Data: Nothing (easier) to share? – Centre Responsible Digitality

Cover der ShareCast-Podcastfolge 1 Daten: Nichts (leichter als) teilen?

What is the topic of the “Podcast about Data Sharing” – and what is our goal? We talk about this in the first episode. We shed light on some of what lies behind buzzwords like sharing economy, data silo, platform economy, or open science. And we explore the different understandings associated with sharing: voluntarily giving data for a specific purpose, mutually exchanging data with someone else, passing data along within a group, or making data openly available to everyone – these are not the same. Who benefits from this? Why are many hesitant to share data, especially when it is sensitive or valuable? Data sharing is practiced in different ways. It varies in effort, is often delicate, but is generally desirable – for reasons of efficiency, but also to generate not only financial but also creative, intellectual, and other kinds of added value from digitality. Sharing data in a good way can lead to innovation – and perhaps even open up truly alternative paths for a digital economy.

ShareCast Episode 1: Nothing (easier) to share? 1 July 2025

Guests

Prof. Dr. Thomas Stäcker is Director of the University and State Library Darmstadt.

Maximilian Lindner supports digital projects at the Institute for Innovation and Technology of the VDI/VDE.

all ShareCast episodes

Episode 7: A dream of open knowledge: data sharing in science

The seventh episode deals with an entire area of modern society: science. We explore the significance of sharing digital data for scientific work and discuss the opportunities and challenges currently being debated in this field. | listen now

Episode 6: Open source software: shared or closed?

Open source software is software under free licences that grants its users four freedoms: to run the software for any purpose, to examine how it works and thus also its source code, to adapt it to their own needs, and to redistribute the software, even in modified versions. This distinguishes it from software that the open source movement refers to as ‘proprietary’ or ‘closed source software,’ which does not offer these ‘fundamental freedoms.’ But how exactly is collaboration and sharing carried out here? What interests determine the open source world, and what conflicts exist? | listen now

Episode 5: Data, Forests, and Timber

The fifth episode of ShareCast focuses on the data generated in the forest and forestry and timber industries. How is this data created? What is it used for? Who has an interest in it? Why is this data not shared? What stands in the way of this? What potential could be realized if this were to succeed? And how could the obstacles to data sharing in forestry and the timber industry be removed? | listen now

Episode 4: Connected Cars: Improvement or Data Hogs?

Having your own car was once a great promise of freedom. Getting into the car and being able to drive wherever we wanted. And keep to yourself: With your partner or family. This image of the car is still there – and yet another one is slowly taking over. Cars are now highly networked, high-performance machines that are constantly filming, recording and measuring. The manufacturer is virtually at the wheel. | listen now

Episode 3: Smart City: Data Overload?

In the third episode of ShareCast, we talk about the interplay between data and urban development. We take a look at what is associated with the term smart city and discuss the potential and challenges that smart city concepts entail. | listen now

Episode 2: Health Data: Just for Me or Donation?

On the one hand, the sharing of data is intended to provide a major boost to innovation in medical research and help improve healthcare. On the other hand, health data is extremely sensitive data, i.e. data with a clear personal reference that can cause great harm in the wrong hands. This difficult balancing act is illustrated very clearly when it comes to so-called rare diseases. | listen now

Episode 1: Data: Nothing (easier) to share?

We shed light on some of the things behind buzzwords such as sharing economy, data silo, platform economy and open science. And we examine the heterogeneous understandings that are associated with sharing: voluntarily giving away data for a specific purpose, sharing data with a counterpart, passing on data in a group or making data openly available to everyone – these are very different things. | listen now