.
Why are data exchanges important?
As you know, the world is seeing
an explosion in data being created.
IoT is part of the reason but,
even though the supply of data is
incredibly high – activities such
as training a machine learning algorithm
requires huge amounts
of data – demand is increasing a
lot, more than a single organisation
can typically supply. Organisations
need to look to external
sources. Of course, you have open
data, you can scrape the web and
do things like that but very often
the most important data are residing
at other organisations – accessing
that can be challenging,
at least legally.
So that’s where data exchanges
come in?
They connect the data suppliers
with the data acquirers and help
them engage. That requires trust.
Elements that can create trust
include being able to carry out a
data transaction in a secure and
regulatory compliant environment
– something you can typically
embed in a data exchange
platform.
Can I buy used data like I buy a
used car? Does it belong to me?
Data owners must consider
whether they are ready to make
their data available to others and,
if so, on which terms and conditions,
and at what price. Typically,
data is licensed. Instead of buying
the data outright, the buyer
purchases a license which allow
them to use it under certain
terms and conditions. There are
also many regulations governing
data sales – not just private data,
but any kind of data. We know of
more than 120 pieces of regulation
globally and our anticipation
is that the data economy is going
to be regulated as heavily as the
financial markets – if not more so.
What are the technical requirements?
The actual sharing and transferring
of data can happen in many
ways: simple, file-based exchange
or API-based; it can be a one-time
transaction versus subscription
or ongoing. With a subscription
the user obtains access to data
Data owners
must always
know who they
are dealing
with, who is
using the data,
and how it will
be used.
Didier Navez
Dawex
source ©: Dawex Systems
for a certain period, with the data
updated on a regular basis according
to the agreement. The
challenge and opportunity for
the data exchange provider is to
be able to keep track of, and cope
with, all these use cases and scenarios.
At Dawex, we manage all
these issues, whether it’s a hedge
fund making a one-off acquisition
of a data set to test an algorithm,
or on-going projects, for example
in the agricultural sector and in
the agri-foods industry.
In September 2021, you joined
a consortium of partners from
the aerospace industry to create
what you call the Space Data
Marketplace. What is the rationale
behind that?
This project is focused on satellite
data. Currently, the domain
is quite siloed. There are multiple
sources where you can get
these data now but it’s neither
very streamlined nor efficient. We
want to create a one-stop shop
for all types of satellite data for
all kinds of use cases and initiatives.
For example, we have companies
developing solutions for
analysing infrastructure using AI
or looking at applications such
as rail or waterways or managing
crops and vegetation.
What’s the difference between
open exchanges and closed
white-label ecosystems, and
how do you see this playing out?
A modern data exchange environment
should push for transparency,
so the data owner will always
know who they are dealing with,
who is using the data and how
it will be used. That’s a very important
principle for augmenting
the trust that corporates have for
making their own data available
to others and, for example, avoiding
the chance that a competitor
would be able to access sensitive
data they shouldn’t have.
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