Field notes
Why a data foundation?
Places where data questions are worked out need shared ground: methods, agreements and infrastructure that no single place should have to build alone.
Useful data work starts close to people: in a city, a trade or a community with questions of its own. We call such a setting a place. Each place must also solve problems that are not specific to it: how to help people obtain their own data, how to agree on responsible sharing, how to write contracts and governance rules, and how to keep shared resources alive over time.
DATA:FOUNDATION is an example of a structure that would carry this common ground. It hosts places, starting with GVA:DATA in Geneva and WORK:DATA for the world of work, and projects such as MeaningBurg and RMTLib, which are places of yet another kind: one in Roblox, one in Lean. Methods, lessons and tools travel between them; raw personal data does not, and local differences are kept rather than erased.