Data Marketplaces in Smart Cities

"Data is the oil of the 21st century" indicates an interesting comparison between a physically defined substance and the digital space. While both are either used in their raw or in any converted version there is a fundamental difference: oil is a scarce and data is an increasingly available resource. Due to the current oil dependency of modern economies, much of the innovation effort is dedicated to improve the exploration, exploitation and consumption efficiency. The amount of data being generated all around the globe, however, is steadily increasing, and likewise do the processing and storage capabilities on countless IT systems. Real time traffic data is used already, e.g. in the Smart Port Logistics pilot at Port of Hamburg and in future mobility concepts to reduce fuel consumption and costs. All flavors of Data like Big-, Open-, Secure- and Private- and especially the mixture of different Data flavors are coupled with an increasing importance and dependency in various user scenarios in the private, business, governmental and global area already. But besides increased efficiency at business or enhanced convenience on an individual level, there is also a direct or indirect economic value attached with Data.
While the oil and oil-consuming industries face their challenges mostly at the ends of the value chain, data- centric business needs to focus on thoroughly closing gaps at intermediary value chain nodes.