We are living in the middle of a data revolution. In a digitalising service society, value and wellbeing are increasingly being created through services and platform industries. Data is at the heart of this reform, enabling intelligent and human-centered services.
Organisations are striving to collect and utilize all available data; otherwise they may fall behind in terms of development and competition. They have difficulty distinguishing the important from less important things and – most frighteningly – they are unable to transition to data-driven operations.
Much is said about the importance of data, but too little on the importance of strategic work on data, and far too little on setting guidelines for MyData.
MyData – what are we talking about?
MyData refers to an entity that promotes people’s visibility and right to their own digital information. MyData becomes a model of personal information management and exploitation, where a person is given the right and the means to access, use and pass on their own information.
MyData should not be confused with open data, which means data that is open to everyone for free and is free for any purpose. MyData is only freely available to the person him/ herself, and he/she has the right to decide where to share – if anywhere.
Create a data strategy for your organisation
Data strategy is based on the value the organisation expects to bring to its operations. The data strategy can be divided into four tasks:
1. Set a clear vision for data utilisation.
2. Define the value of data to the organisation.
3. Create clear actions to implement the strategy.
4. Take MyData principles into account in your strategy.
The vision crystallizes the organisation’s ideal situation for exploiting data. However, the vision alone does not motivate people to do the necessary things. Instead, there must be clear and simple tasks that people can grasp. It is the responsibility of management to set the vision and its value, and to get people interested.
Aurora AI: impact on societal level
In Finland, society is being developed to be more proactive and human-oriented. This work is being run and supported by the state. An example is the Aurora Preliminary Exploration Project of the National Artificial Intelligence Programme, where the strong background factors were:
– ethical sustainability
– trust in society
– safe technical solutions
– more comprehensive use of technological potential than before
– empowering citizens
– improving the overall wellbeing and vitality of people and organisations.
In Aurora, work was based on data and its different levels of utilisation.
We individuals will benefit the most
As we build a better and more sustainable society for us all, MyData’s role for the individual will be enhanced in the development of our services. On the other hand, organisations can use MyData to get more complete insight into their services as well as their strategic leadership.
Matti Saastamoinen
Kaija Puranen
