The Berlin Senate has initiated work on an official digitalization strategy. It will set an important course for data regulation and use. This will initially create future municipal development pathways, which albeit may soon close again. It is therefore important now to identify the direction that will enable the digital transformation in Berlin to be shaped to reflect environmental concerns, participation and economic development. The course may be set in particular by means of the regulation of data, which represents the main economic and technological basis for digitalization.
What forms of data regulation are possible and necessary at city level in Berlin?
The project “Data Governance and Regulation for a Sustainable Berlin" examines what forms of data regulation are possible and necessary at city level in Berlin to ensure that data-driven services, products and platforms are developed and used to meet social and environmental sustainability goals.
To this end, the project explores the following questions:
- Which of Berlin’s sustainability and development goals in the areas of mobility and transport, municipal infrastructure, health and regional business can be advanced through the collection, provision and use of data? Where are the risks?
- What are the needs for data provision, access and use? What requirements for data governance and regulation should be established in specific contexts – are, for example, open data-regulations or data property rights preferable?
- What regulatory options for data and its use in the social and environmental transformation are recommended for Berlin?
Principles of sustainable data for an environmentally sustainable and socially just Berlin
The project team takes a thorough look at the Berlin digitalization landscape to identify the potential and challenges together with stakeholders from administration, the private sector and civil society. It analyses under which regulatory conditions local and sustainable business models can prevail. Together with the stakeholders involved, principles of sustainable data for an environmentally sustainable and socially just Berlin are being developed along with policy options for sustainable data regulation.