Data Governance - Part 7: Responsible data stewardship

There are at least three, driving needs for data stewardship standards: (1) professionalization; (2) de-politicization; and (3) harmonization. Nearly every industry in the world has made major investments in digital transformation – whether through adaptation of their own services, adoption of data-driven approaches to key informatics functions, or engagement in data brokerage directly. Each of these industries have pre-existing norms, standards, and rights – all of which digital practice affects and, ideally, translates into improved approaches. Yet, most digital systems lack the process transparency, participation tools, or apportioned equity to meaningfully understand the effect of digital transformation. Data stewardship standards not only help articulate professional data management and governance standards across disciplines, but they also help frame new markets and opportunities to create professional services. Data management and stewardship services aren’t, of course, new – but they are still difficult to compare and, as data architectures become increasingly political, fragmented.