Beyond the Data Flow Paradigm
Governing Data Requires to Look Beyond Data
Abstract
The paper aims to contribute to the discussion on how to regulate and govern data as an economic asset. It critically discusses the ‘data flow paradigm’, defined here as the regulatory focus on data (transactions) with the purpose to enhance data exchange by establishing data markets. Based on the examples of the electricity and the automotive sectors with respect to data governance, the paper finds that the data flow paradigm alone is too narrow. This paradigm seems to bear the idea that there should be well-operating data markets, possibly by the operation of the law, and that such markets alone would deliver the grand policy expectations, such as ‘AI’ or ‘data-driven innovations’. Yet, fos- tering data exchange is not an end in itself and should be regarded with respect to the sectoral objectives and constraints. As the study of the examples shows, the quest for appropriate mechanisms to govern data often leads to rediscovering old concepts, such as (data) commons or (data) platform. Finally, the paper discusses future possible regulatory intervention.
Copyright (c) 2020 Charlotte Ducuing

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Technology and Regulation (TechReg) is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his or her institution. Users are permitted to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or to use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. Submissions are published under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license.