Current and future work
Developing metadata to describe industry data sources
Proposals for a Data Interoperability Framework
A common set of metadata will smooth the working relationship between data producers and data consumers.
RSSB research project T1297 ‘Identifying metadata to support confident use of data in a data-driven railway’ resulted in the development of a Framework for Describing Data Sources (FDDS). The FDDS identifies a structured collection of the key characteristics of data sources, which support the easy and confident use of data.
The aim of the FDDS is to enable current and potential consumers of rail-related data to know if and how the data can support their business today and to what extent it can reliably support them going forward.
Following the completion of the T1297 project, the Rail Data Marketplace reviewed the findings and implemented several new metadata components.
During 2024, further work took place to test the useability of the FDDS guidance outside of the RDM. The aim is to make it easier to implement across a wider range of rail stakeholders.
The first phase of this work has tested the FDDS guidance on five RSSB data sets and held a series of workshops with stakeholders to discuss improvements to the guidance. The new improved guidance will be finalised and issued during 2025.
Read the research findings in the RSSB Research Catalogue (T1297).
Contact Andy Zhang, Research Analyst, RSSB, with any queries:
Andy.Zhang@rssb.co.uk
Guidance to increase data openness and exploitability in support of operational and engineering efficiencies.
The industry consists of many organisations that need to work together to deliver a safe, high-performing railway. Sharing data seamlessly between these organisations is increasingly important.
Data strategies published by government and other rail stakeholders recognise the objective of easy and open data sharing. However, there has been limited progress towards this goal. Data interoperability is a key concept in unlocking an environment where data can be exploited with ease.
A Data Interoperability Framework can guide the industry by:
defining terminology and concepts
providing a structure to measure levels of data interoperability
providing guidance on when and how to move data sources towards higher levels of interoperability.
The audience for the framework will primarily be data owners and publishers, supported by the wider body of industry stakeholders that have a role in facilitating the data-sharing environment.
Research by RSSB identified three key aspects relevant to effective federation of data systems and models.
Semantic interoperability: Data can be exchanged with unambiguous, shared meaning.
Syntactic interoperability: Data can be shared using the same formats, standards, or protocols.
Organisational interoperability: Organisations can align their business processes to achieve commonly agreed or beneficial goals.
During 2025, RSSB will commission further research to finalise the structure of the Data Interoperability Framework. We will also develop and test guidance that will enable industry data sources to be assessed against the framework. The guidance will include consideration of when and how to move data sources towards higher levels of interoperability.
If you would like to get involved in helping to shape this work in the first half of 2025 and providing feedback on early versions of the Framework later in the year, contact Liz Davies, Professional Lead for Data & Modelling Research, RSSB:
Liz.Davies@rssb.co.uk
