Why Europe Can’t See Its Own Data Elephant

The Buddhist text Tittha Sutta includes one of the earliest versions of the famous parable "The Blind Men and the Elephant." In this tale, a group of blind men who have never encountered an elephant before try to understand and imagine what the elephant is like by touching different parts of it.

The parable’s moral is that people struggle to grasp the essence of complex, systemic phenomena that they have never encountered before. Today, we will discuss one such phenomenon, which even lacks a proper name. For our purposes, we'll refer to it as "Data Space," though that term isn't universally accepted. Indeed, it’s a vast and poorly understood elephant.

Yet, this is far from a theoretical discussion. The European Commission has already spent over a billion euros on this 'elephant' and plans to invest even more, without a clear vision of the whole animal, and sometimes without seeing it at all.

Why can’t the European Commission see this, and what can we do to help? Also, how can we save the EU money? Read on.

In a previous strategic article, "The Internet Frontier," I explored the striking similarities between the settlement of new territories in the physical world in 18th- and 19th-century America and the expansion of the digital world of the Internet at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Today, I continue my effort to systematically understand the essence of the Internet and the challenges we encounter as we navigate it.

Having recently attended a conference in Brussels with EU experts, I will focus on the specific challenges Europe and its experts face.

This article aims to explore why Europe’s publicly funded digital projects often fail, with each new project seeming to worsen the situation. Meanwhile, Asia and America are racing ahead into the digital future.

The Name of the Game

Let’s start by making a key point: as a society, we are dealing with a single, large issue – so vast that we do not see its full shape, and it doesn’t even have a name.

It manifests itself via a myriad of problems and projects, which we are tackling in isolation. Here are some examples:

• Human rights NGOs are worried about user rights violations and are fighting against platform monopolies.
• Businesses struggle with data silos. You may not know this, but large corporations often have up to a thousand different information systems, resulting in a thousand silos – versions of the same data scattered across various platforms.
• The media industry is losing a battle against fake news.
• Experts in cultural heritage are concerned with the long-term preservation of data, thinking in terms of centuries.
• Creative professionals are worried about the lack of instruments to control digital intellectual property rights and provenance.
• Politicians are interested in developing participatory democracy, e-voting, dealing with populism.
• Economists are grappling with issues of trust, information asymmetry, inclusivity and inequality across supply chains.
• Financial experts are frustrated that they’ve been unable to introduce Central Bank Digital Currency for over two decades.
• Scientists are increasingly concerned about the decline of Open Access to research articles in the digital age and the misguided incentives that push researchers to focus on quantity over quality in publishing.
• Cryptographers lament that, despite 40 years of effort, they still haven’t implemented a system for managing cryptographic keys and certificates – one that could resolve many of our information security challenges and provide a unified key for all systems (think of eIDAS).

The list goes on. Do these seem like distinct problems, or are they simply different facets of the same issue?

The right answer is: all of these challenges are merely different sides of the same large “elephant,” each participant – economists, scientists, politicians, citizens – touching it from an ownangle and describing it differently.

We know this for certain because the Post-Platforms Foundation has been tackling these issues for over three years.

That’s why we’ve named this "elephant" Web 3.0 Data Space (see the article “What is Web 3.0 Data Space?”).

It’s crucial to understand that Web 3.0 Data Space isn’t a specific solution – though we do have one. Instead, it represents the vast set of challenges described above. While there are many ways to tackle it, what matters most right now is recognizing that issues like fake news for the BBC and data silos at BMW ARE two sides of the same coin – or, more accurately, parts of the same elephant.

The Web 3.0 Data Space Elephant

OK, we see the elephant.

But what’s the common denominator behind this elephant?

Data ownership.

The GDPR law in Europe was the first to spotlight the importance of who controls data. Although it hasn’t fully resolved the problem (think of all those “Accept All” buttons on every website – that’s GDPR in action), its call to “give us back our data” is absolutely on target.

It was a good start.

