IDSA Rulebook — International Perspectives¶
A subgroup of the IDSA Rulebook Working Group
Why this exists¶
IDSA is a truly global organisation, but the data space movement is not evolving uniformly. Standards converge through formal bodies: ISO/IEC 20151, the Dataspace Protocol, CEN/CENELEC JTC 25. What diverges is everything underneath: governance philosophy, legal regimes, market structures, and geopolitical positioning. The IDSA Rulebook was developed primarily in and for the European context. Several of its assumptions - harmonised horizontal legislation, institutional trust anchored in public bodies, federated multi-stakeholder consortia as the default market structure - are European characteristics, not universal ones. For the Rulebook to serve a global community, those assumptions must be made explicit, and the conditions in other regions must be described by the people who work in them.
That is what this subgroup produces: regional annexes to the IDSA Rulebook, each describing how data spaces actually work (legally, institutionally, commercially) in one region of the world.
The annexes¶
Each annex follows a common nine-section structure so that regions can be compared side by side:
- Overview
- Key Initiatives and Infrastructure
- Legal and Regulatory Dimension
- Data Sovereignty and Governance
- Interoperability in Data Spaces
- Trust, Privacy, and Security
- Public-Private Collaboration
- Cross-Border Data Flows
- Open Questions for Future Research
Status¶
| Region | Status | Lead |
|---|---|---|
| Europe | Working draft published — open for comments | Rulebook WG |
| Australia | In preparation | Confirmed - regional contributors |
| Brazil | Early steps | Regional contributors |
| Japan | Early steps | Regional contributors |
| India, Korea, ASEAN, Africa, Latin America, North America, … | Open — seeking regional leads | This could be you |
How to contribute¶
Comment on a published annex. Open a GitHub issue or submit a pull request. Every annex is a living document: regulatory content is date-stamped and updated as the landscape moves, and the open questions in Section 9 are tracked as issues in this repository.
Lead or join a regional annex. You do not need to be a lawyer or a standards expert. The most valuable contributors are practitioners who know how data sharing actually works in their region: which initiatives matter, which rules bind, where the friction is. The nine-section template and the published Europe annex give you the structure; the Working Group provides editorial support and review. A first draft of an annex is typically a small-team effort over a few months.
Connect us to the right people. If you know an organisation, hub, or colleague who should be involved in a regional annex, make the introduction.
Working principles¶
- Descriptive, not evaluative. Annexes describe how each region works, in that region's own terms. They do not rank approaches.
- Written by the region, reviewed by the Working Group. Regional teams hold the pen; the WG ensures comparability and editorial quality.
- Living documents. Regulatory landscapes move. Annexes carry a status date, and updates are normal, expected, and welcome.
- Analysis, not policy. Annexes are Working Group analysis and do not constitute formal IDSA policy positions.
Contact¶
Marko Turpeinen (1001 Lakes) — Co-Chair, IDSA Rulebook Working Group — marko.turpeinen@1001lakes.com
Mario Holesch (IDSA) — Senior Consultant & Innovation Manager — mario.holesch@internationaldataspaces.org
To get involved, open an issue in this repository or contact the Working Group through the IDSA community channels.