Guiding questions
Purpose: Define the breadth and depth of the catalogue to balance discoverability, transparency, and accessibility.
Scope & Functionality of the Catalogue
What is the appropriate scope of the catalogue (minimal index or rich metadata repository)?
Should offerings be accessible to non-participants (public visibility) or only to registered participants?
What level of detail in metadata is required to ensure both discoverability and trustworthiness?
Will the catalogue manage service offerings, support dynamic data transactions, and enforce access management for offerings?
Purpose: Clarify who manages the catalogue and how access rights are assigned, authenticated, and authorized.
Governance & Access Control
Who governs the catalogue (central authority vs. distributed responsibility)?
How should access be managed, open, tiered (role-based), or restricted to use-case participants?
What mechanisms should be in place for authentication and authorization when publishing and discovering offerings?
Purpose: Decide whether the catalogue operates as a central service, a federated network, or a hybrid model.
Catalogue Architecture (Centralised vs. Decentralised)
Should a federated model, central broker model, or hybrid be adopted?
If federated, how should synchronisation work across distributed catalogues? (push, pull, gossip protocols).
If centralised: who operates and funds the central catalogue service, and what are the implications for neutrality and inclusivity?
How will cross-space interoperability for discovery be ensured (common APIs/profiles, conformity tests)?
Purpose: Adopt common metadata standards and align with EU infrastructures to ensure cross-data-space discoverability.
Interoperability & Standards
Which metadata standards (DCAT v3, ODRL, FAIR) should be mandatory?
How should the catalogue align with EU infrastructures (data.europa.eu, national catalogues, sectoral hubs)?
How to ensure cross-data-space discoverability while maintaining control over sensitive offerings?
Purpose: Establish processes for managing, updating, and preserving catalogue entries with sustainability in mind.
Offering Lifecycle & Sustainability
How should providers manage the lifecycle of offerings (versioning, updates, retirement)?
Should sustainability attributes (e.g. environmental impact, CO₂ data quality) be part of metadata descriptions?
How do we ensure long-term persistence of identifiers (PIDs) to support reuse across data spaces?
Purpose: Ensure catalogue entries are reliable, searchable, and validated to build user confidence and usability.
User Experience & Trust
What mechanisms ensure offerings are searchable, transparent, and reliable?
Should a data-space-wide search portal be provided for non-technical users?
How do we build confidence in entries (validation, certification, provenance)?
Will verification links be exposed for trust decisions?
Last updated