As a result, many projects and non-profits have emerged, demanding that our data be returned to us. Initiatives like MyData, Schluss, Mastodon, Public Spaces, and the Solid project are all moving in this direction.

We’re aligned with this trend, and the Web 3.0 Data Space project follows the same path.

Yet above them all are the EC-funded digital projects.

How the EU's Approach Divides Rather Than Unites

The main player here is the European Commission.

The good news? The importance of data was recognized, and over one billion euros have been allocated to the European Data Space Program.

The bad news? The Commission has sliced the elephant into 14 pieces, with the funds divided across dozens of grant projects in each piece. There are so many projects that the IDSA (the leading organization in Data Space) had to create the Data Space Radar just to map them all.

And this fragmentation is just within the DSSC/IDSA initiative. Other programs like Gaia-X, European Digital ID, and SIMPL add further layers. E.g. only in the Cultural Heritage sector alone, there are numerous projects such as ECCCH and Europeana with the total budget exceeding €300M. These projects operate in silos, each tackling their own part of the elephant. In the end, the European Commission didn’t recognize the elephant as a whole but instead chopped it into disconnected parts. No surprises, after many years (in case of Europeana – more than a decade) we do not have an assembled Elephant, called European Data Space.

And, EC forgot to attract businesses.

In this game of "guess the elephant", there are countless non-profits, research centers, consultants, and universities working on small Data Space projects funded by the EU. What’s notably missing, however, are small, medium, and large commercial companies willing to invest their own resources into developing and integrating the Data Space.

The reason is simple: the European Data Space only promises to solve one problem – data sharing. While this was an interesting subject 20 years ago, companies now face more urgent challenges like data silos and vendor lock-in, which fall outside the scope of the European Data Space. Similarly, personal data and the people behind it are also out of scope. In fact, ALL issues which we listed in the beginning of the article, are out of scope of the European Data Space program. It effectively ruled out businesses and citizens.

Yet, once again, despite these fragmented approaches, all these projects are grounded in one shared understanding: the fundamental importance of data ownership.

Still, not every European expert agrees with this focus.

Is There Even an Elephant?

I recently attended a meeting in Brussels, where experts discussed Europe’s digital challenges with EU commissioners. The experts highlighted several issues:

• Platform monopolies.
• The development and regulation of AI.
• Advancing the microprocessor industry.
• Progress in quantum computing.

I followed the conversation closely, waiting for someone to mention data ownership.

Only one expert brought it up, succinctly framing the issue and solution in 30 seconds: “The problem is that Google and other platforms control our data. Take back the data, and the issues disappear.”

However, his comment went unheeded, and the discussion quickly shifted back to tackling Facebook, Microsoft, and other tech giants. The prevailing consensus was that Europe should:

1. Penalize Microsoft, Google, and other giants for monopolistic practices.
2. Invest more in developing European alternatives to these platforms to “compete with the Americans.”

It was evident that no one at the meeting acknowledged the large Data Space elephant in the room. Consequently, there was no discussion about what this elephant actually looks like, nor whether it includes issues like participative democracy or intellectual property rights control.

Yet, this wasn’t just a theoretical discussion in an academic setting. The people in front of me were leading experts, and their views will directly shape billions of euros in European Commission investments.

Why is it difficult to see the Data Space Elephant?

Indeed, why is it hard for experts to recognize even the presence of Data Space elephant?

Let’s start with the word COMPUTER. We’re accustomed to thinking of computers as devices that compute. We’re so deeply conditioned to associate computers with calculations that we’ve overlooked a fundamental shift: modern computers are far more significant as DATA KEEPERS than as mere number crunchers. When we think of innovation, we immediately jump to AI, algorithms, or even quantum computers. But what about data itself? Isn’t it just something that sits on HDDs, doing nothing?

Not quite. While it’s true that AI demands substantial computational power, its performance depends heavily on the quality of the data it’s fed. Today, AI relies on outdated and uncorrelated data. This data often comes from isolated silos, and not always through entirely legal means. But if we could provide AI with fresh, harmonized DATA, its capabilities would improve dramatically. Therefore, real innovation in AI is deeply tied to the quality of data beneath it.

