A thing I learnt over last couple of years - & should have learnt earlier... - is that all of the analogies for “data” fail, because “data” exists in so many contexts

Often at the same time https://twitter.com/DigitalEU/status/1390660489261330440

For a digital business, personal data from users to feed ad services might be the oil that generates the $$$s

They'll fight for it, because it's the fuel that powers the lights in their offices

For an older business, data is a puzzle box that they don't quite understand but that everyone else tells them holds great magic

The box is usually put on a mantelpiece while people try to work out how to open it

(When they do they might discover a dessicated old leaf)

For an individual who's seeing data used to affect them in ways that are discriminatory or illegal, it is utterly toxic

They want to understand and assert both their & other people's rights and responsibilities so that they can live their lives

For an individual looking to keep a secret, the data about that secret is sooo precious

Only they should be able to look at it and other people should not be able to reuse it

It is not renewable (or non-rivalous or &c)

For an individual looking to find where & when they can get a Covid vaccine that data is like gold dust - or a particularly tasty bag of Haribo

So much promise of joy!

For a worker, the data they produce is part of their labour "digital sweat" as some say

Some of that data is for their employer - say, sales figures - but other is about them

Workers need far more control over what data is produced about them, how it is used, who it is used by

For a nation, good mapping or statistical data is like infrastructure: a public good that can be managed for the public good in boring and serious ways

For a community, city or federal state, data about their places and people holds the promise of independence and sovereignty & the power to make decisions themselves rather than relying on others

(& obviously no bit of sovereignty is truly sovereign and "data" is only one part of it. It interacts with other things, people, communities, cities, nations, &c &c)

For a nation, health [&c] data infrastructure has different qualities again

It contains business oil, lots of secrets, bags of Haribo, puzzle boxes, digital sweat, swathes of sovereignty, and bits of boring infrastructure

(I could go on, but I've got actual work to do)

The challenge for policymakers is how to move away from vague generalisations & metaphors about "data"

[& the accompanying grand strategies - that will inevitably fail to have the desired effect...]

and get into the detail

Personally I reckon zooming out a level & looking at the (mostly already existing) systems that need to understand the changes being brought about by digital/tech/data & whether/where it's policy's role to help would be useful

(cos then the desired effects might actually happen)