In one of the upcoming articles, we’ll definitely discuss this further, but for now, let’s return to the issue of Innovation.

When we think about innovation, giants like Google, YouTube, Facebook, and MS Office often come to mind, and we tend to see them mainly as software creators.

However, the reality is that these giants’ true power doesn’t come from their ability to create cutting-edge algorithms. It comes from what they have in their pockets – our data.

Indeed, with a skilled development team, anyone could create a YouTube alternative in just couple of years, and it might even outperform YouTube in terms of functionality. But without users and their videos, it would go nowhere, and that’s where the innovation would end. For instance, after Russia launched its full invasion of Ukraine, it attempted to create its own version of YouTube to promote propaganda. Despite spending a fortune and even blocking YouTube within Russia, the effort failed completely –people simply used VPNs to access the original YouTube.

Interestingly, the tech giants never say, “We’re powerful because we own your data.” Instead, they boast, “We’re powerful because we drive innovation and develop AI.” This narrative isn’t sincere, but it shifts society’s and experts’ focus away from the real issue: who actually owns the data.

In this fog, it’s easy to miss the elephant.

Unexpected Conclusion: Why not learn from the USSR?

So, we see that Europe, along with the rest of the world, is facing a phenomenon of unprecedented scale, one so complex it’s hard to even name. This truly is the Internet Frontier, where corporations reign over the world of data. These corporations claim they dominate the world through their innovative technologies, when in reality, they have simply taken people’s and companies' data for themselves.

A few experts recognize that Data is King, and so they speak of the Data Space. However, many specialists buy into the corporate narrative that innovation is all about algorithms, AI, microprocessors, blockchain, and quantum computers. But all these are merely tools to extract value from data. As long as Europe continues to give its data freely to American corporations, developing “European tools” won’t bring much real benefit.

Europe needs to stop investing in building platforms, recognize the presence of the Data Space elephant, stop slicing it to 14 islands with hundreds of isolated projects and create conditions to separate its data from American (and any other) platforms, returning ownership to its rightful holders. Indeed, we need to make it clear that all those issues we mentioned at the beginning (data silos, vendor lock-in, reputation, IPR control, and many others) are really parts of the Web 3.0 Data Space elephant. As doctors say, "A good diagnosis is half the solution".

Now, in the end, let me share a story from my childhood that’s surprisingly relevant. I spent the first 25 years of my life in the USSR (I was born in Ukraine), and I recall how Soviet leaders, much like today’s European Commission, were anxious about lagging behind America. They thought the way to “catch up and overtake America” was simply to train more engineers and develop better technology. As a result, I received an excellent education in fields like space research, ICT, and quantum physics. But no one in the USSR ever acknowledged the “elephant in the room” – that people had lost ownership of their land and businesses. Without resolving the private property issue, the USSR stood no chance of catching up with America. Ever.

Today, as we enter the digital age of the Internet Frontier, Europe is making the same mistake. It’s trying to catch up with America by building big platforms and pursuing "innovative technologies", all while ignoring the “elephant in the room” – that people have lost ownership of their data. Without tackling this, Europe has no chance of catching up. Ever.

But what does this elephant, known as the Web 3.0 Data Space, actually look like? We discussed it in the article find here.

Author: Alex Tourski, Founder and CEO of Post-Platforms Foundation

Explore the world of Web 3.0 Data Space in our library:

• What is Web 3.0 Data Space? Data Sovereignty. No Data Silos. No Platform Monopolie
• The Story Of Registers
• How Security will become a Service Booster (Completing Europe's eIDAS Revolution)
• One Key to Rule All the Services
• The Backbone of Future Society: eReputation
• Why Your Brain Outpaces Databases: Time to Rethink Information Storage
• The Internet Frontier

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#postplatformsfoundation #dataownership